Does the Miss France society impose discriminatory clauses on young women who want to apply for the beauty pageant? The Justice will rule on January 6 on this issue, raised again on Friday before the Bobigny labor court by a feminist association.
The activists of “Dare feminismo” initiated a judicial process in October 2021, from the perspective of labor law, against the election of Miss France, which they consider “sexist”. After a first hearing in June, which did not lead to any decision because the labor court advisers could not agree, the arguments of the two parties were presented again on Friday during a “decisive hearing”.
Recently implemented employment contracts
“Osez le féminisme” maintains that the criteria to participate in this program -broadcast this year on December 17 by TF1- are discriminatory in labor matters, since they require the candidates to measure at least 1.70 m and be “representatives of beauty”. . “.
The association also questions the nature of the legal link between the organizers and the candidates: since last year they have signed an employment contract with the production of the show, as “models”. Activists believe that this contract should start not three days before the elections, but from the regional selections.
optimized rules
Before the judges, the president of the Miss France Society, Alexia Laroche-Joubert, argued that this issue did not fall within her competence because she was only responsible for the national election. She also justified the size criteria imposed on the candidates by the fact that they must wear “designer dresses” not designed for petite sizes.
After the hearing, Alexia Laroche-Joubert refuted before journalists that the election of Miss France could be described as “macho”. Thus, candidates are no longer required to be single and without children, because “it is her personal life,” she stressed.
“Society no longer wants that”
Those who criticize the competition “want to talk about them,” he lashed out. “They don’t have to govern morality. When you think you can decide for women, I find it unacceptable, I call it censorship,” she added.
For Fabienne El Khoury, one of the spokespersons for “Dare feminism”, it is necessary, on the contrary, to “open a debate” on the election of Miss France. “Can we still put women in competition with sexist criteria, with unrealistic dictates and injunctions in 2022? Society doesn’t want that anymore, it’s getting old-fashioned,” she told AFP.
Source: BFM TV
