MINISTER FRANCES FITZGERALD has today welcomed the decision of a hotel in Dublin to pull out of hosting a child beauty pageant.
The ‘Toddlers and Tiaras’-style pageant was to take place this Saturday at the Bracken Court Hotel in Balbriggan in north county Dublin, with babies, toddlers and teens taking part in the beauty contest but the hotel cancelled the booking yesterday
Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland today, Fitzgerald said that she was concerned about the pageants because she sees it as the “inappropriate early sexualisation of very young children”.
Obviously all children dress up and play at dressing up – that’s quite contrast to the dressing up we see in these kinds pageants – the amount of heavy makeup, the high shoes, the frilly dresses, inappropriate on a child of 3, 4 and 5 – very different to the kind of dressing up that we all grew up with.
The Minister urged other hotels to “take the same approach” and refuse to host such events in the future.
The organisers of the pageant have said that it will still take place, as planned, on Saturday.
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