A Fellow “I Gained Another Friend” Enjoyer. I See You Are A Person Of Culture.

Les bases de la politique en France, aka "c'est qui ces gens que je vois passer sur les tweets de mes potes?"

Hi! I’m starting to learn French and one thing that’s both cool and weird to me is how everything is gendered in a way (referring to someone/whose saying the statement/etc.) and I was wondering how that relates to people who identity as non-binary or gender fluid in France? Are there equivalents to they/them pronouns or neo pronouns in French?

I do plan on doing my own research about this but I figured since I love your blog and you’re really open about different cultural lgbtq+ communities I’d try here first!

That's an awesome question... with a complicated answer lmao. So buckle up and bear with me !

Basically, you can't be non-binary in French. The community found ways to do it but it's not mainstream. Most of the time, they're going to get misgendered or will have to misgender themselves to get understood.

Some things I'm going to list here are not proper French. Actually, they can even be forbidden in some circumstances, according to the law (the use of inclusive language, and more specifically le point médian, was made illegal in schools in 2021 for ex) or simply because your company etc forbids it. So use this wisely, there is a time and place for inclusive language in France.

That said, things have greatly developed over the last two decades. Which was partly because of the queer community and mainly because of feminists, who are tired of the way French erases women. More and more people are using inclusive language, at least in some circumstances and circles (for ex, i wrote my master's thesis in inclusive language and it was accepted bc i was in a leftist faculty). And inclusive language is debated as a serious issue now, which is saying something.

So, how do you use inclusive language in practice?

There are different ways, as it's informal and mostly new. People are still testing new things and trying out various methods. You can stick to one or alternate or mix them up.

Pronouns

Officially, there isn't a gender neutral pronoun. We don't have an equivalent to they. You're either talking about a man or a woman. If it's both, you use masculine pronouns ("masculine trumps feminine" rule). Same thing if you don't know the gender of the person ("masculin générique").

The most common neopronoun is "iel" (plural : iels), which is obviously a contraction of the masculine pronoun "il" and its feminine equivalent "elle". It works for nb folks or to avoid talking about someone's gender or to refer to a group of men and women. So it's equally used by the queer community and feminists.

I'm pretty sure other neopronouns exist but I can't think of any at the top of my head.

Choosing the right words

Sometimes, inclusive language is just about learning to use alternatives.

Instead of using gendered words, you can choose to use gender-neutral words or words "épicènes", aka words which are identical in their feminine and masculine form. For ex, instead of "homme politique" or "femme politique", you can use "personnalité politique". Personnalité is a feminine word but it's actually gender-neutral as you can use it for women and men alike. "Élève" (student) is épicène, as a female student and a male student are both referred to as "élève". Although épicène words as a gender-neutral option only work in their plural form, as you have to choose either a feminine or masculine article for the singular ("les élèves" is inclusive but it can only be "un" or "une" élève).

As good as this method is, it can be quite limitating. Your vocabulary will be drastically reduced and it can be quite hard to master that kind of speech so you can reach the point where you don't have to think everything over for ages before you open your mouth.

With oral French, you can take it a step further by choosing words that sound the same even if they have a different spelling. Ex, friend is "ami" or "amie" but it's pronounced the same way so if you say it out loud, people can't know how you're gendering it (as long as there isn't a gendered article/word with it ofc).

It avoids misgendering people but the downside is that, as masculine is considered neutral in French, people will often think : no gender specified = masculine. Not even because they're sexist or whatever, it's just so ingrained in our brains that it's a knee-jerk reaction.

That's also why most feminists often prefer to use explicitly feminine words when talking about women. For ex, they prefer the word "autrice" to "auteure" (female writer) because the second one sounds the same as its masculine version "auteur". And as previously mentionned, out loud, people will assume by default you're talking about a man. It's a big debate though, lots of women prefer words that sound masculine - going as far as refusing to use feminine words at all! Which sounds cool and gender-bending as fuck but in reality comes from feminine words traditionally seen as less legitimate and serious. Even today, if you look up the word empress "impératrice" in a French dictionary, the first definition that comes up is "wife of an emperor". "Woman ruling a country" comes second. Using a masculine title to refer to women can also be a way to mock them and show they're not welcome (a french deputy got fined in 2014 because he called the female president of the national assembly "Madame le président" and refused to use the feminine title "Madame la présidente").

Recently the tendency and official guidelines have been to feminize words, so I'd say go with that by default, but respect other people's choice if they specify how they want to be called.

Anyway I'm getting off-track but what I meant was that in French, if you avoid talking about gender, you're automatically erasing women (and nb people). So if you want to include everyone, you need to make it obvious.

Inclusivity as a statement

The most common way to make women and men equally visible is the "point médian" rule, which you can also use to refer to non-binary people as it avoids picking a specific gender.

Basically, it means pasting together the masculine and feminine forms of a word and using dots/middle dots/hyphens/parentheses/capital letters to create an inclusive word. For ex, instead of saying acteur (♂️) or actrice (♀️) for actor, you'll write "acteur.ice". For the plural form, there are two schools of thought : either you separate the feminine and masculine form AND the suffix used to signify the plural, or you don't. Aka, "acteur.ice.s" or "acteur.ices". Personally I prefer the second option because less dots makes it easier to read and faster to write, but it's an individual choice, both work.

There are two major downsides to this method : it only works in writing + it isn't doable for every word, as feminine and masculine words can be quite different and pasting them together that way would be unintelligible. Ex, "copain" and "copine" (friend or boyfriend/girlfriend depending on the context) would give something like "cop.ain.ine"...

You can work around that by choosing alternative words (as previously stated!). And it's still a pretty good method, especially as it works for any type of word (adjectives etc). Some people argue that it's hard to read and ugly but personally I think it's just a matter of habit (although it does pose a problem for people using screen readers). Be aware that it is the most controversial version of inclusive writing, as it's the furthest structure from how languages typically work.

If you don't like dots or want an alternative for oral speech, you can also straight up create new words that sound both feminine and masculine, making them gender-neutral. To use the previous example, "copain" and "copine" become "copaine".

Obviously, this only works if it's obvious which words they're based on. I think it's a great way to make French more inclusive but I'd advise against using it with uninitiated people as it would probably confuse them more than anything. This method is still quite niche.

An inclusive, yet binary language

As you've probably figured out, inclusive language remains quite binary in the way we approach it. It's more about making things both masculine and feminine than transcending gender and creating gender-neutral alternatives. Probably because inclusive language was more often a will to stop women from being erased rather than a non-binary friendly gesture.

Which means, there are also some rules that were created to avoid the "masculine trumps feminine rule" but don't allow room for non-binarity at all. I'll still explain them because they're interesting and you might encounter them at some point.

The proximity rule ("règle de proximité") is one of these. It existed in Ancient Greek and Latin but was dropped in Modern French in favor of the masculine trumps feminine rule. Basically, you gender things according to what's closest in the sentence instead of systematically using masculine words to gender a mixed group. For ex, instead of saying "Les hommes et les femmes sont beaux" you say "Les hommes et les femmes sont belles", as the subject "femmes" is closer to the adjective "beau/belle" than "hommes".

Another method is to systematically use both masculine and feminine words (which I personally find excruciating to write and read). Meaning, instead of writing "Les étudiants mangent à la cantine" (students eat at the cafeteria), you'll write "Les étudiantes et les étudiants mangent à la cantine".

This is mainly for the subject of the sentence : adjectives and such are gendered according to the masculine trumps feminine rule. The point is to explicitly include women, not to make the sentence unintelligible or gender-neutral.

When following this method, you also have to pay attention to whether you put the feminine subject first or the masculine. The rule is to follow alphabetical order. For ex, in "l'égalité entre les femmes et les hommes", "femmes" comes first because F comes before H. But in "Les auteurs et les autrices de roman", "auteurs" comes first because E comes before R. Etc.

This method is common as it's the only inclusive language you can get away with, given that it's a valid way of speaking French. It's even mandatory in some situations now, like in job descriptions for the french administration, in the spirit of gender equality.

So, how do I gender a non-binary person?

In short, you can use the pronoun iel + avoid gendered words and/or use the point médian and/or make up new words.

But keep in mind that if you're not talking to someone familiar with these rules, you'll have some explaining to do. And looots of people are still very anti inclusive language, because they're sexist and/or transphobic, ignorant, language purists, etc. A few years ago it was the thing to be angry about for conservatives and anti-feminists so it's still very controversial. But if you're in a trans inclusive queer space or talking with intersectionnal leftists, go for it !

I hope I covered everything (fellow french, don't hesitate to comment!) and didn't put you to sleep lmao. If you want to see some examples, you can look it up on Wikipedia or check #bagaitte on tumblr (it's the french queer tag) 😉

Indeed I am a library rat

people : saint-bernard de clairvaux n’existe pas, il ne peut pas te faire de mal

saint-bernard de clairvaux :

French side of Youtube

Il paraît que ça manque de recommandations de chaînes francophones sur youtube qui ne datent pas de 2010.

Sans prétention de complétude, voilà mes recos de youtubeurs (chaînes actives et pas craignos) :

Linguisticae - Chaîne de vulgarisation sur la linguistique en général et souvent la langue française en particulier. Membre des linguistes atterrées, collectif auteur du tract "Le français va très bien, merci". Rageux contre l'Académie Française, comme nous toustes.

L'Histoire nous le dira - Youtubeur historien (et québécois), chaîne très riche avec des séries sur des pans complets de l'histoire (occidentale majoritairement).

Nota Bene - Pour rester dans le thème histoire, la chaîne de vulgarisation historique la plus connue du youtube francophone. Travail de recherche bien sérieux (grosse équipe) derrière chaque vidéo.

G Milgram - Mon youtubeur préféré du moment. Sa mission : s'attaquer à l'emprise des modes de pensée pseudo-scientifiques et anti-scientifiques. Tout est sérieux, sourcé, et fiable, et présenté avec humour. Tu veux savoir pourquoi l'état français utilise l'argent du contribuable pour mettre de la potion bleue à base de fémur de geai dans les éoliennes ? C'est par ici.

Scilabus - Youtubeuse sympa qui depuis ses propres études supérieures en physique a monté sa chaîne pour expliquer ou démystifier des phénomènes du quotidien par des expériences et explications scientifiques. Elle enseigne à Polytechnique Montréal aujourd'hui.

Notseriou's - Chroniques cinéma humoristiques, parfois bien nostalgique (Arthur et les Minimoys a un spinoff officiel et c'est un film d'horreur ??)

Joueur du Grenier - Oups ma liste se transforme en liste de 2010.... N'empêche que JDG est toujours là, toujours sympa. Thème jeux vidéos.

LinksTheSun - Pareil, ça c'est de la chaîne durable depuis bien 15 ans. Films, livres, pop culture....

Le Fossoyeur de Films - Allez, une dernière et après on arrête l'archéologie. Chroniques cinéma, et comme pour ces trois dernières chaînes, a grandi avec ses créateurs et se prend moins au sérieux qu'à ses débuts.

David Castello-Lopes - Plus journaliste que youtubeur, mais si vous voulez plus de tubes par l'auteur de "je possède des thunes", c'est par là. Voir aussi sa chronique "Suisse ?" sur 52" RTS, "Intéressant" sur Arte et "Historiquement vôtre" sur Europe 1

Monsieur Phi - Docteur en philosophie qui vulgarise très bien ce sujet pas forcément facile d'accès.

@logogreffe je crois que tu cherchais

Pour mes mutelles, qu’est-ce que c’est un rêve plus terre à terre que vous voudriez d’accomplir?

Anyone else feel like their mutuals are way out of their league? Like they follow you back and you’re just like

Alors dans le milieu de la guerre de trente ans le gouvernement de france a dit que hmmm ce dont ce pays a besoin c'est de la police de la langue

Voilà mes pensé.es sur Kirishima et pourquoi Bakugo prendrait sa main et pas la de Midoriya. Ma thèse est qu’il est à cause de leurs méthodes morales.

Midoriya comme un personnage est motivé par les gens dans ses éthiques. Il sauver des autres parce que il voudrait eux aider dans un façon individuel. On peut le voir avec Kota et Eri. Quand Midoriya faire du héroïsme il pense des personnes il voudrait de secourir et ceux qui a se soutenu. Il est motivé pas l’empathie.

Mais Bakugou se voir sa empathie comme la pitié. On peut observer se fait avec leur enfance. Bakugo se déteste l’apitoiement parce qu’il a leur d’être se prendre de haut. Et pour quel raison il ne peut pas accepter l’aide de Midoriya. Il verrait la compassion de Midoriya comme la condescendance.

Pour contre, Kirishima se suit l’éthique de la virtu avec une accentuation sur la virtu de la virilité. Sa motivation première pour aider des gens c’est car c’est quoi un vrai homme ferait. On peut le voir dans les pensés de Kirishima chaque fois il est dans une crise. Parce qu’il a ce motivation dans ces actions morales je ne pense pas qu’il a décidé de sauver Bakugo parce que il est Bakugo mais parce qu’il est un ami et camarade de Kirishima et un bon homme quand leur ami est en une situation dangereuse l’aiderait.

Donc pour Bakugo c’est facile de prendre la main de Kirishima et pas Midoriya puisque pour Kirishima sa motivation d’offrir sa main n’a rien à faire avec Bakugo mais plus sur le principe de la solidarité entre amis et ça à se permettre Bakugo de ne l’a pas vu comme la pitié.

every single person who reblogs this

every

single

person

will get “doot doot" in their ask box