Tattoo, marital status, children, age… Under the leadership of Alexia Laroche-Joubert, president of the Miss France society, the rules for selecting candidates for the contest have been relaxed. Only one main criterion remains, that of size. “Simply because the candidates wear designer dresses, unique, that it is impossible to touch up,” explains the producer in southwest.
Therefore, in theory it is enough to measure 1.70 m to be able to compete -and not consume alcohol or tobacco in public-, “both for reasons of example and legislation”, specifies Alexia Laroche-Joubert.
“For the rest, a married woman, divorced and even possibly tattooed from head to toe, can already present herself,” she sums up.
“With these new rules, I can’t wait to see which profile will be chosen. Will the French go for the novelty?” enthused Diane Leyre, reigning Miss France, in a press release on November 29.
However, apart from two discreet tattoos for Miss Languedoc and Miss Nord-pas-de-Calais, and three 26-year-old candidates, when previously they could not exceed 24 years, there is little new to look for. The candidates have profiles very similar to those of the candidates of previous years.
Now that it’s possible, why don’t we see more than thirty mothers this year among the 30 regional candidates? “We are not in a revolution but in an evolution”, answers Alexia Laroche-Joubert in an interview with TVMagazineon November 11.
“The rule change is recent, it’s only the first year,” he warns.
Too late for castings
The castings of the candidates, operated by the regional Miss France committees, take place at the beginning of the year or in spring depending on the region, before the formalization of the new rules, announced in June. “We had already done all our castings in January,” explains Anne-Marie Marinelli, delegate of the Miss Burgundy committee.
“The relaxation of the rules was not formalized until very late, when the castings had already passed or were in progress,” he stresses. Victoria Rousselot. At 28 years old, she is a participant in Miss Alsace However, she was able to become the first candidate in the history of the competition to become a mother.
“Not all committees have adopted the new rules,” says Daniel Mattioli, a member of the Miss Île-de-France committee. “We had two transgender candidates,” he says, adding that one of them failed the first casting call. In fact, the region has welcomed the competition’s first transgender candidate, andrea furetfinally recalibrated.
For Alexia Laroche-Joubert, it is a question of “showing this evolution with small touches, but “imposing it, it is not in our philosophy”, as she declared to TVMagazine.
“The committee took me for the buzz”
Do potential candidates censor themselves? Eddy Vingataramin, a delegate to the Miss Alsace committee, claims to have seen only a “small minority” of older candidates run.
“Clearly we have communicated a lot at the national level” about these new rules, she stresses, but the “time-consuming” contest only interests young women who are not yet very established in working life.
“After 23 years, they don’t want to invest in these kinds of ventures,” he says.
However, it is in Alsace that Victoire Rousselot was able to present herself. “I’m 28, I’m tattooed, I have a kid, I didn’t meet any of the criteria except size,” she jokes. However, she is not fooled.
“The committee took me by the buzz, so that people talk about Alsace,” says the young dental assistant, who presented herself with the aim of demonstrating that it was possible to do it as a mother.
She wanted other young women, who like her could not identify with Miss France, to be able to “see themselves in (her) history”. But “if they change the rules, they have to change what follows,” Victoire Rousselot believes, “to be more ‘soft’ on the organization.” The mother suggests, for example, that the chosen lady no longer have to spend so much time in Paris.
In fact, today many candidates are students. “Many young women do not dare to undertake,” laments Anne-Marie Marinelli, who dreams of seeing “a delicatessen or a Miss France trail”.
“Some young women thought that due to the relaxation of the rules, the competition had come closer to what the competition in Germany is today,” recalls Eddy Vingataramin.
On the other side of the Rhine, the competition, whose only criteria is to be under 39 years of age, has completely changed its spirit in the last three years: now it is more of a women’s forum, open to all physical profiles. For Eddy Vingataramin, the German contest is a “social project” that does not correspond to the criteria of “beauty and natural elegance” that the French contest maintains.
Alexia Laroche-Joubert also talks about elegance, recalling, on TV Mag: “Our criteria have changed but not our values, which continue to be elegance, replica, general culture, naturalness, photogenicity, charisma and finally ’empathy. “.
“We never ask for measurements”, but…
Because if, as Sylvie Tellier specified in Europe 1 on Tuesday, “we never ask for the measurements of the candidates”, the competition remains the territory of model sizes. Miss France has a “great modeling component” and works “with fashion houses”, specifies Eddy Vingataramin.
“There has never been a criterion of weight or measure,” confirms Daniel Mattioli, a member of the Miss Île de France committee.
“But between a 55-kilo girl and a 75-kilo girl, the silhouette is not the same,” he says.
The change that is beginning will take time, especially since former regional Misses, who know the old rules, are often part of the committees.
What if Miss France 2024 was the first slightly different Miss? “We already have a 34-year-old girl who has asked for information”, rejoices Anne-Marie Marinelli.
It is not enough to convince feminists, who always denounce the very principle of competition. For Fabienne El Khoury, spokeswoman for the association “Osez le féminisme!” Questioned by AFP, the changes in the regulations “are just a layer of white paint on a moldy wall” and are “pure communication strategy.”
Source: BFM TV
