After she started appearing in “natural” pageants (no makeup allowed), she blossomed. On the other side are moms like Anna Berry of Littleton, Colorado, who said her 13-year-old daughter Ashley was so shy she couldn’t even order for herself at a restaurant. Opinion: ‘Toddlers and Tiaras’ and sexualizing 3-year-olds Why in the world do children need to be so sexualized?” asked a CNN reader. “Every time I think about child beauty pageants, my heart sinks at the thought of all the pedophiles watching them. Others expressed fears about who may be watching these pageants. “And now it seems perfectly OK for a little 6-year-old to be walking around in thigh-high boots and short booty shorts and smacking her butt when she dances down a runway? Come on! That’s what a stripper does.” Psychologist Wendy Walsh said the danger here is normalizing behavior that once would have been considered extreme and weird. Let them decide for themselves at an appropriate age if they want to pursue this when they are adults.” “These are children for heaven’s sake, not adults. “To paint makeup on their faces and do up their hair, etc., OMG, wake up people,” said Charlie Caissie. It’s about letting your child’s childhood and youth get stolen by makeup, fashion shows, heels and dresses.” Samantha Biswas, also via e-mail, said, “It is not about living vicariously through your child. “The mothers are the culprits here: teaching your child to be sexy and alluring at such a young, tender age when they are not ready for such exploitation.” “How pleased I am that, finally, some are fully awakened and realizing that child beauty pageants should be banned,” said Darlene Eckerman of Amarillo, Texas, in an e-mail message.

The pageants are sexualizing our young girls, said lawmakers in France, and judging by the response to our request for comment on CNN’s Facebook page, many people in the United States agree. Toddler does Dolly: Where’s the line between dress-up, hyper-sexualization? Where did this anti-pageant momentum come from on the part of the French? Some lawmakers point to a controversial photo spread in Vogue back in 2010, featuring a girl as young as 10 in high heels and sexy makeup. The Senate in France voted to ban child beauty pageants for kids under the age of 16 and now the measure goes to the country’s lower house for debate and a vote.

If French lawmakers get their way, there would be no French version of “Toddlers & Tiaras” and no French “Honey Boo Boo,” referring to another child pageant reality star. But what if there were no pageants for kids to begin with? We don’t like the idea of these beauty contests for kids, but it seems we can’t pull ourselves away. Photos: Child beauty pageants in pop culture

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