OPINION: 'The French language isn't sexist, it's the people who speak it'

MotherFuckin-Oedipus · 2017-11-15T23:26:26+00:00

As someone fluent with the language, writing in French is complicated enough without PC garbage like "citoyen.ne.s" in it.

Much ado about nothing.

BDMR_lurker · 2017-11-16T00:34:00+00:00

France's supposedly top linguists are astoundingly narrow-minded. Maybe learning another language would help them spot the glaring absence in the one they're supposedly proficient at: there's no neutral form in French.

They have a 'he' ('il'), a 'she' ('elle'), but no 'it'. They lost it somewhere along the way out of the Roman Empire.

As a result, everything is gendered, simply because there are only two options.

Also, they have a problem with mixed-gender groups, since they have to use either 'ils' or 'elles' (notice how 'they' is inherently neutral).

So the French reached the logical conclusion: men being mostly furniture anyway, male pronouns are used for masculine and neutral. Hence the apparent 'precedence' of the masculine form, when it's in fact the neutral form in disguise.

Not convinced? It's cold out there => "il fait froid dehors", I doubt any native speaker would say "elle fait froid". There are 5 bottles of beer on the wall => "il y a 5 bouteilles de bière sur le mur". Once upon a time => "il était une fois".

These women are complaining that they have not been lumped together with objects, while being about as stupid as the 'herstory' crowd.

trot-trot · 2017-11-15T22:58:37+00:00

"The guard dog of the French language" by Florence Villeminot, published on 18 February 2016 -- "FRENCH CONNECTIONS – Thurs. 11.02.16: This week we focus on the French language and the official institution whose mission is to protect it: the Académie Française.": http://www.france24.com/en/20160211-french-connections-language-academie-francaise-english-spelling-quebec
"Purists alarmed over moves to make French less macho" by Gina Doggett, published on 12 November 2017: http://www.france24.com/en/20171112-purists-alarmed-over-moves-make-french-less-macho
"OPINION: 'The French language isn't sexist, it's the people who speak it'" by Evie Burrows-Taylor, published on 13 November 2017: https://www.thelocal.fr/20171113/debate-over-sexist-french-it-isnt-the-language-thats-macho-but-the-people-who-speak-it

N3dr4 · 2017-11-16T15:48:16+00:00

Theses people have too much time and not enough problems in their hands to suggest theses kind of things.

My favorite part : "The Academie Francaise presents itself as an authority on the language but it absolutely is not."
Actually it is, it was founded as such.

On the other hand I am clueless about this part : "It was only in the 17th century that the grammar rule that the masculine takes precedence over the feminine came into effect and at the time, made it clear that the decision was about the superiority of men over women."
I mean French language was imposed in France only in the 17th century, I don't know what she is speaking about.

2017-11-16T14:04:04+00:00

Crisse de tabarnak fuck off with the political correctness bullshit already.

Inequality everywhere? Yeah, for men.

Pasosdecer0 · 2017-11-17T10:10:41+00:00

I hate that critics of Romance languages don’t know that there is a difference between grammatical gender and human gender. I speak both French and Spanish and I don’t believe there is a correlation between languages with grammatical gender and gender inequality. Persian is genderless, but I am pretty sure women in France and Spain are more equals among men than in Iran.

Title	OPINION: 'The French language isn't sexist, it's the people who speak it'
Author	trot-trot
Upvotes	27
Comments	8
Date	November 15, 2017 10:53 PM UTC (8 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/MensRights
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/MensRights/comments/7d7ynh/opinion_the_french_language_isnt_sexist_its_the/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/MensRights/opinion-the-french-language-isnt-sexist-its-the.911065 https://theredarchive.com/post/911065

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