A report from Sweden says that talent scouts have been parked outside of local eating disorder clinics to find the next great model. They must have missed that Dove video.
Skinny model image by Shutterstock
The Local reports that there have been numerous occasions of scouts and agents approaching young women at the Stockholm Center for Eating Disorders with offers for modeling representation.
“People have stood outside our clinic and tried to pick up our girls because they know they are very thin,” doctor Anna-Maria af Sandeberg said.
One mother claims that an agent approached her 14-year-old daughter in 2012 and left his business card, urging her to call him to pursue a lucrative career in modeling.
The most recent incident resulted in a change of policy for the patients’ access after a young woman was approached by a scout during a walk around the premises. The twist: She was so ill from her eating disorder that she was in a wheelchair at the time.
The Stockholm Center for Eating Disorders is the biggest of its kind in Sweden. It treats up to 1,700 patients at a time.
You probably can’t expect much better behavior from an industry that exploits women’s insecurities to sell goods and services but this is a level of scumbaggery that’s probably hard to top. It’s almost so evil that it comes full circle back to being brilliant, like a cartoonish supervillainy that doesn’t exist anywhere other than the cheesiest of soap operas. Looking forward to them heading to the most impoverished areas of Somalia for their next recruitment push.