Neutral language: Guide on how to start using it in your daily life
The topic of gender-neutral language is gaining more visibility. But do you know how to use more inclusive language and why is this debate gaining visibility?
The Portuguese language is organized in a binary naming system. This means that we always need to apply a gender and an article before words, especially nouns. An example is: o professor, a professores. However, we also have nouns ending in e, but which still need an article, such as: a cadeira, a estante.
Therefore, it is necessary for us, young people who live in a generation that is not afraid to assert ourselves, to start understanding how language works in order to transform it. In addition to language, we must also review how we use the media, so that it is not only inclusive and representative, but also accessible.
In this text I want to show you some ways to “hack” the Portuguese language and change the way we speak.
Check out this video by content creator Luci Gonçalves about speaking correctly or speaking incorrectly.
Besides being binary, is it sexist?
In addition to a binary structure, the Portuguese language is also sexist. If you want to refer to a room with 15 men and 25 women, you would say: “the boys in that room are so nice”, since when we talk about something, the language rule requires us to be in the masculine. Or, when we talk about a protest, we say “the teachers held a demonstration today”, when certainly, the majority of people in the demonstration were women.
So, the first thing we can do to break the language is to speak according to the presence of people. If there are more women who understand each other with the feminine pronoun in the room, then they are women, even if there are men. If we are talking to a mixed audience, the first step is to use “as” and “os” for everything we are saying, for example: “welcome to Citas.com.br ”.
This video by content creator Jonas Maria talks a little more about neutral language.
A political neutrality
Furthermore, the discussion about using language in a neutral way is quite extensive, and has important points and questionable points. However, what is certain is that neutral language is not neutral at all, but rather a political statement by the LGBTQIA+ group for its life and presence in society.
In English, to refer to non-binary people, we use they/them, which in free Portuguese - and not neutral - would be our “eles, seus”, but without necessarily saying that “eles/deles” refers to the masculine gender. If in English we say “they are playing soccer”, “eles” does not mean that they are boys, just people.
In Portuguese, we have had several passages and there is still no consensus on how to use them, but there are good practices. The first is to try to find a way out of the binary in the language, using words like: galera, pessoas, colleagues, helps to bring neutrality and is within the rules of the language. But wait, what are these rules? Well, every language has a set of rules, systematized by language professionals for years, studied at university and used in research. At school, we have contact with the superficiality of these studies, through grammar. And within the rules, “pessoas” means a mixed group of people and must be in agreement with the feminine gender.
However, it is possible to go beyond the rules and truly change the language we speak, so that neutral language does not always remain in this place of difference, but can become normal. Some people started asking to be called “elu/delu”, bringing non-binary meaning. This expanded, and today we have “ile/deli”, another way of using neutrality. When we speak in the singular, we can use “elu/delu”, and when we speak in the plural, “ile/deli”, as in “professories”, instead of “professores”.
Watch Rita von Hunty's video on non-binary language for ELLE magazine here >
Don't think that anything makes a sound!
The discussion of gender-neutral language has always taken over the internet. Today, many profiles indicate which pronouns should be used, but before these issues became more widespread, we had texts with “@” and “x” at the end of words that required binary pronouns.
Who has never read something like “Dear students, today we will have class at 8 pm?” When we read it, the sound of the “x” in our heads is not made, or the “o” comes in its place, because that is how we grew up hearing it. And then, we have the word “students”, which tries to adapt to neutrality, but nothing matches or agrees with “dear students”. This is the mixed salad that we will avoid making in this text.
The sounds of “@” and “x” are not read by the hearing or visual aids of people with disabilities, becoming a resource without accessibility, which, when trying to solve one social issue, reaffirms another. For this reason, many language thinkers and thinkers who discuss non-binary issues try not to indicate the use of endings other than letters.
How to write a WhatsApp message in neutral language?
Hi love, how are you?
My dear, I heard you got into college!! Congratulations on yet another achievement, Lindie! It's a shame we're in the middle of a pandemic, otherwise we could see each other :( Speaking of which, did you see what happened to Jaime? Elu told me he went to a bar yesterday and caught COVID19 :((( oh man, that's because in SP the vaccination of the crazy youth will only be in August, damn.
Anyway, sending you kisses, I'm super happy for you, friend.
Kissessssss
In addition to neutral language, we also put together content about other expressions that are part of our everyday vocabulary, but which also carry a racist trajectory and which it is high time to remove from our vocabulary !
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