They are dressed up in high heels, given false wigs, fake tan, fake teeth and transformed into Barbie dolls." “Over there everything is exaggerated, where mums try to make their daughters look like themselves. The concept of beauty contests over there is different to ours and that’s what the French government wanted to block,” he told The Local on Monday. For Le Parmentier, American culture is to blame for spoiling the fun of young French girls. Nevertheless Michel Le Parmentier, who runs the official Mini Miss beauty contest said it was shame that young girls will not be able to dress like a princess. However MPs in the lower house decided the punishments were too severe and the age limit too high, reducing it down to under 13s.
Initially senators voted to introduce an outright ban for under 16s and implement stiff punishments for those caught flouting the law, including a possible two year prison sentence and a €3,000 fine. The vote to ban pageants for under-13s came on the last day of the debate and also included a new law stating pageants for under 16s must now be closely regulated.Ī move to ban beauty pageants in France was first made in the Senate last year and quickly made headlines around the world and provoked debates in the US, over whether the same rules should be applied there. The new rules were included as part of France’s landmark equality bill that was debated in the National Assembly last week and is aimed at battling what many see as they hyper-sexualisation of young girls. A nationwide ban on beauty contests for young girls has moved a step closer after French MPs voted to outlaw the pageants, dubed ‘mini-miss’ competitions, for anyone under 13.