The example set by Spain in prohibiting extremely thin models is the beginning of a social awakening in setting standards of beauty. It is about time that someone put a stop to this unhealthy image of women and its repercussions on society.

Luisel Ramos died after a fashion show. She died trying to be thinner since she was told that if she lost some weight, her modeling career will improve. That she would “make it big,” as reported by police after her father told them that she had only been eating green leaves and Diet Coke for weeks.

This is only one account of many that we don’t hear about because the term anorexia and bulimia have become part of our everyday vocabulary. In extreme cases, the media glamorizes or trivializes accounts of these terrible disorders.

However, Spain said “enough” to this distorted, unhealthy and unrealistic view of beauty created by fashion. Last month the Spanish government introduced a ban on super-skinny models that would turn away underweight models. Their message was that many young women were trying to imitate the models by starving themselves. The Spanish government never blamed the designers and models but acknowledge that they had the responsibility to stop defining beauty in terms of size.

The United States should follow the example of Spain and put a stop to this epidemic of sticklike women. No one is naturally that skinny, unless you are dead and your body mass has been eaten by the worms. England and other countries are contemplating similar bans.

The fashion industry has to accept that images of healthier women would stop the thousands risking their lives to satisfy an distorted concept of beauty.

Madrid had the right to ban those models not only because their government sponsors the show, but because their citizens are concerned about the effects on young girls and society in general. Young women tend to imitate much of what the see in magazines and on television. In reality, however, only a very small part of the population look like the models we see. By setting a standard of beauty that only fits a small percent, we leave the entire population out.

When are we going to do the same; Well, since our government is too busy fighting unjustified wars, the responsibility falls on the media and the fashion industry.

The fashion industry has to find a balance and set a weight limit as Spain did. As a society we need to embrace a wider range of beauty.

Voluptuous bodies should not be regarded as fat. The same way some women are born slim, others are not, and that does not make them uglier. Having a sense of fashion should not include the heroine addict, anorexic look. Fashion should be about clothes, accessories and trends, not about weight.

Designers should also take responsibility for the models they choose; their clothes cannot look the same in every body type, so why not accommodate their designs to fit all women? Curvy and voluptuous women are as beautiful and sensuous as slim women and this fact needs to be reflected in fashion shows. The image of beauty that we see on television and in fashion shows does not reflect reality. As a consumer society we forget how real women really look.

Beautiful women could also have large breast and curvy thighs or both. Beauty is an abstract concept. Death is not.