For the first time in the 100-year history of the main French beauty contest, the winner has short hair.
Eve Gilles, 20, who won the competition at the weekend, hailed the feat as a “victory for diversity”.
“Nobody can tell you who you should be,” he told the audience.
Gilles promised to “defend the values of strong women”. After his victory on Saturday, he added: “we are used to seeing beautiful ladies with long hair, but I chose an androgynous look with short hair (…) each woman is different, we are all unique”.
Gilles, who is studying mathematics and statistics at university, represents the northern region of Nord-Pas-de-Calais, making her the fourth competitor from the region to take home the crown in 10 years.
The aftermath of his victory was hostile. On social media, critics violently attacked her thinness, made videos comparing her to other competitors with “more beautiful” long hair and insinuated that she only won to appease the “woke” culture.
Researcher Philippe Herlin, from Paris, wrote in X: “Miss France doesn’t have great looks, but she says the right things. Do you want to bet that next year Miss France will be trans?”
“People who criticize me because of my hair don’t bother me, because I can change my hair,” Gilles told French daily Le Parisien in an interview after the victory. “I chose this hair, but I didn’t choose my body, nor my metabolism. I don’t understand how anyone can criticize a person for something they can’t change.”
Gilles said she wants to encourage children – especially girls – to pursue math and science. He hopes his own passion for the discipline can help make it less intimidating.
“For me, there is a problem with the way mathematics is taught,” he told French broadcaster TF1. “Girls and boys are told that mathematics is complicated, that mathematics is difficult, that you have to endure it. No! They should tell them: “Listen, this is a challenge, you are going to have fun, there is a problem and you have to find the solution. That would change the whole dynamic!”
New rules for a “modern” beauty contest
This year was the second edition of the Miss France contest since the rules were changed to allow for a greater diversity of candidates.
The age limit, previously set at 24 years, was removed. Candidates can now also be married, have children and have visible tattoos. In 2019, the competition was opened to transgender competitors.
But, in practice, the contestants continued to be quite homogeneous: there were no mothers on stage, the average age remained more or less the same and no tattoos were seen.
All competitors had to be at least 1.70 meters tall to be able to compete (a camera framing issue, according to the organizers). And despite there being no weight limit for the contest, there wasn’t a single plus-sized contestant.
Gilles’ short hair was the only physical attribute that could be considered remotely “avant-garde.”
But the young beauty queen said she doesn’t want to be known exclusively “as Miss Short Hair.”
“I want to be a strong woman, I want to make people realize that, regardless of their starting point, whatever path they take, they can achieve their goals,” said Gilles. “I want to show people that women are diverse, that we are all beautiful, that we are all different and unique. I’m not unique because of my hair, I’m unique because I’m Eva.”
Por Anca Ulea