A year after Vogue Paris published provocative images of a 10-year-old model, a French government report has called for a ban on child beauty pageants and padded bras and high heels for young girls.
Although the French did not react immediately to the photos of Thylane Lena-Rose Blondeau, 10, in skyscraper heels and revealing clothes in the January 2011 issue of Vogue Paris, the international community did, prompting the French parliamentary report.
Chantal Jouanno, the senator who authored the report, told Le Figaro newspaper that young girls were being disguised as sexual candy and that it was “contrary to the dignity of the human being.” She called it a step backward for gender equality.
Jouanno, a close ally of President Nicolas Sarkozy and former karate champion, also wants to prohibit advertising agencies from using young models and says uniforms should return to elementary schools.
Vogue defended the photo shoot of the elementary-aged girl, according to the Guardian, saying that young models were simply dressing up like their mothers. There is no mention of the scandal on Thylane’s Facebook fan page, which reads, simply: “At 10, the little Thylane Lena-Rose Blondeau is already a model!”
Teens as young as 14 have been shimmying down the catwalk for years in the United States. Recently, child actresses Hailee Steinfeld, 14, of "True Grit" fame, and Elle Fanning, 13, have signed modeling deals with Miu Miu and Marc Jacobs.
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