France Wants to Ban 'Hypersexual' Kid Beauty Pageants

In what the non-tiara-wearing crowd would call a pretty awesome move, France's Senate has voted to ban child beauty pageants. Under the measure, which must still be approved by the lower house of parliament, organizing such competitions is prohibited, and anyone who enters a child under the age of 16 in a beauty contest would face as much as two years in prison and $40,000 in fines, the AP reports. The author of the amendment says she is fighting the "hypersexualization" of children.

"Mini-Miss" and similar competitions put the focus on kids' looks, she continues: "I have a hard time seeing how these competitions are in the greater interest of the child." Plus, the contests are reserved for girls. "When I asked an organizer why there were no mini-boy contests," she says, "I heard him respond that boys would not lower themselves like that." Talk of the ban started after a 2010 Vogue photo shoot featured pre-teen girls wearing heavy make-up, tight dresses, and high heels, the BBC reports. (More beauty pageant stories.)