The French Senate Takes on Child Beauty Pageants in an Effort to Protect Young Girls

France's Senate has voted to ban beauty pageants for children under 16, in an effort to protect girls from being sexualized too early. The ban would impose prison terns and 30,000 euros in fines and would apply to organizers, parents and anyone else who encourages such contests. A pageant organizer lamented that the move was so severe. The legislation must now go to the lower house of parliament for further debate and another vote. Child beauty pageants are less common in France than in the United States and elsewhere, but the French Senate has decided that girls get the message early on, said the bill's sponsor, Senator Chantal Jouanno, that they are sexual beings, from advertising and marketing campaigns - and even from department stores that sell lingerie for girls as young as 6. Jouanno said the bill is meant to protect young girls and to encourage equality. All children of a young age should be concentrating on learning, not on physical appearance. "I have a hard time seeing how these competitions are in the greater interest of the child." She said that when she asked an organizer why there are no such contests for boys, he answered, "boys wouldn't lower themselves like that." The bill doesn't specify what kind of competitions would be covered, including whether it would extend to online photo competitions or pretty baby contests. The bill also aims to protect children from danger and being prematurely forced into roles of seduction that harm their development. According to AP, Michel Le Parmentier, who says he has been organizing "mini-Miss" pageants in France since 1989, said he's disappointed that the draft law involves an overall ban. He said that he has been in discussions with legislators about regulating such pageants but wasn't expecting such sweeping language. The French Senate had considered softer language but in the end decided on an overall ban. French equal rights minister Najat Vallaud-Belkacem may work on a compromise measure when the bill goes to the lower house of Parliament. ~~~~~ Dear readers, on first glance, we may be tempted to say that there are many more serious problems in today's world than child beauty pageants. And I rarely support enlarging the scope of government intervention in our already heavily regulated daily lives. But this French Senate action is for me very important. It is sad to realize that parents, and especially mothers, do not choose normal lives for their very young daughters. But the evidence is clear that they sometimes don't. And it demeans not only themselves and their daughtets, but sets the course for the "sexualization" of all young girls, making them sex objects in the minds of young boys and society and even in their own minds. And so, as is often the case, France has found time to address an issue that its Senate believes important for the healthy development of French youngsters. Will America heed the call? Unfortunately, I suspect that the misguided application of the Constitution's call for individual freedom will be used to paper over the fact that some parents are no longer good role models or guides for their children and should be directed by law. ~~~~~ And to continue the effort to protect children from venal adults, perhaps a lawmaker somewhere will have the courage to take on the violent video games readily available to children, and which teach them early on that killing with guns is acceptable. Boys should be given the chance to grow up without a computer-generated gun in their hands.