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Fat-Bottomed Girls, They Make the World Go 'Round

So, I hear from lotsa people (okay, the BBC and the Huffington Post) that France's National Assembly has passed a bill to authorize prison sentences for those who advocate "extreme thinness."

I don't quite know what to make of this, myself. Speaking just for myself, and I can't believe I'm writing this on a blog my MOTHER reads, I don't understand the impetus toward "attractive" meaning "capable of falling through a crack in the floor." Me, I, uh, like more "voluptuous" women.

Hi, Mom. Boy, that's probably like...never mind.

So, French anti-anorexia efforts. Surely I've got something not-so-flip to say....

The truth is that I'm not entirely clear on French "free speech" doctrine. It appears that hate speech is banned, leading to absurd (to American thinking) results like a French court ordering Yahoo! to block French users from auction sites selling Nazi memorabilia, although there are allegations (I don't know how credible) that the anti-hate laws are selectively enforced, with "hate speech" against Islam and Islamic countries tolerated. However, France does exert some serious controls over the press by subsidizing journalism and requiring journalists to register. They also ban the publication of pictures of suspects in handcuffs and "scenes that may jeopardize a victim's dignity," whatever that means. (The above paragraph mostly from here.)

So, France doesn't have the tradition of open debate and the "marketplace of ideas" that we cherish over here. It's a choice. I'll be frank and say it's not one that I would have chosen, but it's a choice and I don't get to make it for France.

My biggest problem is the fact that France seems to just operate on this idea that "everybody knows" what these vague terms mean. Anglo-American law lives and dies by definitional precision, and France, which is a civil law country, should know better. Jurisprudentially, civil law countries are more positivist (that is, law is made, not discovered - there is no "natural law"). That's not to say that there isn't a natural civil law system - just that the nature of the system (by making rules that are applied to cases, rather than gleaning rules from cases as they arise), that the law is more positivist. Positivism requires that you reach an agreed-upon definition for your terms. Without agreed-upon terms, you don't know what law you're making.

And that's really my only problem. I applaud France's efforts to combat anorexia - it's a problem that kills (whether the National Assembly has their PRIORITIES straight is a different question - are eating disorders really the most important problem facing France?), but in the United States this law would be void for vagueness and overbreadth on its face. I'm left concerned that France, first, may simply be driving the problem underground (how do we know who needs help if they never speak up?); and second, that the law may be used to pursue those who are, rather than "extremely thin," merely "very thin," or "thick just around the ankles," or wherever the HELL a French court draws that line.

Until then, lest I be made to answer in France for my words, I'll leave you with this:

Full post as published by Supreme Dicta on April 16, 2008 (boomark / email).