Strictly pro Lauren Oakley has shared her thoughts on the backlash Miss France has faced (Picture: Getty)
Strictly Come Dancing professional dancer Lauren Oakley has waded into thebody-shaming backlash against Miss France, defending ‘unconventional’ beauty and reminding people not to comment on someone’s appearance.
The 32-year-old, who was paired with Krishnan Guru-Murthy on this year’s series of the BBC entertainment show, rocks a cropped haircut.
Eve Gilles, who was crowned Miss France last week, also has a pixie cut, which saw the 20-year-old hit with a wave of criticism over her self-described ‘androgynous’ look, with trolls bizarrely claiming her victory was the result of ‘woke’ scheming by judges.
The maths student is understood to be the first contestant with short hair ever to win the competition, which has been running for over a century.
Taking to Instagram on Thursday night, the star admitted she didn’t know if she should comment or not but felt like she ‘had’ to.
‘The subject has surfaced this week, and people have reached out to me about it. I’m generally not inclined to comment, but I feel quite strongly about it, and the bigger picture,’ she began in her message.
‘I’m happy, comfortable and most of the time confident with my appearance. I choose to have short hair, and I think it looks nice on me 🙂 I have days where I compare myself and don’t feel so pretty (don’t we all)… but I feel lucky that I’m confident with my image.’
The dancer revealed people had reached out to her to talk about it (Picture: Instagram/laurenmayoakley)
Eve Gilles faced criticism after becoming the first woman with short hair to be crowned Miss France (Picture: Courdji Sebastien/ABACA/Shutterstock)
Continuing next to a selection of photos of herself smiling as she showed off her short hair, she added: ‘I like the difference. I like representing what is unfortunately classed as ‘unconventional’ beauty. I think it’s important.’
‘Only being feminine if you have long hair is a social construct, when actually, beauty is in choice,’ she reminded her fans in the post, for which she turned off the comments.
‘Comments on social media and otherwise don’t upset me, what upsets me is that people feel the need to have an opinion on somebody else’s appearance. I’m grateful that I’ve learnt how not to take it personally (at first it was difficult, especially when related to my career – because ‘dancers don’t have short hair’),’ Lauren explained.
‘I want to encourage people to think twice about passing comments on appearance, when in fact it has nothing to do with you. You don’t know what someone else is going through, you don’t know how they feel.
Lauren recalled she’d been told that ‘dancers don’t have short hair’ (Picture: Instagram/laurenmayoakley)
‘The most important thing is that they’re happy in their skin, and if they’re not quite there yet, let’s help them by building them up.’
Lauren previously broached the topic after dancing a Viennese Waltz with Krishnan at the beginning of November, a routine for which she wore a long brunette wig.
After seeing her transformation, the dancer revealed that viewers have told her she ‘should’ have long hair permanently.
‘Alllll the comments on my long hair last week saying I ‘should’ have long hair. I’m good thanks girls don’t have to have long hair to feel pretty,’ she wrote on X.
She previously silenced commenters after wearing a long wig on Strictly Come Dancing (Picture: Guy Levy/BBC/PA)
‘Boys don’t have to have short hair to feel handsome. Nobody has to be a certain way! Just make yourself happy.’
In a separate tweet she added: ‘Not annoyed or offended by the hair comments ps. Just a polite reminder to have confidence in yourself!’
Fans praised the TV personality for shutting down the remarks, with fans telling her ‘you rock being you’ and praising her for taking the opportunity to be free to express herself.
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The dancer defended ‘unconventional beauty’.