Miss France 2024: Victory for short-haired contestant sparks bizarre ‘diversity’ debate

Eve Gilles faces online backlash over ‘androgynous look’, but many have defended her as following in footsteps of other short-haired French icons

The Miss France 2024 pageant has ended in bizarre controversy after the contest chose a winner with short hair for the first time in its 103-year history.

Pixie cut-sporting contestant Eve Gilles, 20, from Nord-Pas-de-Calais in northern France was crowned the winner of the pageant on Saturday night, and declared that it was a positive result for “diversity” in the competition.

“We’re used to seeing beautiful Misses with long hair, but I chose an androgynous look with short hair,” she said. “No one should dictate who you are... every woman is different, we’re all unique.”

There were plenty of people celebrating the choice of winner online, pointing out the Ms Gilles follows in a rich tradition of short-haired French fashion, from Mistinguett to Coco Chanel.

But others called it a “woke” choice on the part of the contest’s jury, with one user on X attempting to argue that the result was based “no longer [on] beauty... [but] on inclusiveness”.

The Miss France final is a major TV event in the country, bringing a peak audience of 9.1 million people to private channel TF1 on Saturday night.

The hashtag #MissFrance2024 became one of the top trending topics on X, formerly known as Twitter, throughout the weekend, and while there were many derogatory posts about Ms Gilles’ appearance, they were largely drowned out by viewers sharing delight at the result.

“The subject this morning is really to be outraged that [Miss France] 2024 has short hair...? And that would be woke…? Are you serious people? Louise Brooks, Coco Chanel, Colette, Mistinguett… does that mean anything to you or are you completely uneducated?” wrote one X user.

Newly elected Miss France 2024, Miss Nord-Pas-de-Calais Eve Gilles reacts on stage after winning the title during the Miss France 2024 (AFP via Getty Images)

“Eve Gilles is the new Miss France 2024, your malicious and useless criticisms won’t change that, she’s sublime,” wrote another.

“Maybe the new #MissFrance isn’t gorgeous in your eyes, but seeing wokeism in her because she has short hair.... It’s just ridiculous,” said another.

Showbiz journalist Stephanie Tayki, speaking in a debate of the result on GB News, said the backlash was “sexism at its finest for traditional people, who think women have to look a certain way. And if they go out of their old school concept of women being quite small, gentle, you are obviously a rebel to womenhood.”

Others, meanwhile, said that the concept of such beauty pageants was inherently sexist regardless of the choice of winner.

“Miss France is still just as sexist in the way it classifies women according to beauty criteria,” said Violaine de Filippis, spokesperson the for Dare Feminism! association.

And Melinda Bizri of the Human Rights League in Dijon called the result “feminist-washing”. She said: “Women have been abusing themselves all their lives to achieve these phantasmagorical criteria, according to patterns that take a very long time to deconstruct.”