Ideologies of language and gender: sexist grammar in French
Résumé
This presentation aims to examine the language ideologies which have been used to rationalise the masculine generic in French over the centuries, and to trace its transition into the codified norm that it is today. Using a Queer approach to grammar, I criticise the validity of the arguments which the masculine generic has been built upon. I identify the systematic discourses underpinning the masculine generic, and how they relate to ideologies of gender, arguing that the generic value of the masculine is a form of language planning, just as much as feminist linguistic intervention is today.