Senate Passes Bill to Ban Inclusive Writing

Europe 1 with AFP 06:18, October 31, 2023

"Deadly ideology" or "path to equality"? The Senate voted on Monday for a sweeping ban on inclusive writing after heated discussions, encouraged by Emmanuel Macron who said he feared the French language would "give in to the zeitgeist".

Ban this practice from French documents such as employment contracts

On the day of the inauguration by the President of the Republic of the Cité internationale de la langue française in the restored castle of Villers-Cotterêts, the coincidence of the calendar gave a certain echo to the work of the upper chamber. Senators adopted by 221 votes to 82 a right-wing bill aimed at "protecting" French "from the excesses of so-called inclusive writing".

Its scope is wide: it plans to ban this practice "in all cases where the legislator (and possibly the regulatory power) requires a document in French", such as user manuals, employment contracts, company internal regulations. Legal acts are also targeted, which would then be considered inadmissible or null and void if the text were to become law, which is currently unsure because its inclusion on the agenda of the National Assembly is far from guaranteed.

Prohibition of the word "they"

In the Aisne, Emmanuel Macron set the tone at midday, defending "the foundations" of the language, "the foundations of its grammar, the strength of its syntax" and inviting "not to give in to the zeitgeist". "In this language, the masculine is the neuter, we don't need to add dots in the middle of words, or dashes, or things to make it readable," the head of state added in a thinly disguised offensive against the famous "middle point" - as in "senators" - one of the aspects of inclusive writing.

The text of the senator (she wishes to be called that) Les Républicains Pascale Gruny attacks this head-on, but it goes further: it also prohibits "grammatical words" constituting neologisms such as "iel", a contraction of "he" and "she", or "celleux", a contraction of "celles" and "celles". "Inclusive writing weakens the French language by making it illegible, unpronounceable and impossible to teach," Gruny said, while her colleague Etienne Blanc denounced a "deadly ideology."

"The senatorial right inflicts its retrograde and reactionary whims on us"

The ecologist and socialist benches responded with indignation: "The senatorial right is inflicting its retrograde and reactionary whims on us," said Socialist senator Yan Chantrel. "To want to freeze the French language is to make it die." "When we talk about inclusive writing, we're talking about the path to gender equality," said ecologist Mathilde Ollivier.

This divisive debate has even gone beyond the Palais du Luxembourg. The president of the National Rally, Marine Le Pen, explained on the X network (ex-Twitter) that she wanted to "protect" the French language "against wokism, whose inclusive writing is a sinister and grotesque manifestation". "The French language is a successful creolization" and it "belongs to those who speak it!", retorted Jean-Luc Mélenchon, leader of France Insoumise.

"Senator"

According to the Senate's text, "inclusive" writing refers to "editorial and typographical practices aimed at replacing the use of the masculine, when used in a generic sense, with a spelling that highlights the existence of a feminine form". Unconvinced, Culture Minister Rima Abdul-Malak judged some measures "excessive" on the extension to private contracts, and considered that the "role" of the state and the legislator was "not to be a police of the language but to guarantee equality before the language".

While taking care to address "Senator Gruny", she gave an "opinion of wisdom" on the Senate's text, neither favourable nor unfavourable, recalling that two circulars already regulate this practice in the texts published in the Official Journal (circular by Edouard Philippe in 2017) and in education (circular by Jean-Michel Blanquer in 2021).

The debates revealed several disagreements. The right, for example, argues that it would still be possible to use the "double inflection" which aims to decline the feminine counterpart of a word, such as "les senators et les senators" instead of "les senators". This is something that the left refutes. Mr. Chantrel considered that the current wording of the text would render null and void all identity documents issued in the old format, which includes the mention "born on" for the date of birth. This was denied by the right. Irreconcilable...