Who's Afraid of Pronouns and Surgeons: Why Do We Need Inclusive Speech?

Language that reflects reality

Although the creation of feminatives, i.e. female forms and neuratives that are gender-neutral, does not require a diploma in Polish studies or performing complicated linguistic acrobatics, it still meets with resistance from a large part of society who, intentionally or unintentionally, do not demonstrate the flexibility postulated years ago by Mikołaj Rej.

Although few people like to be accused of being stiff and clumsy, it still happens that laziness, often confused with ugly newspeak or overzealous political correctness , triumphs over the verbal gymnastics based on equality and, contrary to appearances, light and pleasant, because open to the richness of diversity . It also turns out that we devote a lot of energy to pointing out spelling mistakes to each other. It is no wonder, then, that we do not have enough of it to develop inclusive speech. The difference between these spheres, however, is that it is difficult to offend someone with an inappropriate "u", while a lack of linguistic empathy does.

Why do we devote so much space to the latter? It is primarily about visibility and respect for groups that are marginalized by patriarchal culture for various reasons. And no, finding sexism and phobia aimed at LGBT+ people in the way we speak and write is not nitpicking in a perfectly functioning whole.

It is commonly said that language reflects reality and at the same time shapes it, and thus indicates whose presence and expression we perceive. These processes also have more far-reaching effects, which decide, among other things, whether we are in a privileged group and whether basic areas of our daily functioning, such as law, respect the freedom, subjectivity and equality of all people.

This is one of the reasons why transgender and non-binary people demanded during the protests against tightening the abortion law that the All-Poland Women's Strike should include a place for everyone who needs reproductive rights and gynecological care in its announcements. If we want the bills that land in the Sejm not to exclude anyone, the regulations should be formulated in a way that takes into account the fact that an unwanted pregnancy can occur in a cisgender, heterosexual woman, as well as a lesbian, non-binary person or a trans man.

What does society say about this?

These small linguistic details can have a powerful effect, as people who deal with interpreting the law on a daily basis can certainly attest. The fact that the Polish Penal Code literally does not include, for example, crimes committed in the act of discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity makes it difficult to report such cases to the police, prosecute them, and seek justice in the courts.

However, looking at the narratives that dominate public space, one might think that the main user and creator of speech is a cisgender man who believes in a world based on binary divisions and that human characteristics are determined by biology. Although the feminine gender is not an aberration in common discourse, it still gives way to men in terms of frequency of occurrence, because it is men that we think of most often, even when we use the theoretically neutral word human . And what about people whose identity does not fit into the traditional dualism motivated by the cultural order? And where in language – a tool that is primarily intended to serve effective communication with another person – is there room for understanding others?

Do femininatives mean the end of the masculine gender?

The search for an equal language does not mean that we should forget about the masculine gender. It is rather about abandoning androcentrism, or putting masculinity in the center of attention. Contrary to appearances, the principles of using inclusive speech are also not secret knowledge that can only be acquired by reading thick linguistic tomes. Although the two most important authorities in this field, the Neutral Language Council Collective responsible for the zaimki.pl website and the Polish Language Council, provide a lot of recommendations that can be used to make doctoral dissertations. But the truth is that the key to being able to communicate is listening carefully, abandoning the fear of making a mistake, and loosening the collar that is constricting our throats, i.e. prejudices and attachment to so-called tradition.

This concerns the more frequent use of feminine forms for cis-women, i.e. noticing that in hospitals we are operated on not only by surgeons, and cars are driven by female drivers and not (hehe) steering wheels, while at the same time striving for linguistic neutrality in situations when we are not sure who exactly we are dealing with. Then it is easiest to simply talk about persons – at school about students, in foundations about volunteers, and in literature about authors.

Non-binary people

And what should you do in direct contact with non-binary people, i.e. asexual, gender neutral, gender fluid or those identifying with more than one gender? Just ask what pronouns and names they use. Misgendering someone or using so-called deadnames due to their identity is exactly a manifestation of hatred, transphobia, and is also the same as, for example, addressing your interlocutors or recipients with insults. Do you want someone to call you a giraffe or a fatso like they did in school? Then don't repeat the mistakes of Polish publicists who still talk and write about Margot or Elliot Page as Małgorzata and Ellen.

What else is worth knowing? For example, that Polish has a lot to say about non-binary issues, and not necessarily within the framework of so-called newspeak. For a long time, our language has had a neutral gender, which many people successfully use. In some contexts, however, it can be perceived negatively, because forms of this type are still perceived as disparaging and downing due to their connotations with children or animals, so before you decide to say to someone "could you help me?", make sure that this is the right way to communicate.

Neutrals

An example of the possibility of expressing non-binary people's expression are also dukaisms, or neuratives (e.g. poszłuś, zrobiuś) created by Jacek Dukaj in the novel Perfekcyjna niedoskonało ść. This is an example of the so-called post-gender type, which in a way determines the direction in which our civilization, especially European civilization, may head, for which non-binarity, unlike in African or Asian countries, is still a major awareness and language challenge. Although the European Parliament introduced multilingual guidelines for gender neutrality in speech and writing in 2008. In addition, considering that the source of humanity's greatest problems has always been inequality and the exclusion of entire groups of people, it seems that only leveling them out can save us. So shouldn't language be treated as the first lifeline, thanks to which we emerge from an unjust reality? We believe so.