London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Friday, Aug 22, 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
After 200,000 Orders in 2 Minutes: Xiaomi Accelerates Marketing in Europe
Ukraine Declares De Facto War on Hungary and Slovakia with Terror Drone Strikes on Their Gas Lifeline
Animated K-pop Musical ‘KPop Demon Hunters’ Becomes Netflix’s Most-Watched Original Animated Film
New York Appeals Court Voids Nearly $500 Million Civil Fraud Penalty Against Trump While Upholding Fraud Liability
Elon Musk tweeted, “Europe is dying”
Far-Right Activist Convicted of Incitement Changes Gender and Demands: "Send Me to a Women’s Prison" | The Storm in Germany
Hungary Criticizes Ukraine: "Violating Our Sovereignty"
Will this be the first country to return to negative interest rates?
Child-free hotels spark controversy
North Korea is where this 95-year-old wants to die. South Korea won’t let him go. Is this our ally or a human rights enemy?
Hong Kong Launches Regulatory Regime and Trials for HKD-Backed Stablecoins
China rehearses September 3 Victory Day parade as imagery points to ‘loyal wingman’ FH-97 family presence
Trump Called Viktor Orbán: "Why Are You Using the Veto"
Horror in the Skies: Plane Engine Exploded, Passengers Sent Farewell Messages
MSNBC Rebrands as MS NOW Amid Comcast’s Cable Spin-Off
AI in Policing: Draft One Helps Speed Up Reports but Raises Legal and Ethical Concerns
Shame in Norway: Crown Princess’s Son Accused of Four Rapes
Apple Begins Simultaneous iPhone 17 Production in India and China
A Robot to Give Birth: The Chinese Announcement That Shakes the World
Finnish MP Dies by Suicide in Parliament Building
Outrage in the Tennis World After Jannik Sinner’s Withdrawal Storm
William and Kate Are Moving House – and the New Neighbors Were Evicted
Class Action Lawsuit Against Volkswagen: Steering Wheel Switches Cause Accidents
Taylor Swift on the Way to the Super Bowl? All the Clues Stirring Up Fans
Dogfights in the Skies: Airbus on Track to Overtake Boeing and Claim Aviation Supremacy
Tim Cook Promises an AI Revolution at Apple: "One of the Most Significant Technologies of Our Generation"
Apple Expands Social Media Presence in China With RedNote Account Ahead of iPhone 17 Launch
Are AI Data Centres the Infrastructure of the Future or the Next Crisis?
Cambridge Dictionary Adds 'Skibidi,' 'Delulu,' and 'Tradwife' Amid Surge of Online Slang
Bill Barr Testifies No Evidence Implicated Trump in Epstein Case; DOJ Set to Release Records
Zelenskyy Returns to White House Flanked by European Allies as Trump Pressures Land-Swap Deal with Putin
The CEO Who Replaced 80% of Employees for the AI Revolution: "I Would Do It Again"
Emails Worth Billions: How Airlines Generate Huge Profits
Character.ai Bets on Future of AI Companionship
China Ramps Up Tax Crackdown on Overseas Investments
Japanese Office Furniture Maker Expands into Bomb Shelter Market
Intel Shares Surge on Possible U.S. Government Investment
Hurricane Erin Threatens U.S. East Coast with Dangerous Surf
EU Blocks Trade Statement Over Digital Rule Dispute
EU Sends Record Aid as Spain Battles Wildfires
JPMorgan Plans New Canary Wharf Tower
Zelenskyy and his allies say they will press Trump on security guarantees
Beijing is moving into gold and other assets, diversifying away from the dollar
Escalating Clashes in Serbia as Anti-Government Protests Spread Nationwide
The Drought in Britain and the Strange Request from the Government to Delete Old Emails
Category 5 Hurricane in the Caribbean: 'Catastrophic Storm' with Winds of 255 km/h
"No, Thanks": The Mathematical Genius Who Turned Down 1.5 Billion Dollars from Zuckerberg
The surprising hero, the ugly incident, and the criticism despite victory: "Liverpool’s defense exposed in full"
Digital Humans Move Beyond Sci-Fi: From Virtual DJs to AI Customer Agents
YouTube will start using AI to guess your age. If it’s wrong, you’ll have to prove it
×