Miss France 2024, Miss Nord-Pas-de-Calais, Eve Gilles, on stage after her election in Dijon on December 16, 2023 (AFP / ARNAUD FINISTRE)
Miss Nord-Pas-de-Calais, claiming the “diversity” of women, was elected Miss France 2024, Saturday evening in Dijon, in front of 5,000 fans still believing in the “fairy tale” in the face of accusations of a “sexist” competition. further reinforced by a recent court conviction for images of candidates filmed topless in 2018.
Originally from Quaëdypre, a village near Dunkirk, Eve Gilles, 20, made her candidacy the symbol of female “diversity”. “No one should dictate who you are,” she said during the “beauty” pageant, making her only choice to keep her hair short a difference from the other Misses, all with long hair.
Miss Nord-Pas-de-Calais, Eve Gilles (L), is crowned Miss France 2024 by Miss France 2023 Indira Ampiot (D), in Dijon, December 16, 2023 (AFP / ARNAUD FINISTRE)
“I want to defend the values of strong women (…) Body shaming is something we experience every day, it doesn’t matter. We all have our imperfections. Every woman is different, we are all unique,” he said. she explained at a press conference. “We are used to seeing beautiful Misses with long hair, I chose an androgynous look with short hair,” she added.
The new Miss France, a second year mathematics and computer science student, has not clarified her position on the “beauty” contest in which she participated and which is widely contested by feminists.
Miss France 2024, Eve Gilles (Miss Nord-Pas-de-Calais), parades on stage during the Miss France 2024 competition in Dijon, December 16, 2023 (AFP / ARNAUD FINISTRE)
Succeeding Indira Ampiot, Miss Guadeloupe and France 2023, Eve Gilles was selected at the end of a great “show”, in the words of Jean-Pierre Foucault, 76 years old and presenter since 1995.
“It makes me dream! Since I was little, I have not missed a single ceremony,” testified Emma from Dijon, 22, who came with her most beautiful sequined dress to finally attend the competition in her city, rather than just watching it. on TF1. “The Misses are incredibly lucky. It’s a fairy tale,” exclaimed her friend, Sylvie, 23, unable to sit still in her seat in the Zénith performance hall.
Contenders for the title of Miss France 2024 during the ceremony broadcast on TF1, December 16, 2023 in Dijon (AFP / ARNAUD FINISTRE)
The competition, however, comes after a conviction by the Lille court on Tuesday, of the TF1 subsidiary, e-TF1, and the company Endemol which then managed the Miss France Company. The cause was the broadcast to nearly eight million viewers of images of two regional Misses, filmed bare-chested on December 15, 2018, by a camera installed without their knowledge.
The organizers had apologized for this “hiccup” but the hitch adds to the controversy surrounding the beauty contest which, despite some reforms, remains highly criticized.
Now a hundred years old, Miss France is a symbol of “success”, assures the Miss France Society. “It’s a social elevator,” says its president Alexia Laroche-Joubert, referring to Misses who have become “businesswomen, doctors or even directors”.
The criteria have also been “modernized”, she assures. A candidate now has no age limit and can be transgender, married, mother… and even tattooed.
Contenders for the title of Miss France 2024 during the ceremony broadcast on TF1, December 16, 2023 in Dijon (AFP / ARNAUD FINISTRE)
Only one trans candidate has so far come forward. She failed in the Miss Paris election in 2022.
These small revolutions caused the famous hat of Geneviève de Fontenay, a historic figure in the beauty contest, to wobble. Having died in August at the age of 90, a tribute will be paid to her on Saturday evening, casting a modest veil over the stormy relations she had with the current Miss organization.
– “Hate-Watching” –
This “evolution” is, however, still far from satisfying feminists. “It’s ‘feminist-washing’: we remain in a very misogynistic election,” said Mélinda Bizri, of the Human Rights League in Dijon, who is calling for a boycott of the ceremony with many other associations. “Women abuse themselves all their lives to achieve these phantasmagorical criteria, according to patterns that take a very long time to deconstruct,” she emphasizes.
Contenders for the title of Miss France 2024 during the ceremony broadcast on TF1, December 16, 2023 in Dijon (AFP / ARNAUD FINISTRE)
“Miss France is still just as sexist in the principle of classifying women based on beauty criteria,” adds Violaine de Filippis, spokesperson for Dare to Feminism!
However, each ceremony counts among the highest audiences on TF1 (7.1 million viewers last year).
The Miss evening “is always a success because it is first and foremost entertainment”, explains Virginie Spies, media analyst at the University of Avignon, to AFP.
But this success is partly due to “hate-watching”, that is to say “watching what we do not necessarily appreciate in order to be able to criticize it”, defines Ms. Spies.