Potential Ban of Beauty Pageants in England for Girls Under Sixteen:

Recently in France, the legislature has decided to try and set a new law on beauty pageants, not allowing girls under the age of sixteen to compete.  The reason that the legislature wants to outlaw this is because they believe that the pageants promote the “hyper-sexualization” of minors, or in other words, young girls acting like women.  The French senate has approved of this but it must next go through the lower house of parliament and also be approved for the new law to be set into place.

Personally, I agree with this potential change, because beauty pageants aren’t at all concerned with “beauty” to me, but are focused on who has the best make-up, clothing, and physical characteristics.  When I usually think of beauty, I don’t think of these things but usually think about natural beauty, not so much of who looks the best in fancy clothing or with great ammounts of makeup on.  Also, these girls are still very young, and they should not have these competitions because they will end up crushing these little girls and their dreams, even if they are beautiful.

This so called “hyper-sexualization” these beauty pageants are promoting is actually very real.  The contestants in the beauty pageants are not performing in age appropriate ways, which was a main concern and eventually led to the potential ban.  With today’s world ’, you could probably guess these measures are being taken to the extreme.  Many places you go and even things you watch or see promote beauty and being skinny or losing weight.  All these things are ultimately leading to the problem and in the future will only continue to get worse.

Also, the potential penalties for allowing anyone under the age of 16 in a beauty pageant can be extremely costly.  Up to two full years in prison can be given depending on the seriousness of the crime can be given.  Even worse yet, up to $40,000 in fines can be given as well.  These harsh consequences will definitely be enough to stop most people from allowing minors under 16 to partake in their pageants in my opinion.

If someone really wanted to take measures to the extreme they could have false records such as birth certificates made.  With the total cost of participating in a competition between $3,000 and $5,000, and the rewards not much higher, will ultimately stop most people.  All in all, as I previously mentioned, the harsh consequences will be enough to stop most people from doing this as well, if the law is passed in England.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-24224598

"Should the UK Ban Beauty Pageants for Children?" BBC News. BBC, 24 Sept. 2013. Web. 29 Sept. 2013.