A French beauty pageant is being sued for discrimination after allegedly selecting contestants based on their physical appearances.
Three failed contestants have joined forces with feminist group Osez le feminisme (Dare to be a Feminist) in their bid to sue the Miss France pageant, as well as Endemol Production, the company that screens the pageant on the channel TF1.
The plaintiffs argue that the companies are breaking French labor law with discriminatory selection criteria by obliging aspiring beauty queens to be more than 1.70 meters tall, single, and “representative of beauty”.
The French labor code forbids companies from discriminating on the basis of “morals, age, family status or physical appearance,” Violaine De Filippis-Abate, a lawyer for Osez le feminisme, said.
The case, filed at a labor court in the Paris suburb of Bobigny, will hinge on whether magistrates recognize Miss France contestants as de facto employees of the organizers and TV company.
Although participants don’t sign an employment contract during the contest, plaintiffs have pointed to a supportive judgment made in 2013 after a former Mister France contestant sued the competition organizers for similar reasons.
In a Twitter thread, Alyssa Ahrabare, head of the Dare to be Feminist group, wrote:
“In the 1970s, feminists were already mobilizing against #MissMonde, today @osezlefeminisme is in line with this fight by tackling #MissFrance . We will continue to fight and we will not be intimidated.”
The movement has since sparked the hashtag #PasTaMiss (‘Not Your Miss’), with many people arguing that the competition is outdated and sexist.
However, 2002 Miss France winner Sylvie Tellier, who now runs the competition, argued the contest actually promotes women’s rights,
She told The Telegraph: “You can parade in a swimsuit and be a feminist. We are no longer in the days of ‘look beautiful and shut up’.”
Meawhile, the three former contestants involved in this case have not been named.
Sources: AWM, DailyMail, The Telegraph
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