She explains:įrance has a deeply ingrained colonialist culture and still believes in a form of racial hierarchy and Gallic supremacy. Racism in France, is it inevitable?Īccording to Carol Mann, a sociology and gender studies professor at Paris’ Sciences Po University, these racist attitudes originate from French colonialism and are also tied into ideas of femininity and French beauty. Unfortunately this is all too familiar: the last time a black woman was crowned Miss France was Flora Coquerel (pictured) in 2014, and she too was subjected to horrific racist abuse on Twitter. He was far from the only person voicing such opinions. In his tweets he claims that Miss France ought to be caucasian and from mainland France. Henry de Lesquen, radio presenter and politician, was among the people commenting unfavourably on her win due to her skin colour. Miss France 2017 is Alicia Aylies, former Miss Guyane who hails from French Guiana, officially part of France since 1946 and located in South America.
However, not all the tweets were congratulatory, and it’s not the first time that this competition was blighted by controversy. That evening the hashtag #MissFrance was trending on Twitter for hours. Miss France’s ‘reign’ begins in the January following the competition, which in 2016 was held on 17 December. Why is the competition still popular in modern-day France, and does it reveal some uncomfortable truths about French society today? Millions of French people tune in to watch the winning young woman crowned as ‘ la plus belle femme de France ’.
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