Gender-Neutral Language

Gender-neutral language was a hot topic across the globe this week. The Royal Spanish Academy recently removed the gender-neutral term “elle” from their Observatory of Words. The institution was not going to include this term in the dictionary, so they removed it in order to “avoid confusion”. One article discussed the difficulties French-Canadians experience when coming out as nonbinary. The article claimed that French-Canadians often switch to English since the language allows more gender neutrality.

One French-Canadian commented, “I tell people just to be creative. Don’t just use the masculine or feminine but try to create a word between masculine and feminine. Sometimes I add an X at the end [of a word] – so instead of creative or creatif, it’s creatix.” Although many French-Canadians have advocated for the embrace or creation of more gender-neutral terms, the Office Quebecois de la Language Francaise has pushed back on this. One article discussed a need for better gender-neutral terminology besides using “they”. The article argued that the use of “they” can be confusing since it is often used to refer to multiple people. Another article mentioned using gender-neutral language to describe one’s partner in order to combat heteronormativity.