Miss France Organization under the fire of critics.

The 2021 edition has considerably marked the history of the Miss France pageant. For the first time, the candidates signed a contract giving the right to a small remuneration. Until now, the regulations drafted by the Miss France committee stipulated that the participation of the candidates was done “on a graceful basis” and that it did not give rise to “any form of remuneration and/or compensation”. But things are moving. This novelty is due in particular to the complaint filed by the association Osez le féminisme to Prud’hommes.

The 29 candidates for the Miss France 2022 election were paid because, for the first time since the creation of the competition, they all signed an employment contract, which remained ultra-confidential for a long time.

According to the article by our colleagues from Le Parisien published on January 22, 2022, who had the famous contract in their hands, these young women were only paid for their participation in the last two days of rehearsal and the ceremony broadcast on TF1 (first channel TV in France), all for a derisory salary.

“We were paid 84 euros per day, or 252 euros net in total,” explains a candidate for the newspaper Le Parisien, information confirmed by the production of the show. The equivalent of the minimum wage. It’s really symbolic.”

This contract may be surprising, since these young women are not mobilized for just three days. Indeed, they are preparing for this final for weeks, hoping to win the famous crown.

If many Miss are satisfied with this bonus contract, hailed by the Minister of Culture, Roselyne Bachelot, as progress “in terms of labor law”, some have denounced a derisory salary that is not very representative of the investment required. “Why pay us only for three days? The contract should cover the entire month that we make ourselves available, when we put our studies, our jobs, our lives aside. Receiving gifts is no substitute for a salary. Moreover, we are encouraged to promote it on our social networks. We become volunteer muses. It’s exploitation,” said Gwenegann Saillard, Miss Champagne-Ardenne 2020, outraged to our colleagues from Le Parisien. “But you don’t sign up for Miss France for the money,” adds Lena Massinger, Miss Champagne-Ardenne. Between an iPad and dresses, we were covered with gifts. We even went to the 13 Hours of TF1. At 20, it’s crazy!”

Alexia Laroche-Joubert, the president of Miss France society.

Following her accusations, Alexia Laroche-Joubert, president of the Miss France company, retaliated in the columns of Le Parisien.

The latter defended that “Miss France is a beauty contest” and that the contract proposed for the last three days is “already a great step forward”. And Alexia Laroche-Joubert adds that she does not intend to extend the duration of the contract. She added that the Misses are “neither obliged to go to the preparatory trip” nor “even attend rehearsals”, even if it would be “shooting themselves in the foot. This does not correspond to our values and the motivations of the candidates would no longer be the same. For that, they can do Les Marseillais or Les Ch’tis.” (NB- French Reality TV show).

As a result of this article, some languages became untied and complaints were heard about the treatment that the production reserved for female candidates. Some Miss denounced “the lack of sleep, food, the daily physical and psychological load.” The very intense rhythm is pointed out by the vast majority of these young women.

Still according to our colleagues, the young women “chained choreographies for nearly ten hours a day”, before attending performance dinners. With the lack of sleep and the stress of such an issue, some candidates would have even fallen ill. “Some girls have had blood pressure problems or got sick. Many crack at the time of rehearsals. We said to each other between girls that we should be paid from the first to the last day because without us, there would be no show,” said another Miss, on condition of anonymity.

She also questioned the way Miss could be treated physically. According to her, some were also very tired “because of lack of food.”

“We were clearly not being given enough to eat. Sometimes we had extra food delivered to us. It felt like we were doing a Koh-Lanta bis.”

Statements that should not please the president of the Miss France company!