In France, legislators moved to ban child beauty pageants on the grounds that th

ey promote the "hyper-sexualization" of minors. A measure even proposes jail tim

e and a fine for violators
including parents and organizers
who sponsor or encou
rage "access to these competitions" for anyone under age 16, the Associated Pres
s reported.
The French Senate approved the bill, but it must be passed by a lower house of p
arliament before becoming law.
According to The Guardian, the attention to the "Mini-Miss" beauty pageants was
prompted by debates over a 2010 photo spread in French Vogue featuring a 10-year
-old girl in heavy makeup, high-heeled shoes and tight clothes and pouting provo
catively.
Such a ban wouldn't fly in the USA, says sociologist Hilary Levey Friedman, a re
search associate at the Malcolm Wiener Center for Social Policy at the Harvard K
ennedy School and author of the new book Playing to Win: Raising Children in a C
ompetitive Culture.
"Historically and legally, our system defers to parents to make the right decisi
on for their child," she says. "We see the family as more of a private entity."
Karen Kataline, a mental health professional near Denver who participated in chi
ld pageants in the 1960s, says she understands the motivation to ban the competi
tions, but doesn't think that's the answer. The problem "is not just the pageant
s, it's the parents" who support and encourage the sexualization of their childr
en, says Kataline, author of the memoir FATLASH! Food Police & the Fear of Thin
A Cautionary Tale.
"I'm not against children singing and dancing on stage, but you want them to sin
g and dance and perform in age-appropriate ways," she says. "Today, we've pushed
the envelope to ridiculous degrees."
The proposed penalties of up to two years in prison and $40,000 in fines "seem a
bit extreme" but the concerns are certainly legitimate, says Martina Cartwright
, an adjunct faculty member at the University of Arizona. Her research on child
pageants was published last year in the Journal of the American Academy of Child
and Adolescent Psychiatry.
A task force of the American Psychological Association noted that "girls who are
sexualized early will tend to gather their self-worth as an adult based on thei
r appearance," says Cartwright. And there's also the issue of certain adults who
"make the assumption that the girls have the ability to make adult decisions ju
st based on the way they look rather than their actual age."
She doubts, however, that a ban will adequately address the issue of girls and w
omen "being judged solely on appearance, and the idea that self-worth is only ba
sed on how they look."
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/09/22/beauty-pageants-children--b
an/2842431/