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"\n\tAdvertisement - Continue Reading Below\n\t\n\n\n\nThis is a dark day for the Honey Boo Boos of France: As part of a sweeping women's rights law, the country's (clearly classy) Senate has voted to ban beauty pageants for children under 16, in hopes of protecting young girls from being sexualized too early.  This means no more spray tanning first-graders and no more Pretty Woman hooker costumes for three-year-olds (I'm not being dramatic\u2014that actually happened in the U.S., although French toddlers in tiaras aren't quite as prevalent.) The new penalty for parading around a b\u00E9b\u00E9 pageant princess in France will be a 30,000 euro fine and up to two years in prison, reports The AP.  The law is still pending approval in the French Parliament's lower house, but legislators are being vigilant, and quite awesome, saying the ban is meant to protect girls from hyper-sexualization in the form of France's \"Mini Miss\" pageants, not to mention the trickle-down effect of racy ad campaigns and insanity like department stores selling lingerie to 6-year-olds.  For conservative lawmaker Chantal Jouanno, cracking down on pageants is an equal rights issue: \"When I asked an organizer why there were no mini-boy contests, I heard him respond that boys would not lower themselves like that.\"Nevermind boys and girls, pageants reap madness even among grown adults, who allegedly call each other fat behind-the-scenes, and then get bombarded with racist messages after their coronation. America might want to consider banning them altogether. See also: The 9 Most Humilating Beauty Pageant Gaffes Ever.Want more from Michele? Follow her on Twitter. Image via Getty"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.cosmopolitan.com/style-beauty/beauty/news/a15653/france-beauty-pageants/>