Sports Calendar

María del Carmen González, spokeswoman for the Spanish Association for the Defence of Victims of Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia, said: “Everyone in Spain knows someone who has one of these conditions. It has reached epidemic levels.

“What the Government and the companies are doing has got to be a good thing, but something should have been done before.”

The left-wing party Esquerra Republicana Catalana has tabled a parliamentary motion asking for the banning of material that could lead to bulimia or anorexia. The proposal included banning publicity of clothes sizes if it could be proved that it leads to the conditions.

J. K. Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter novels, has criticised society for its obsession with thin women and models. She wrote on her website that she did not want her daughters to grow up as “empty-headed, self-obsessed, emaciated clones”.

She said that too many healthy young girls were labelled fat when it was the models they looked up to who had the problem.

Size really does matter

ESTHER CAÑADAS has escaped the tide of criticism against skinny models, but her counterparts at Madrid Fashion Week were not so lucky.

Campaigners who are opposed to the effects that they say images of “almost transparent” girls have on their peers were furious at the catwalk shows.

The Association for the Defence of Victims of Anorexia and Bulimia said that most models were size 34 — about size 6 in Britain; but the organisers of the event denied this.

Spain’s fashion industry has become the target of campaigners who say that the images it presents confirm stereotypes and lead to cases of anorexia and bulimia.

Marta Wendlinger, a Barcelona fashion consultant, said: “The designers say they use girls size 38, but they can’t be . . . I think (the designers) say one thing and do another.”

VITAL STATISTICS

Times recommends

• The Boxing Day tsunami: five years on
• What took place in 2010...
• Can you really cure a hangover?