France has moved to abolish an unsavory if not dangerous practice : child beauty pageants.
Very common in the United States, child beauty pageants are known to be a magnet for child molesters. Although many regular people enjoy them, the scene behind the pageants themselves are seedy and downright abusive at times. A notorious case was that of BooBoo, a child pageant contestant whose mother gave her a potent concoction of caffeinated drink and sugar to give her the pep needed for the grueling contests. Although there was an outcry and some called it child abuse, the protagonist went on to have her own successful show, together with her family.
The French parliament has banned all beauty pageants for children under 16. It even has gone so far as criminalizing adult attempts at entering children into beauty pageants. The crime will carry heavy fines for the transgressors.
Framed in the context of a wide sweeping women's rights bill, the measure will be voted on next by the lower house.
The move was made to curtail or abolish hypersexualization of children. One of the sentaors, Chantal Jouanno, spoke on the matter : "Let us not make our girls believe from a very young age that their worth is based ontly on their appearance."
The concern of hypersexualization of children and even young adults, is coming into focus in many arenas. Not long ago, the very sexual twitter posts and on screen coreography of both musical superstars Rihanna and Miley Cyrus, have prompted concerns that their message will be one of hypersexualization. In short, it removes the incentive for women to portray themselves as other than a sexual object.
What prompted this initiative was a picture of a 10 year old girl, photographed in French Vogue, dressed in provocative clothing and high heels. While the magazine defended the layout as nothing more than playacting by children, the publication was widely criticized for catering to those who follow the children's pageants and for the obvious sexualization of the child depicted in the photographs.
Source : France 24/ 9.18.13
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