The French government want to ban child beauty pageants, and we couldn't agree more. A bill seeking to outlaw child pageants, arguing that they hypersexualize minors, has been passed in the French Senate 196 to 146 votes. If the bill is passed by the National Assembly, it'll officially become law, and that would be the end of the purposeless child pageants. According to BBC News:
Organisers of such pageants may face a jail term of up to two years and a fine of 30,000 euros (£25,000; $40,000).

The measure was prompted by a row over a photo shoot in Vogue magazine.

The photos published in December 2010 showed a girl of 10 with two others, all three in heavy make-up and wearing tight dresses, high heels and expensive jewellery.

Vogue defended the pictures, saying they merely portrayed a common fantasy among young girls - to dress like their mother.

Parliament heard a report entitled Against Hyper-Sexualisation: A New Fight For Equality, which called for the ban on beauty competitions for the under-16s. It also recommended other measures, not included in the bill, including a ban on child-size adult clothing such as padded bras and high-heeled shoes.

"Let us not make our girls believe from a very young age that their worth is only judged by their appearance," said the author of the report, former Sports Minister Chantal Jouanno.
Kudos, Chantal Jouanno, that is some progressive shit coming from official government channels! (Not that French culture is somehow more enlightened than the rest of us when it comes to upending traditional beauty standards—the extent to which the supposedly "effortless" "natural" beauty and confidence of French wome
We get that these pageants aim to improve a child's confidence, but most of the time it's really about feeding their parents' ego. Who doesn't want their child to be awesome and have everyone know that? But kids should be playing with friends and learning how to spell, instead of fussing over how they look. Way to go, France!