Miss France win sparks furious ‘woke’ row

A bizarre furore has erupted online after a major beauty contest was won by a woman who didn’t have long, flowing hair.

The Miss France pageant was even accused of going “woke” after it crowned 20-year-old Eve Gilles as the winner. 

Ms Gilles, who had has a short brown bob, had previously won Miss Nord-Pas de Calais, representing a northern region of France. 

“We’re used to seeing beautiful Misses (sic) with long hair, but I chose an androgynous look with short hair,” Ms Gilles said after her win. 

She added that every “woman is different, we’re all unique”.

Ms Gilles had previously said that the Miss France competition should “evolve” and there wasn’t one definition of what a beautiful woman was. 

“I would like to show that... the representation of women is diverse, in my opinion beauty is not limited to a haircut or shapes that we have… or not”.
 

‘Woke contest’

The Miss France contest is won through a combination of a public and jury vote. Ms Gilles was already in third place with the public vote and the jury made her the overall winner. 

Nonetheless, some on social media could not accept that a contestant without long flowing locks or a curvaceous physique had been declared France’s most beautiful woman, reported the UK’s Telegraph newspaper. 

“Miss France is no longer a beauty contest but a woke contest which is based on inclusiveness,” said a commentator on Twitter, now known as X. 

The choice of a short haired winner was proof organisers were “instilling wokist (sic) values into society,” said one very angry person online. 

“The androgynous body is clearly to serve woke propaganda,” said one about Ms Gilles’ physique. 

Some even accused Ms Gilles, inaccurately, of being transgender simply because of her look.
 

‘Ridiculous’

The criticism was even more bizarre considering plenty of women over the years considered to be the world’s most beautiful have donned cropped locks – from Linda Evangelista to Twiggy to Audrey Hepburn.
 

The haters were soon drowned out by admirers of Ms Gilles, who wants to be a statistician. 

“Maybe the new Miss France isn’t gorgeous in your eyes, but seeing wokeism (sic) in her because she has short hair … It’s just ridiculous,” one retorted.

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

“Short hair is androgynous now?” said one commenter, bemused by the whole episode. 

“Aren’t women allowed short hair anymore – I must have missed the memo.”

French Greens MP Sandrine Rousseau backed Ms Gilles. 

“So, in France, in 2023, we measure the progress of respect for women by the length of their hair?” she said. 

Another MP, Karima Delli, backed the winner stating “Big support for Eve Gilles in the face of hateful tweets on social networks of incredible violence!”

Ms Gilles even received support for right wing French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen, who is no fan of progressive issues. 

“Congratulations to Eve Gilles, Miss Nord-Pas-de-Calais who becomes our new Miss France!” she wrote.