The Stream

Child empowerment or sexualisation?

A potential French ban puts child beauty pageants in the spotlight.

Protested in various parts of the world, child beauty pageants took another hit last week when the French parliament moved to ban them entirely, and impose heavy penalties on violators. Opponents of child pageants accuse them of damaging children through premature sexualisation, while proponents say they can boost children’s self-confidence. So, are child beauty pageants harmful, and should governments regulate them? 

In this episode, we speak to:

Agnes Poirier @AgnesCPoirier
Journalist 
 
Delesia Watson @Deleesh
Pageant contestant
 
Anita Moss @beautypageantUK
Pageant Director
 
Colette Browne @colettebrowne
Columnist, Irish Independent
 
Hilary Levey Friedman @hleveyfriedman
Sociologist, Harvard University
 

 

What do you think? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.