France moves to ban child beauty pageants

[Pembroke_Corgi]

I do not think banning pageants will have much effect - people will just find some other venues to "show off" their kids. I mean, have you seen some "dance" contest outfits? "Halloween" costumes? It is up to parents to set boundaries about what their kids wear, and obviously not all parents are created equally! And it appears the controversy that sparked this law was started not by anything to do with pageants, but a magazine photo spread in French Vogue - far from the pageant stage!

This reminds me of a huge pet peeve of mine - anyone ever notice how sexualized girls' Halloween costumes are? As the mom of a 4-year old girl, this really bothers me. I remember last year I was looking online for a girls' vet costume (since my daughter already wants to be a vet ) - when looking under the category "jobs" I noticed plenty of things marketed to boys - police officer, fireman, doctor, etc. - and in the girls' section it included a cheerleader, a dancer, and a "gypsy." Huh?

[Karen]

This reminds me of a huge pet peeve of mine - anyone ever notice how sexualized girls' Halloween costumes are? As the mom of a 4-year old girl, this really bothers me. I remember last year I was looking online for a girls' vet costume (since my daughter already wants to be a vet ) - when looking under the category "jobs" I noticed plenty of things marketed to boys - police officer, fireman, doctor, etc. - and in the girls' section it included a cheerleader, a dancer, and a "gypsy." Huh?

Sheesh! Like girls don't wanna be police officers, doctors, etc? Who decided Halloween costumes needed to be gender specific in their marketing, anyway? There are male dancers (Hello, Fred Astaire), male gypsies, and male cheerleaders - watch any college halftime show ...