The defiant Miss France winner said she was “not just a haircut” after her stunning win in the national beauty pageant was blighted by a bizarre row over her “androgynous” looks and short hair.
Eve Gilles, 20, from Nord-Pas-de-Calais in the northern part of the country, was crowned by previous winner Indira Ampiot on Saturday evening in front of 7.5 million television viewers.
But her win was overshadowed by a strange backlash that accused the beauty pageant of being “woke” after the jury chose the “androgynous” Ms Gilles as Miss France 2024, after all previous winners had supposedly more “traditional” long, flowing hair and had curves.
Now the defiant winner has said she's “not just a haircut” as online comments mainly focused on her pixie cut hairstyle and slim figure.
“I am human, criticism inevitably influences and hurts me.” My body is the way it is. Whether I like it or not, that's who I am. “If people don’t like it, they don’t like me and that’s all,” she told French broadcaster TF1.
“You can't please everyone, and that's normal.” “You have to accept yourself and ignore all criticism, even if it's difficult.”
Ms Gilles previously said that beauty pageant viewers are used to seeing “beautiful ladies with long hair, but I went for an androgynous look with short hair”.
Eve Gilles (left) is crowned Miss France 2024 by Miss France 2023 Indira Ampiot (right) at the Miss France 2024 beauty pageant in Dijon
Now the defiant winner has said on French TV (pictured above) that it's “not just a haircut” as online comments mainly focused on her pixie cut hairstyle and slim figure
Eve Gilles (pictured), 20, from Nord-Pas-de-Calais in the north of the country, was crowned Miss France on Saturday evening in front of 7.5 million television viewers
The Miss France candidates appeared on stage in matching bodysuits with gold tassels
Miss Nord-Pas-de-Calais, Eve Gilles, was crowned Miss France 2024 on Saturday evening
In her recent interview, she also said that she hopes there will come a time when her haircut will no longer be the focus.
But the maths student also said it was “important” to show that many French women had short haircuts like her and that they should be “represented” in competitions such as Miss France.
Ms Gilles had also praised her win as a victory for “diversity”, adding: “Nobody should tell you who you are,” she said after her victory on Saturday evening, adding that “every woman is different, we are all unique. “
During a radio interview with French Fun Radio today, the charming 20-year-old said that while she was prepared for nasty comments, she was only “human” and of course they would affect her.
“Now that I have the crown on my head, it's too late.” “Whether people criticize me or not, it's too late – I'm here now,” she added.
The winner of the competition will be determined half by a public vote and half by a jury. While Ms. Gilles only came third in the public vote, the jury relegated her to first place.
But Ms Gilles, who wants to become a statistician, is the first winner in the beauty pageant's 103-year history not to wear long hair – much to the dismay of some viewers.
“Miss France is no longer a beauty pageant, but a woke competition based on inclusivity,” wrote one user on X, formerly known as Twitter.
This was echoed by several others on Twitter, with one woman accusing Gilles of “instilling Wokist values into society.”
Ms Gilles chose not to address the “violent” backlash directly, adding that she believes “the best response is silence”.
“When everything is clearer in my head, I might want to say something, but that's not the case at the moment,” she told French broadcaster TeleStar.
Other negative comments included one who said that she “doesn't look anything like Miss France” and that “we don't care about her haircut, but the androgynous body is obviously there to serve as a wake-up call.”
However, the critical voices were soon drowned out by a wave of support for the newly crowned Miss France, who is studying mathematics and computer science at the University of Lille.
One fan wrote: “Maybe the new #MissFrance isn't stunning in your eyes, but seeing alertness in her because she has short hair… It's just ridiculous.”
The newly elected Miss France 2024 Eve Gilles reacts on stage after winning the title
At the finals of the beauty pageant, she appeared in a black costume with red decorations
The newly elected Miss France 2024 (center left) poses for a selfie with jury president Sylvie Tellier (center right)
Indira Ampiot, Miss France 2023, who wore her hair in long waves compared to her, congratulated her on her victory
In a picture with other participants shown on French channel Direct5, Ms Gilles is wearing an orange bikini
Eve campaigned for more “varied” beauty standards in the lead-up to the beauty pageant final, which was often seen as sexist
Eve Gilles is pictured here with longer hair
Eve Gilles during the Miss France 2024 beauty pageant on December 16 in Dijon, central-eastern France
Eve Gilles, 20, (center) is pictured with longer hair. On Saturday evening she was crowned Miss France
Another added: “Eve Gilles is the new Miss France 2024, your malicious and useless criticism will not change that, she is great.”
“Eve Gilles isn't even trans, never claimed to be trans, but half the comments about her are transphobic because she has short hair,” said a third.
MP Sandrinne Rousseau also defended Ms Gilles, saying: “So in France in 2023 we will measure the progress of respect for women by the length of their hair?”
Ms. Rousseau also wears her hair in a pixie cut, which has become an important symbol as part of France's MeToo movement.
Another MP, Karima Delli, wrote: “Huge support for Ève Gilles, #MissFrance2024, in the face of hateful tweets on social networks of incredible violence!”
“Swallow your poison, not only is she gorgeous, Miss Nord pas de Calais is also intelligent in embracing her diversity!”
Fabien Roussel, national secretary of the Communist Party, also weighed in, writing: “Support for Eve Gilles, elected Miss France, who is already suffering the violence of a society that does not accept women defining themselves in all their diversity.”
Even Marine Le Pen congratulated Ms Gilles on her win at X. “Congratulations to Eve Gilles, Miss Nord-Pas-de-Calais, who becomes our new Miss France!” she said.
Ms Gilles, whose parents are from Réunion, an island in the Indian Ocean that is part of France, had campaigned for “more varied” beauty standards in the run-up to the beauty pageant's final, which was often seen as sexist.
“I want to show that competition and society are evolving and that the representation of women is diverse. In my opinion, beauty is not limited to a haircut or shapes that we have…or not,” the contestant said definitively during the event, as reported by the Telegraph.
In November, she told French news agency BFM Grand Lille: “I particularly want to defend the image of women, that they can do whatever they want, that they can be whatever they want.”
Ms Gilles had campaigned for “more varied” beauty standards in the run-up to the beauty pageant final, which was often seen as sexist (pictured: Ms Gilles in the final).
Miss France 2024, Eve Gilles, in front of the RFM radio studios, where she gave one of many interviews today
Runner-up and Dauphine, Miss Guyane Audrey Ho-Wen-Tsai (pictured), performs on stage during the Miss France 2024 beauty pageant
Miss France director Cindy Fabre (in white) and television presenter Jean-Pierre Foucault (right) announced the selection of semi-finalists during the Miss France 2024 beauty pageant
Miss Limousin, Agathe Toullieu, performs on stage during the Miss France 2024 beauty pageant in Dijon
Eve Gilles, 20, was crowned Miss France on Saturday evening in front of 7.5 million television viewers
Contestants perform on stage during the Miss France 2024 beauty pageant in Dijon
Ms Gilles beamed on stage after receiving her crown and a large bouquet of white flowers
“I want to break the codes to show that women can be diverse and that we don't have to be pigeonholed. That's what I want to show.”
Ms Gilles, who was born in Dunkirk and has an Instagram page for her cat Princess Heidi, is the youngest of three sisters and said it was her grandfather who encouraged her to take part in the competition.
“My family is really very important. It's my little cocoon. “We are very close, we have done everything together,” she said.
Ms Gilles studies mathematics and computer science at the University of Lille and travels back to her family in Quaëdypre, near Dunkirk, every weekend.
She had initially started studying medicine “so as not to regret it later,” but “she didn't like it,” Ms. Gilles said, adding that she worked in a factory to earn money.
But during the Miss France competition, Ms Gilles was criticized online for her hair, her “shapelessness” and “thinness”.
Actress Beatrice Rosen, who said she preferred another candidate, also joined the discussion online.
“I understand that there is a real atmosphere that has had enough of the wokism they want to make us swallow 24/7, BUT just as we can criticize a religion but NOT the believers, I find the criticism sometimes nasty That's Eva unfair and counterproductive.
“To attack the physical is an attack below the belt, and it is unfair to shift the entire ideological criticism of wokism onto a young woman of 20.”
“This young woman is pretty and feminine, “despite” her short hair. “I was and still am an admirer of the unique beauty of Audrey Hepburn, Linda Evangelista or Jean Seberg, all three very thin with short hair, and yet they are female icons adored all over the world.”
Ms Gilles, who was criticized for her appearance even before her coronation, said she wanted to “stop looking like a little girl” and be a role model. “But I’m not a tomboy at all. “I feel like a woman,” she added.
Ms Giles (third from left) was the only entrant in this year's competition to have her hair cut short
Some of the participants performed a dance routine on stage in neon-colored skirts and socks
The Miss France candidates shone in sequined dresses in the semi-finals
Miss Bourgogne Luna Lacarme appears on stage in a colorful two-piece suit with a long skirt
The semi-finalists, including Ms. Gilles (third from left), performed a dance routine in gold sequin dresses
Other contestants, such as Second Dauphine (Third Runner), Miss Provence Adelina Blanc, had long hair
Miss Guadeloupe, Jalylane Maes, performs on stage during Miss France 2024
The fourth Dauphine, Miss Languedoc Maxime Teissier, performs on stage during the Miss France 2024 beauty pageant
Ms Gilles' supporters (pictured here in the semi-final) include several French MPs
Eve Giles has been criticized for her short hair since winning Miss France
Her victory comes less than a week after a court ordered a French broadcaster and television production company to compensate two former Miss France finalists for secretly filming them and showing their bare breasts on the show.
The court found that both women were filmed in changing rooms “without them being informed about it.”
Alexia Laroche-Joubert, chief executive of Banijay France, which owns the Miss France brand, defended the competition as a symbol of “success” and a “social boost” for candidates who have gone on to become “businesswomen, doctors or film directors”.
The competition's criteria have been “modernized,” she said, as there is no longer an age limit for participants, who can now also be married or transgender.
However, for critics, the development of the beauty pageant was inadequate.
Melinda Bizri of the Human Rights League in Dijon, which called for a boycott of the ceremony, called the cosmetic changes a “feminist wash.”
“Women have abused themselves all their lives to achieve these phantasmagoric criteria, in patterns that take a very long time to deconstruct,” she said.
“Miss France is still just as sexist in the way she classifies women according to beauty criteria,” added Violaine de Filippis, spokesperson for Dare Feminism!. Association.