Under the leadership of Alexia Laroche-Joubert, new president of the company Miss France, the annual competition had decided, this year, to expand its selection criteria.
MO12345lemonde with AFP
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Live on TF1, the final followed last year by 7.3 million viewers was placed under the sign of cinema, with paintings inspired by the great successes of the box office, including Titanic and Harry Potter. The fifteen finalists were announced during a sequence like Oscars.
The jury, chaired by Francis Huster, notably gathered the champion of Judo Clarisse Agbegnenou, producer Dominique Besnehard or singer Kendji Girac. Prevented, the singer and humorist Camille Lellouche was replaced by the actress Bérengère Krief. The finalists were decreed 50/50 by viewers and the jury.
a change of certain rules for the 2022 edition
So far, only women between 18 and 24 years old, having no children and measuring at least 1.70 meters could claim the envied title of Miss France. But this year thirty regional miss, aged 18 to 26, students in medicine, tourism or trade, physiotherapist, makeup artist, nurse contributed.
If the minimum size remains, the competition has decided this year to expand its selection criteria: it is now open to all women over the age of 18, without age limit, including married, with or without children. A rule that applies even for transgender women, “from the moment the candidate has a female civil status”, specifies Alexia Laroche-Joubert, new president of the company Miss France.
In June, a Transgender candidate, the actress Andréa Furet (20 years old), presented herself in the election of Miss Paris, where she arrived second runner -up. Another innovation: visible tattoos are now allowed. “The methods of the competition that changed are only the reflection of the current company,” explains the France-Presse (AFP) Cindy Fabre, Miss France 2005 and new competition director. “Rare are the girls who are not tattooed. We had to adapt to this.” Besides, “we can also be a mom and compete. Everything is a question of organization,” said Cindy Fabre. “Papas also have a more invested than before. We take into account all of this.”
Geneviève de Fontenay, 90, the emblematic “lady in the hat” of the competition, opposes the idea of a Miss France mother of the family, estimating the maternity unveil with the planning of a beauty queen , just like Sylvie Tellier, who after seventeen years at the Directorate General of the Competition, decided to leave this position for “entrepreneurial projects”.
The relaxation of criteria has obviously not yet revolutionized the customs of the competition. If two of the thirty candidates in the running on Saturday are tattooed (Miss Languedoc and Miss Nord-Pas-de-Calais), none is a mother and the three deans are only 26 years old (Miss Lorraine, Miss New Caledonia and Miss Picardie).
For Fabienne El-Khoury, spokesperson for the association Dare feminism !, Developments in the regulations “are just a white paint on a moldy wall”. “It is pure communication strategy. The very idea of organizing a sexist competition by nature, on physical aspects that the majority of French women cannot reach, is discriminating, said to AFP M Me el-Khoury. It is high time in 2022 to question the relevance of maintaining this competition from another age. “Dare feminism! initiated a procedure before the Bobigny industrial tribunal against the “discriminatory criteria” of the Miss France competition. The decision is expected on January 6.