The Debate Club at the KDI School is an active and exciting club that provides a medium where students can engage in heated debates on various social and policy issues.

It provides a foundation for students to become great public speakers, In these classes, students gain valuable knowledge on critical thinking, personal expression, and issue analysis.

 “This house supports banning super-skinny models from the catwalk”.

The debate club took on a debate on the use of “super-skinny” models on catwalks.

The affirmative or government side argued that prevalence of super-thin models is having a negative impact on society, especially on teenage girls. The glamorized images of super-thin models pressure impressionable young girls to be the impossible size 0.

The government explained that the ban was to protect the models themselves. It was triggered by the concerns about their health as they are putting themselves at risk by going on extreme diets.

They concluded with a statement that super- thin models create an impossibly unrealistic standard of beauty and a better alternative for the society as well as the fashion industry is to hire average-sized models.  

The opposition team raised three arguments.

They argued that the role of runaway models is to showcase clothes. It would be extremely unfair to punish these women for being naturally skinny. Most of them are naturally slim and healthy, and they eat normally.  They emphasized that women’s bodies are beautiful at all shapes and sizes, and should not be discriminated just because they are thinner than average.

 Counter arguing the negative influences on teenagers, the opposition contended that it has more to do with parenting.

The last point made by them was that the fashion industry is a free market and is run according the law of capital markets.  As long as consumers want super-skinny models, they will be hired. Where there is a demand, there is a supply.

By Nguyen Mai Phuong (2008 MPP, Vietnam)