The neutral pronoun "iel", supposed to evoke all genres equitably, appeared in the online dictionary Le Robert a few weeks ago.
A presence not to everyone's taste, since Tuesday, the Minister of Education, Jean-Michel Blanquer, strongly attacked this choice of the dictionary.
Why so much turmoil for a simple pronoun?
You can be the fifth world power and lose yourself for three letters.
Since Tuesday, the recent inscription of the neutral pronoun "iel" - a neutral contraction of "he" and "she" notably used to designate non-binary people who do not recognize themselves exclusively in a gender, feminine or masculine, or in any of the two - in the online version of the Le Robert dictionary ignites the debates, to the point where the Minister of Education, Jean-Michel Blanquer, intervenes.
“Inclusive writing is not the future of the French language.
Even though our students are in the process of consolidating their fundamental knowledge, they cannot have this for reference, ”tweeted the minister, sharing the indignation of LREM deputy François Jovilet, who sees it as an attack of“ wokism ”and wrote to the Académie française.
Liberation of an anti-feminine discourse
How can a simple pronoun arouse such outcry?
For Gwenaëlle Perrier, lecturer in political science at the Sorbonne-Paris-Nord University and specialist in gender issues, these debates, already seen a few years ago with the midpoint, allow the release of a sexist discourse well less accepted today in the public space: “These new expressions of language make it possible to bring back anti-feminine speech.
Because in the debate on non-sexist language, it is not directly the discriminated groups - women and gender minorities - which are attacked, but only the grammatical feminine and the neutral pronouns.
It is a pretext.
"
Proof of this is, according to the researcher: these indignations "actively mobilize traditionally anti-feminist actors", just like an argument already widely used against women: saucy sexual connotation, incompetence trial, excessive irony ... The theme of child protection - which according to some would be incapable of mastering the “iel” or the midpoint - evokes a new rhetoric against minorities, used in particular during debates on the marriage of LGBT people.
Dramatization
But that does not mean that all of those who criticize “iel” are anti-feminists, recalls Gwenaëlle Perrier.
"Just that the public debate is plagued by these people, who wave red rags instead of talking about the substance."
"It suffices to see Jean-Michel Blanquer who spoke of intersectionality during the debate on the midpoint and of universities plagued by American decolonial thought, and who today evokes the national danger of wokism during the" iel "", she continues.
A dramatization of the issues making it possible to automatically cancel “all defense rhetoric”, according to the expert.
A sacred tongue
Another element that could explain such indignation, the sacralization of the French language.
The researcher and specialist on the subject Mathieu Goux, of the University of Caen, deciphers: “The French language is held in very high esteem, often with a backward-looking vision and the idea that it should never change.
"
This feeling is far from recent, and Mathieu Goux evokes disputes of the same type from the 18th century: “There is always the fear of no longer understanding the language we use, which makes us wish for the status quo. .
What we see with “iel” or neutral today, we saw a few decades ago with verlan or even slang.
"
Evolution and observation
Added to this is what is called in the science of language the epilinguistic feeling: "We all formulate judgments in relation to language and we cannot help finding it well or badly formulated by others", popularizes the searcher.
But it is the characteristic of a "living" language to evolve and to follow mores and their changes.
This is also the defense used this Wednesday by Charles Bimbenet, director of Robert.
If he recognizes that the use of this word is "still relatively weak", he explains that in recent months, his documentalists have noted that it was used more and more.
An appearance in the dictionary which would therefore have nothing ideological or a collapse of France, just responding to the idea of following an evolution of the language.
Come on, we remind you, these are only three small letters.
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