Miss France insists she is a feminist as pageant branded ‘backward-looking’

Contestants must be single, taller than 170 centimetres and under the age of 25

Diana Leyre is crowned Miss France 2022 (AFP via Getty Images)

The newly crowned Miss France 2022 has insisted that she is a feminist after the country’s gender equality minister described the competition’s rules as “backwards” and outdated.

Speaking after her win on Saturday 11 December, Diane Leyre, 24, said she “wanted to show that you can be Miss France and a feminist”.

“For me, being a feminist is deciding what I want,” she said.

Her statement comes after minister Elisabeth Moreno told BFM TV that the pageant’s rules are “backward-looking”.

Speaking of Leyre, Moreno described her as “superb” and “generous”.

“I heard her say that she was taking power over her life, and that was what for her, being a feminist, and I completely agree. This is what we must aspire to,” Moreno said.

But she called for the competition’s rules to be changed to “adapt to 2021”.

As it stands, contestants must be single, taller than 170 centimetres and under the age of 25.

“It’s been 100 years that it has existed, that it has celebrated the elegance of France, and it is not the competition as such, but its rules, which I consider backward-looking,” Moreno said.

“Why can’t a Miss France be ironic? Why does a Miss France not pose topless to denounce breast cancer?”

“I now understand better. And since it makes a lot of women dream and it puts glitter in the eyes of the French, I can understand that we want to compete. But the main thing is that we can change these rules. so that they adapt to 2021 “.

In October, CNN reported that French feminist group Osez le féminisme had sued the organiser of the pageant, Endemol Production, over its entry requirements.

The group said contestants undertake work as part of the competition and should be protected from discrimination under French employment law.

“Beyond exploiting women for economic gain, this contest, through the violations of the law of which it is guilty, has a negative and retrograde impact on the whole of society,” Osez le féminisme said in a statement.

“It is high time Endemol Production finally removes all sexist clauses from its regulations.”