The fact that women are discriminated against is indisputable, however, the use of inclusive language opens a debate with different opinions.
Portuguese, by its structure, distinguishes between the sexes, there are languages that distinguish more, such as Arabic and Hebrew, and others more inclusive, such as Basque and German.
- Thus.
- The debate is that the Portuguese language excludes women from the generic masculine; On the one hand.
- There are those who argue that the use of the generic masculine reinforces patriarchal structures.
- And that the use of an inclusive language would be a first step to put an end to this discrimination.
On the other hand, there are those who defend language as it is today, although it may seem that some advocate feminism and others do not, both positions have their reasons, which will be explained below.
To understand the role that language plays, we will analyze the difference between meaning and meaning, meaning is the word, written or pronounced, while the signifier is the idea of a certain word.
So, at home? It is a meaning, but the image we have of a house is the signifier, the difference is that the signifier of the house can include doors, windows, fireplace, etc.
“The prolonged slavery of women is the darkest page in human history. -Elisabeth Cady Stanton-
Applied to inclusive language, the signifier? Congress of Deputies?He is a man, but his meaning includes ‘deputies’ and ‘deputies’. So, shouldn’t it be confused? Lack of female gender?In the signifier with the invisibility of the woman? In the sense.
However, this explanation ignores something important. Meaning always happens in context, so meaning would be meaning plus context.
Some people attest that male domination in society appears to be the origin of male dominance in grammatical genres, but this statement, at first glance, seems false.
The same language can be used in both sexist societies and societies closer to equality, so sexist society cannot be said to be the cause of sexist language.
“Today, as in the past, women must refuse to be submissive, because deception cannot serve the truth. “Germaine Greer?
The same is true of inclusive languages or languages that use feminine as generic, which are also used in patriarchal societies, so there is no proven cause-and-effect relationship between society and language in terms of male dominance.
Placing this relationship as true is equivalent to seeing the problem in one plan (real inequality) and putting the solution in another (grammar).
The problem is in context. Language is understood only in use, in its practical application, that is, in a context. If we talk about the football team, the person who reads or listens will surely think of the men’s team.
Therefore, even if the solution to discrimination against women is to change reality, language change can influence, that is, context is what will change the meaning of words without changing their meaning.
As far as has been observed, the solution is for women to recover generics, rather than opt out of them. This can happen in several ways. We are starting to use inclusive language.
One option to use inclusive language is to include duplicates such as “citizens”, “Brazilians”, “all men and women”. These forms can also be abbreviated when writing: Brazilians. In addition, there are other written solutions such as the use of a tod or todxs.
Thus, language change can facilitate the integration of women into the field of word, but to build a fairer society it is necessary to ban gender-based violence, wage disparity and sexist advertising.
For this to happen, applying an equal education is essential and inclusive language can be part of that education.
Thus, when all these problems are solved and there is real equality, the grammatical genre will lose its importance; However, until then, a first step may be to use gender-neutral language to make women feel more integrated.
Therefore, we must not forget that the main change is the change of context, which in turn will change its meaning.