Three former contestants in beauty pageants have joined a feminist organisation suing Miss France for allegedly discriminating against its contestants based only on their appearance. The three women have joined the organisation “Osez le feminism” (Dare to be a Feminist) and have declared that Endemol Production, the company that produces the contest’s yearly televised presentation on the TF1 channel, as well as the beauty pageant would be the targets of their lawsuit.
The three previous competitors were not victorious. After their prior attempts to be heard proved fruitless, they then began working with the feminist organisation to submit a complaint against Miss France.
According to the case, Miss France is in violation of French labour rules when she requires beauty queens to be unmarried, at least five feet five inches tall, and to be a “representative of beauty.” Women who wish to enter the beauty contest are not required to change their haircuts or lose weight; the only body piercings allowed are on the ears.Anything that was judged “contrary to good morals, to public order or the spirit of the contest, which is based on the values of elegance” resulted in candidates being eliminated from the beauty pageant in the past.
Previously, participants in the beauty pageant were disqualified for any actions considered to be “against moral principles, public order, or the spirit of the competition,
If magistrates rule that the aforementioned TV business and the beauty pageant are employers, the lawsuit might succeed. Should they be deemed employers, they will be in flagrant breach of the labour rules of France. They might be allowed to carry on with their current activities if the beauty contest is not seen as employment.
There is no job contract signed by contestants. The plaintiffs in the lawsuit, however, have discovered a 2013 ruling in support of their claims that they were similarly mistreated by the French beauty pageant, made by a previous competitor.