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France’s Education Ministry Has Banned The Use Of Woke ‘Gender-Neutral’ Language In Schools

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Follow Doug on Parler @TheGilesWay.

One government official said that the new “inclusive” gender-neutral writing would be the death-knell for the French language and would instead “drive more people to learn English.”

That makes perfect sense since nouns in French are gendered — some are masculine and some are feminine. Trying to make French gender-neutral seems like a complicated and confusing task that will inevitably lead to frustration for those who are learning the language, and those who already know it and have to adjust.

But the wokescolds insist that it’s “more inclusive” to fundamentally alter the language.

The Macron government wasn’t having any of it.

France has banned schools from using ‘gender neutral’ spellings, saying they are a threat to the French language.

The country’s education ministry issued the ruling last week after a push to include full stops in the middle of written words – dubbed ‘midpoints’ – which allow both male and female forms to be represented simultaneously.

But the Academie Francaise, which is responsible for guarding the French language, said the move is ‘harmful to the practice and understanding of [French.]’

In French grammar, nouns take on the gender of the subject to which they refer, with male perferred over female in mixed settings.

Therefore, a group of friends with four women and one man is referred to using the masculine ‘amis’ – causing controversy among gender equality advocates

With midpoints included, the written world becomes ‘ami.e.s’, including the feminine ‘e’ ending – though it would still be pronounced the same when spoken.
Source: Daily Mail

That seems unnecessarily complicated.

And ugly.

I had studied French all the way through to high school. These periods in the middle of words could get very confusing. For example, a sentence could look like this: “Mes ami.e.s sont des idiot.es.”

Do you know who are the idiot.es? The people advocating for this garbage!

(H/T to Joel Abbott at Not The Bee for the excellent example French sentence.)

The State Secretary for Priority Education, Nathalie Elimas, said that making French “gender-neutral” will not increase interest in learning the language and will push people to learn English instead. “With the spread of inclusive writing, the English language – already quasi-hegemonic across the world – would certainly and perhaps forever defeat the French language,” she said.

France’s Education Minister, Jean-Michel Blanquer, told the Sunday newspaper, Le Journal du Dimanche, that putting a series of dots in the middle of a word would “present a barrier” for individuals with learning disabilities like dyslexia.

Of course, one of the largest teachers’ unions called on their members to ignore the ruling and said that Blanquer was “trying to impose his backwardness on the education community.”

Yes, clearly Blanquet is the problem for being concerned about people with learning disabilities as opposed to the teachers’ union that wants to unnecessarily complicate a gendered language for woke points.

There was some common ground, however. The Academie Francaise has agreed that certain job titles should change forms when the person holding the role is female. For example, if Marine Le Pen wins the 2022 election, she would be Présidente Le Pen.

How do you say “based” in French?

This seems like a perfect spot to put a Les Misérables gif…

K. Walker

ClashDaily's Associate Editor since August 2016. Self-described political junkie, anti-Third Wave Feminist, and a nightmare to the 'intersectional' crowd. Mrs. Walker has taken a stand against 'white privilege' education in public schools. She's also an amateur Playwright, former Drama teacher, and staunch defender of the Oxford comma. Follow her humble musings on Twitter: @TheMrsKnowItAll and on Gettr @KarenWalker

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