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	<span style="color:#000000;">The American organisers of September&#39;s Universal Royalty Beauty Pageant seem undeterred by their farcical staging of an event in Ireland.</span></h2>
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		<span style="color:#000000;">They were turned down by 50 hotels on their last visit. At one point they surveyed a scrapyard in an industrial estate in Meath as a possible venue, but ended up holding their top secret pageant in a pub&#39;s beer garden.</span></p>
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		<span style="color:#000000;">Now, they have indicated that young girls with fake tan and make-up will again sashay across the stage in glittering outfits at a Christmas-themed child beauty pageant in Cork on December 14.</span></p>
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		<span style="color:#000000;">After the screening of a documentary about the controversial child pageant on RT&eacute; on Monday, Senator Jillian van Turnhout has reaffirmed her call for these events to be banned.</span></p>
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		<span style="color:#000000;">If she manages to win the backing of government parties ,there will be no more toddlers dolled up to the nines in lipstick and tiaras competing against one another.</span></p>
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		<span style="color:#000000;">&quot;It was gratifying to see that so many hotels refused to host the Irish pageant two months ago,&quot; says Senator van Turnhout. &quot;If more of these events go ahead I would be prepared to table legislation to make them illegal.</span></p>
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		<span style="color:#000000;">&quot;I think they are exploitative. Monday&#39;s documentary was horrible to watch. There was a girl dancing in a provocative manner.&quot;</span></p>
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		<span style="color:#000000;">The programme also featured Eden Wood, the now retired eight-year-old child pageant star of the American programme Toddlers and Tiaras.</span></p>
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		<span style="color:#000000;">On one of her videos, which has attracted over one million views, the pink-clad pageant queen sings and dances, surrounded by fans: &quot;I&#39;m a cutie. Patootie.&quot;</span></p>
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		<span style="color:#000000;">Jillian Van Turnhout says: &quot;In the Irish documentary, she was shown doing a&nbsp;<span style="font-size: 1em;">Mar</span><span style="font-size: 1em;">ilyn Monroe</span>-type pose. That is just not appropriate for a young girl.&quot;</span></p>
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		<span style="color:#000000;">In France, measures to ban child pageants involving those under 16 are now going through parliament in what is seen as a bid to stop the &quot;hyper-sexualisation of young girls&quot;.</span></p>
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		<span style="color:#000000;">If the legislation is approved, organisers of child pageants could face up two years in jail or a &euro;30,000 fine.</span></p>
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		<span style="color:#000000;">Concern about sexualisation of children in France was prompted by a fashion-shoot in&nbsp;<span style="font-size: 1em;">Frenc</span><span style="font-size: 1em;">h Vogue</span>&nbsp;that showed three young girls posing in heavy make-up, jewellery and tight outfits.</span></p>
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			<span style="color:#000000;">Pageants are now run-of-the-mill events in the US and are part of a multimillion-dollar kiddie beauty industry.</span></p>
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			<span style="color:#000000;">Typical contests have a formal evening wear round were children as young as two toddle along a catwalk in taffeta and sequins. There is a themed round with perhaps a circus or cowgirl outfit, and even a swimwear round.</span></p>
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			<span style="color:#000000;">The contests may be routine in the US, but Annette Hill, the&nbsp;</span><a href="http://searchtopics.independent.ie/topic/Texas" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-size: 1em; color: rgb(92, 139, 63);"><span style="color:#000000;">Texas</span></a><span style="color:#000000;">-based organiser of Universal Royalty Beauty Pageants, had great difficulty finding a venue for her event in Ireland in September. It was due to be staged in the Bracken Court Hotel in Balbriggan, Co&nbsp;<span style="font-size: 1em;">Du</span><span style="font-size: 1em;">blin</span>, but the hotel pulled out just two days before the event.</span></p>
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			<span style="color:#000000;">There were then frantic efforts to find a venue, and at one stage Ms Hill found herself directed to a scrapyard in Duleek Industrial Estate in Co Meath.</span></p>
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			<span style="color:#000000;">Corrigan&#39;s Kitchen, a pub and restaurant in Castleblayney, eventually allowed the pageant to go ahead in its beer garden.</span></p>
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			<span style="color:#000000;">In the end, no more than 30 girls attended the event.</span></p>
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			<span style="color:#000000;">Despite the occasionally chaotic staging, Ms Hill seems determined to press ahead with further pageants.</span></p>
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			<span style="color:#000000;">She said in an interview earlier this month: &quot;It hasn&#39;t put me off. In fact, it&#39;s made me want to return even more. I&#39;m coming back because Irish parents want us back.&quot;</span></p>
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			<span style="color:#000000;">A Cork psychologist Dr Gillian Moore-Groarke believes that we should follow the example of France and introduce a ban.</span></p>
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			<span style="color:#000000;">Dr Moore-Groarke says: &quot;Parents really need to consider the pressure they are putting their kids under at these events.</span></p>
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			<span style="color:#000000;">&quot;In Monday&#39;s documentary, there did not seem to be much attention on the effects on the children at all. There was one girl gyrating on the stage. That was awful.</span></p>
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			<span style="color:#000000;">&quot;As a psychologist, I would be concerned that these pageants make kids much more focused on their body image. I saw some of the sashes they were wearing with &#39;most beautiful&#39;. That is a lot of pressure to put on a young child.&quot;</span></p>
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			<span style="color:#000000;">Dr Moore Groarke believes some parents who are drawn to these pageants may be using their children to fulfil their own dreams.</span></p>
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			<a href="http://www.independent.ie/lifestyle/toddlers-and-tiaras-is-it-time-to-ban-child-pageants-29787367.html"><span style="color:#000000;">http://www.independent.ie/lifestyle/toddlers-and-tiaras-is-it-time-to-ban-child-pageants-29787367.html</span></a></p>
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