Miss France beauty pageant has been embroiled in a row after judges were accused of going woke for crowning a contestant with pixie cut as a winner for the first time in history.
Miss France 2023
20-year-old Eve Gilles from Nord-Pas-de-Calais in the northern part of the country was crowned by previous winner Indira Ampiot in front of 7.5 million TV viewers Sunday night.
Now, the beauty pageant has been facing backlash that it has gone ‘woke’ as the judges chose ‘androgynous’ Ms Gilles as Miss France 2024 after all previous winners featured more supposedly ‘traditional’ long, flowing hair and curves.
‘We’re used to seeing beautiful Misses with long hair, but I chose an androgynous look with short hair,’ a defiant Ms Gilles said.
She also praised her win as a win for ‘diversity’ and added: ‘No one should dictate who you are,’ she said after her victory Saturday night, adding that every ‘woman is different, we’re all unique.’
The pageant winner is chosen half by a public vote and half by a jury.
Ms Gilles came third in the public vote, but the panel of judges pushed her into first place, making her the first winner in the 103-year history of the pageant who doesn’t have a long mane of hair, according to Mail Online.
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Online reactions
Miss France is no longer a beauty contest but a woke contest which is based on inclusiveness,’ one user wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.
However, there was a wave of support for the newly crowned Miss France.
One fan wrote: ‘Maybe the new #MissFrance isn’t gorgeous in your eyes, but seeing wokeism in her because she has short hair…. It’s just ridiculous.’
Another added: ‘Eve Gilles is the new Miss France 2024, your malicious and useless criticisms won’t change that, she’s sublime.’
‘Eve Gilles isn’t even trans, has never claimed to be trans, but half of the comments about her are transphobic because she has short hair,’ a third said.
MP Sandrinne Rousseau also came to Ms Gilles’ defence and said: ‘So, in France, in 2023, we measure the progress of respect for women by the length of their hair?’
