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While the Senate and the National Assembly are up in arms against inclusive writing in administrative documents, the atmosphere is quite different in Uncle Sam's country. We learn thanks to the
New York Post
that now the members of the government are invited by Secretary of State Antony Blinken to avoid the terms, considered sexist, of
“father and mother”
or
“manpower”
, which is called
“manpower”
in English, in a recent internal memo revealed by the
National Review
, an American bimonthly political magazine.
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In this missive dated February 5 and titled
“DEIA Modeling: Best Practices in Gender Identity
,” the Biden administration official saw fit to point out that gender is a social construction and that gender identity 'a person
"may or may not correspond to the sex assigned at birth"
.
Antony Blinken therefore encouraged his colleagues to use
“neutral language as much as possible”
to
“show respect and avoid misunderstandings”
.
From now on, reports the American media, employees are invited to mention their preferred pronouns in their emails and in their presentations during meetings.
Read alsoAnnie Ernaux, activist for inclusive writing, defends the use of “iel”
Avoid any “harmful and exclusionary messages”
For Blinken, assuming an individual's gender identity simply based on their appearance or name
"can be problematic"
and sends a
"harmful and exclusionary message
. "
However, let us be reassured, there is no question of staff
“putting pressure on someone to pronounce their pronouns”
.
Thus, staff members can indicate under which pronoun they wish to be referred to,
“she/her”
(she/her),
“he/him”
(he/him) or even the neutral pronoun
“ze/zir”
.
“It is a personal decision that must be respected
,” continues the Secretary of State.
In this note, he also cited commonly used words that he believes should be avoided and replaced.
Members of government will no longer have to say
“
manpower”
,
“
you
guys”
,
“
ladies and gentlemen”
,
“mother/father”
,
“son/ daughter”
and
“husband/wife”
.
Instead, they are encouraged to use terms such as
"labor force"
,
"everyone"
,
"
people
"
,
"all of you"
,
"parent"
,
"child". »
,
“spouse”
and
“partner”
.
And, he continues,
"when speaking, avoid using expressions such as 'brave men and women on the front lines'"
, advocating
"to use more specific language such as 'brave rescuers', 'soldiers courageous” and “brave agents”
, erasing any mention of sex.
However, recalls the
New York Post
, in a message posted on his Twitter account last year, Antony Blinken still wrote:
“We are united to honor the courageous men and women who served our country”
.
Finally, the head of the State Department invited his staff members, who inadvertently use the wrong pronouns when addressing someone, to handle this error with
“subtlety and grace”
, while reminding that the gender identity
“can be fluid, so stay tuned and support pronoun changes”
.