London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Sep 11, 2025

French say ‘non merci’ to nonbinary pronouns

French say ‘non merci’ to nonbinary pronouns

France is choking on ‘le wokisme,’ as speakers of the New Normal’s argot struggle to convert their fellows – forcing them through linguistic hoops that are not compatible with French language or culture.
French First Lady Brigitte Macron has affirmed the language has “two pronouns: he and she” (il and elle, en Français).

“Our language is beautiful. And two pronouns are appropriate,” she declared succinctly earlier this month.

Such seemingly-innocuous words have France’s would-be woke activists up in arms, accusing the centrist government of “violence.” Non-binary student Lilian Delhomme told the New York Times the expression “made [them] lose hope,” suggesting the age difference between the Macrons should have changed the first lady’s perspective on social norms.

But, like the distaste many native Spanish speakers feel toward “Latinx” – the genderless stand-in meant to delineate a Latino or Latina individual by woke (usually white) organizers in an effort to appear inclusive – most French-speakers find it at the very least unpleasant to attempt to communicate without gender.

Their language is structured based upon it. There’s no getting around the masculine and feminine nouns that describe every object – not that the wannabe-woke among the French haven’t tried it.

A movement for so-called “inclusive writing” has butted heads with France’s famously conservative Académie française, which described any changes put forth by the would-be reformers as “harmful to the practice and intelligibility of the French language.”

That hasn’t stopped a small but determined contingent from attempting to adopt a genderless pronoun, importing “le wokisme” from the US with the neologism “iel” (a mixture between the masculine “il” and the feminine “elle”).

It’s not going so well for iel, though. Center-right legislator François Jolivet has spearheaded a campaign to keep the gender-neutral pronoun out of Le Petit Robert dictionary, declaring its inclusion to be a form of “militancy” – “you legitimize words, you legitimize thoughts,” he said, describing himself in an interview with the French press as “a tolerant man convinced that ‘iel’ was the wrong battle.”

Even left-wing outlet Libération seems to not be entertaining the genderless American way, one headline snarkily describing “The Highway to Iel.”

The linguistic conservatism of the French is protected not only by the Academie française’s staunch opposition to what one member recently termed “brainless Globish,” but by a hard-coded avoidance of racial politics – the country is legally prohibited from compiling racial statistics, making it nearly impossible for le wokisme to find a foothold.

But “iel” made it into Le Petit Robert – the online edition, at least – upsetting education minister Jean-Michel Blanquer, who accused the publisher of “manipulat[ing] the French language.”

“Iel,” he said, was a clear expression of “wokisme.” It’s a subject he is familiar with, having blamed a backlash against American wokeness for the 2016 election of US President Donald Trump. Five years later, he has the French first lady on his side.

Indeed, the Macrons have proved to be a surprising ally for some. The French president – hardly a staunch conservative in the eyes of his supporters – might at first appear to be an easy convert to wokisme. Yet even he has bristled amid the onslaught of ‘brainless Globish,’ deeming “certain social science theories entirely imported from the United States” as a potential threat to French culture.

However, Robert’s managing director, Charles Bimbenet, echoed his American counterparts in defense of whatever “wokisme” might have found its way into his dictionary, insisting the reference book’s mission was “to observe the evolution of a French language that is in motion and diverse, and take account of that.”

As the Americans might say – and Macron might once have echoed – “diversity is our strength.”
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
The British legal mafia hit back: Banksy mural of judge beating protester is scrubbed from London court
Surpassing Musk: Larry Ellison becomes the richest man in the world
Embarrassment for Starmer: He fired the ambassador photographed on Epstein’s 'pedophile island'
Manhunt after 'skilled sniper' shot Charlie Kirk. Footage: Suspect running on rooftop during panic
Effective Protest Results: Nepal’s Prime Minister Resigns as Youth-Led Unrest Shakes the Nation
Qatari prime minister says Netanyahu ‘killed any hope’ for Israeli hostages
King Charles and Prince Harry Share First In-Person Moment in 19 Months
Starmer Establishes Economic ‘Budget Board’ to Centralise Policy and Rebuild Business Trust
France Erupts in Mass ‘Block Everything’ Protests on New PM’s First Day
Poland Shoots Down Russian Drones in Airspace Violation During Ukraine Attack
Brazilian police say ex-President Bolsonaro had planned to flee to Argentina seeking asylum
Trinidad Leader Applauds U.S. Naval Strike and Advocates Forceful Action Against Traffickers
Kim Jong Un Oversees Final Test of New High-Thrust Solid-Fuel Rocket Engine
Apple Introduces Ultra-Thin iPhone Air, Enhanced 17 Series and New Health-Focused Wearables
Macron Appoints Sébastien Lecornu as Prime Minister Amid Budget Crisis and Political Turmoil
Supreme Court temporarily allows Trump to pause billions in foreign aid
Charlie Sheen says his father, Martin Sheen, turned him in to the police: 'The greatest betrayal possible'
Vatican hosts first Catholic LGBTQ pilgrimage
Apple Unveils iPhone 17 Series, iPhone Air, Apple Watch 11 and More at 'Awe Dropping' Event
Pig Heads Left Outside Multiple Paris Mosques in Outrage-Inducing Acts
Nvidia’s ‘Wow’ Factor Is Fading. The AI chip giant used to beat Wall Street expectations for earnings by a substantial margin. That trajectory is coming down to earth.
France joins Eurozone’s ‘periphery’ as turmoil deepens, say investors
On the Anniversary of Queen Elizabeth’s Death: Prince Harry Returns to Britain
France Faces New Political Crisis, again, as Prime Minister Bayrou Pushed Out
Murdoch Family Finalises $3.3 Billion Succession Pact, Ensuring Eldest Son’s Leadership
Big Oil Slashes Jobs and Investments Amid Prolonged Low Crude Prices
Court Staff Cover Up Banksy Image of Judge Beating a Protester
Social Media Access Curtailed in Turkey After CHP Calls for Rallies Following Police Blockade of Istanbul Headquarters
Nayib Bukele Points Out Belgian Hypocrisy as Brussels Considers Sending Army into the Streets
Elon Musk Poised to Become First Trillionaire Under Ambitious Tesla Pay Plan
France, at an Impasse, Heads Toward Another Government Collapse
Burning the Minister’s House Helped Protesters to Win Justice: Prabowo Fires Finance Minister in Wake of Indonesia Protests
Brazil Braces for Fallout from Bolsonaro Trial by corrupted judge
The Country That Got Too Rich? Public Spending Dominates Norway Election
Nearly 40 Years Later: Nike Changes the Legendary Slogan Just Do It
Generations Born After 1939 Unlikely to Reach Age One Hundred, New Study Finds
End to a four-year manhunt in New Zealand: the father who abducted his children to the forests was killed, the three siblings were found
Germany Suspends Debt Rules, Funnels €500 Billion Toward Military and Proxy War Strategy
EU Prepares for War
BMW Eyes Growth in China with New All‑Electric Neue Klasse Lineup
Trump Threatens Retaliatory Tariffs After EU Imposes €2.95 Billion Fine on Google
Tesla Board Proposes Unprecedented One-Trillion-Dollar Performance Package for Elon Musk
US Justice Department Launches Criminal Mortgage-Fraud Probe into Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook
Escalating Drug Trafficking and Violence in Latin America: A Growing Crisis
US and Taiwanese Defence Officials Held Secret Talks in Alaska
Report: Secret SEAL Team 6 Mission in North Korea Ordered by Trump in 2019 Ended in Failure
Gold Could Reach Nearly $5,000 if Fed Independence Is Undermined, Goldman Sachs Warns
Uruguay, Colombia and Paraguay Secure Places at 2026 World Cup
Florida Murder Case: The Adelson Family, the Killing of Dan Markel, and the Trial of Donna Adelson
Trump Administration Advances Plans to Rebrand Pentagon as Department of War Instead of the Fake Term Department of Defense
×