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French President Emmanuel Macron and Education Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer visit a school (archive)
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Thibault Camus / dpa
Please, no dots in the word: The use of gender-sensitive language is now prohibited in French schools.
The basis for this is a decree by Education Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer, which came into force on Thursday.
The "inclusive" script did not agree with the rules agreed in the curriculum, it was said to justify.
According to the paper, gendering is not allowed in Blanquer's ministry either. As with schools, this applies at least to the written language. The minister does not want to forbid schoolchildren or teachers to speak. At the same time, the decree stipulates that in future professions and other functions, if they are performed by women, will be named in the female form in texts. So - transferred to German - we can speak of teachers, but not teachers.
The idea of gender-equitable language is to equate all genders in spoken and written language and to take them into account equally, in this sense to have an "inclusive" effect.
While an asterisk or colon is often used for this in German, people in France use dotted terms such as "député.es" (parliamentarians) or "électeur.rice.s" (voters).
Please do not "force your own backwardness"
The subject is highly controversial and polarized. The French education union SUD accused Blanquer of "imposing its own backwardness on the educational community." According to a report in the daily newspaper "Le Monde", she urged teachers to ignore Blanquer's instructions, which "come from another time," and to use their educational freedom.
Blanquer, on the other hand, defended his measure on Thursday evening before the National Assembly's Education Committee.
The punctuation words used to implement gender-sensitive language are too complex and hinder reading and learning the French language, he said.
The minister had previously pointed out how difficult it was to teach French if dots were placed in the middle of words.
Especially pupils with reading and spelling weaknesses would have a hard time doing it.
more on the subject
Gender-appropriate language: Is that * now German? By Felix Bohr, Lisa Duhm, Silke Fokken and Dietmar Pieper
Feminist Luise F. Pusch: "These double forms are unbearable" Interview by Silke Fokken
Gender equitable language in Europe, Asia, Africa and America: This is how the world is changing
Job titles: "The problem is and remains our patriarchal society" An interview by Katharina Hölter
Back in November 2017, then Prime Minister Edouard Philippe ordered the French ministries not to use gender-neutral constructions after a school book with gender-neutral expressions sparked heated debates.
The Académie Française, which is considered the supreme guardian of French, had also spoken out against gender-equitable language.
Even then, arguments were based on the "intelligibility and clarity" of language.
In Germany, “gendering” is also causing massive controversy.
One of the declared opponents is CDU politician Friedrich Merz, who uses the topic in the election campaign and likes to refer to France as a possible role model for Germany.
At the same time, there are strong voices in favor of gender-equitable language, because this promotes gender equality and helps to reduce discrimination.
You can understand the resistance to it, said the language feminist Luise F. Pusch recently in SPIEGEL, who has been campaigning for gender for decades because many people are initially unfamiliar with gender-equitable language and inhibit the flow of speech.
But whoever has seen how unfair the language is, is ready to speak differently.
focus / AFP