TODAY COLOMBIA (Semana.com) A beauty pageant that featured bikini-clad 6-10 year-old girls strutting down a catwalk in front of a hooting crowd with beer-drinking men has sparked outrage in Colombia, and prompted officials in that country to investigate its organizers on possible charges of sexual exploitation.
The event, creepily called Miss Tanguita, or “Little Miss Thong,” was a junior version of the “Miss Thong” event, an annual beauty pageant held in the eastern city of Barbosa.
Organizers of the event argue that the parents of the young girls consented to have their daughters participate in the beauty contest. The mayor of Barbosa said the pageant encouraged girls to be healthy and “respect their bodies.”
But when videos of “Miss Tanguita” were posted to YouTube showing the kids parading about like Victoria’s Secrets models, the Colombian media jumped all over it.
“For starters, the name little miss thong is incompatible with childhood,” tweeted TV news host Vanessa de la Torre.