Three former (failed) contestants of the Miss France pageant are joining up with the 'Osez le feminisme' (Dare to be a Feminist) group in order to sue the pageant, along with the production company that makes the TV program.
They claim that the pageant violates France's labour code which prevents companies from discriminating on the basis of 'morals, age, family status or physical appearance." So basically all of the minimum requirements that a pageant for beautiful, single women with no children has.
I fail to see how this could have come as a surprise to them. But maybe I'm overestimating these women...
The plaintiffs argue that the companies are breaking French labour law with discriminatory selection criteria by obliging aspiring beauty queens to be more than 1.70 metres tall, single, and 'representative of beauty'.
As a short person, I do take issue with the height requirement, because if you aren't auditioning to be a rockette I don't buy the symmetry argument here.
And I know they don't technically call them "beauty pageants" anymore, but we all know that's what they are. Yeah, yeah, the women competing have super impressive resumes and do great charity work, but at the end of the day, if you aren't pretty, you aren't taking home that crown.
A lot can be argued about the merits of pageants, but the fact that they discriminate based on sex, age, and physical appearance is not exactly an earth-shattering scandal.
