Morales-Casas: Miss Universe, empowerment contest 3:52
(CNN) -
Miss France, the 101-year-old beauty pageant in the country, is being sued by a group of feminist activists and three applicants who failed to qualify for alleged discriminatory entry requirements.
An appeal was filed against the pageant's parent company, Endemol Production, for Osez le féminisme (Dare to be a feminist), which in a press release on Tuesday said that Miss France contestants perform a labor service and therefore, they must be protected from prejudice under French labor law.
Discrimination against employees on the basis of gender, sexual orientation, family situation or genetic characteristics is considered illegal in France.
A 2021 application form for the national beauty pageant revealed that female candidates would not be considered if they were not at least 1.65 meters tall, or if they had ever been married or had children.
Other disqualifiers for potential contestants include wearing wigs or hair extensions, having tattoos, and smoking.
The app also requests clothing size and requests that potential beauty queens not undergo any major physical changes after being accepted into the competition.
Failure to comply could result in the contestant being fined 5,000 euros (US $ 5,822), in accordance with the terms and conditions of Miss France.
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Miss Guadalupe Clemence Botino is crowned Miss France 2020. (Credit: Christophe Simon / AFP / Getty Images)
While the contest's mission statement is to find "the most representative young woman of beauty and elegance," strict registration requirements mean that female contenders for the crown are somewhat limited.
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"Beyond the exploitation of women to obtain economic benefits, this contest, through the violations of the law of which they are guilty, has a negative and retrograde impact on society as a whole," wrote Osez le féminisme in your press release.
"It is about time Endemol Production finally removed all sexist clauses from its regulations."
Miss France and Endemol Productions have not responded to CNN's request for comment.
Alyssa Ahrabare, director of Osez le féminisme, wrote on social media that Miss France currently "feeds stereotypes that stand in the way of equality."
"The rules of the contest are discriminatory: marital status, age, attitudes, elections, everything is subject to mandates from another era! Candidates must be single and respect the rules of 'elegance', enough of these sexist rules!" she added.
The three applicants involved in the lawsuit against Miss France were rejected from the competition because of their "age, height, drinking and smoking in public and having tattoos," Ahrabare told CNN.
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Suzanne Angly, Miss France 1969, posing in a swimsuit. The competition started in 1920. (Credit: AFP / Getty Images)
The lawsuits against the beauty reign in France
This is not the first time in recent years that the world of beauty pageants has come under fire for its outdated codes of conduct and culture.
In 2013, France decided to ban pageants for minors under 16 years out of concern to promote hypersexualization of minors.
But few countries followed suit, despite the growing number of petitions.
In 2018, model Veronika Didusenko had her Miss Ukraine title revoked when organizers discovered that she was a mother.
Miss India also came under scrutiny in 2019 for perpetuating colorism by exclusively casting fair-skinned contestants.
And earlier this year, Miss United States of America (a separate pageant from Miss USA) won the right to ban transgender women from competing.
While there have been some cases of positive change (in 2019, Zozibini Tunzi became the first black woman with natural hair to win Miss Universe, and last year India crowned her third Miss Transqueen), progress is often clouded. for the controversial history of the contest.
However, the appetite for beauty pageants, at least in France, seems to be on the rise.
Miss France 2021, which aired in December 2020, had the best television ratings since 2006 - 8.6 million viewers tuned in to watch the coronation, according to local reports.
The next Miss France competition is scheduled for December 11.
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