Issue of the day

Is the French language sexist?

THE French language has gender at its heart, but this fact is the focus of an intensifying sexism row. Now a new law has been proposed banning public servants from using “gender-inclusive” terminology in their work. Excusez-moi? Sixty cross-party MPS have put forward a new bill calling for a ban on the use of “inclusive writing” – which puts both the masculine and feminine forms of nouns in the text – by civil servants and government officials, arguing that it makes learning French more difficult and ultimately endangers the language. The MPS claim that the gender neutral words “create a gap between the spoken language and written language”.

How so?

French pronouns, nouns and adjectives are related to the gender of the person or object being referred to and, without a gender-neutral pronoun such as “they”, the masculine form is considered dominant when a plural is used – something anti-sexism campaigners have branded discriminatory. Examples please? In French, if a man goes to the cinema “avec toutes ses amies” – with all of his female friends – the French is “ils vont au cinéma” or “they go to the movies”, using the masculine plural of “ils” even although there are more girls than boys. One way gender-neutral campaigners propose to change such a sentence would be to include both the feminine and masculine – “elles et il vont au cinéma”.

Also?

“Inclusive” spelling would see words split up with punctuation, using a point called a “middot” so, for example, friends or “amis” would become “ami·e·s” to include the feminine too. Proponents of “ecriture inclusive” say such measures would stop women from being erased from the French language.

This has been rumbling on for a while?

Back in 2017, what had been an ongoing conversation erupted into a row when a manual for primary schoolchildren using inclusive writing was released, sparking a furore.

And sparking a response from the “Académie Francaise”? The pre-eminent French council for

matters relating to the French language, established in 1635, called such writing an “aberration” which “now puts the French language in mortal danger for which our nation will be accountable to future generations.”

Now?

Francois Jolivet, of the ruling La République En Marche! party, put forward the bill to ban the use of genderinclusive writing by officials. He said the practice is “discriminating” and “endangers the heritage and the French speaking community.”

What happens now?

The draft bill will now be debated in the national assembly in the coming weeks.