Don't hate us because we're skinny! That seems to be the reaction of most model agencies and fashion models when organizers of Madrid's fashion week imposed the world's first ban on sickly thin models at a top-level fashion show.

According to the organizers they want to project an image of beauty and health, not the waif-like, heroin chic look.

Under the Madrid ruling, models must have a BMI rating of around 18. BMI, or Body Mass Index, is a statistical measure of the weight of a person scaled according to height. BMI has become controversial because it has been used for medical diagnosis, which is not the BMI's purpose.

At any rate, the set BMI restriction would disqualify supermodels like Kate Moss from the fashion show. To qualify, models who are 5'9" tall must weigh around 128 lb. In the fashion world, only elephants and hippos are allowed to weigh that much.

Madrid's regional government, which sponsors the show and imposed the restrictions, clarified that it was not blaming designers and models for spreading anorexia and bulimia among teenage girls. But it claimed the fashion industry had a responsibility to portray healthy body images.

Naturally, top modelling agencies where aghast. New York's Elite modeling agency called the ban "outrageous," curtails the freedom of designers and discriminates against naturally "gazelle-like" models.