Photo of Model Is an Unsettling Image

I was moved nearly to tears by the sight of the emaciated young girl, her dark eyes bulging from her drawn, scrawny face; her spindly arms hanging limply at her side (“Pretty on the Inside,” Aug. 24).

Her torso was so gaunt and her legs so bony it was difficult to tell whether she was a malnourished adult woman or a little boy.

To my surprise, the photo wasn’t of a starving Third World child; it was a high-priced fashion model in lingerie.

The irony is that an impoverished child in some Third World hovel is probably eating better today than this millionaire model.

MARK LANDSBAUM

Diamond Bar

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In a world increasingly polarized as have and have-not, in a city where many elderly people are being forced to choose between food and medications, your writer flaunts the spending of $400 on one set of underwear.

Perhaps everyone who buys underwear at those prices should consider providing matching funds to a local school or clinic or hospice or shelter.

SUSAN COHEN Santa Monica