Gender neutrality

Gender neutrality is a concept that attempts to remove the notion of being either male or female from a person or entity. It also encourages people, regardless of their sexual orientation, to feel equally accepted as part of society. But why do we need a gender-neutral society? How can such a society affect us? Keep reading to find the answers to these questions and more. What Is Gender Neutrality? Gender neutrality is a neutral presentation of gender that does not distinguish between men and women. We can also use it to describe a neutral action towards all people. The concept of gender neutrality has been around for many years. It was first used in an academic context by philosopher Michel Foucault in his 1976 book The History of Sexuality. It has gained momentum over recent years as more and more people begin to realise its importance for equality in society. Gender-Neutral Language Perhaps a vital step toward gender neutrality is using neutral language or not being biased towards or against either gender. Language plays a vital role in creating safe spaces, and Gender-neutral language avoids using nouns or pronouns associated with any particular gender. Since there is an increase in the number of people identifying as transgender, nonbinary, intersex, and gender-queer, we are witnessing a gradual normalisation of gender-neutral pronouns. With gender neutrality, it is easier for non-binary people to feel included in society by using gender-neutral languages, such as peo...

Source: PRRI, Gender and Politics Survey, 2023 Americans' support for the use of Why it matters: Neutral pronouns have been • White evangelicals and others of conservative faiths appear to be the most resistant to gender-neutral pronouns, according to the survey by the nonpartisan By the numbers: The survey found that more than one-third of Americans (36%) say they would feel comfortable if they learned that a friend uses gender-neutral pronouns. • About 43% say they would be uncomfortable. White evangelical Protestants (20%) are less likely than nearly all other groups to say they would be comfortable with friends telling them that they use gender-neutral pronouns, the survey found. • Jewish Americans are the most likely to say they'd be comfortable learning that a friend uses gender-neutral pronouns (50%). • About a third of Hispanic Catholics and Black Protestants say they'd be comfortable. State of play: The survey arrives at a time when transgender and nonbinary rights have been under assault by • Zoom in: The survey also found that about one-third of Americans (34%) say it's never appropriate to discuss same-sex romantic relationships in public schools. • Republicans (55%) were more than three times as likely as Democrats (18%) to say this. • White evangelical Protestants are the only group in the survey in which a majority (62%) say same-sex romantic relationships are never appropriate to discuss in public schools. What they're saying:"I think for Americans who come...

It’s a question asked increasingly often as acceptance of a spectrum of gender and sexual identities grows. Some languages, like Chinese and Persian, don’t assign nouns a gender or already have a gender-neutral form for people built in. But in languages whose grammar is traditionally based on exclusively male or female options, the answer to this question can still require an explanation. In recent years, LGBTQ activists and linguists around the world have championed more inclusive language, both by creating entirely new non-binary terms and by retooling already existing words and grammar constructions. It’s not always easy. For some people, it can be hard, scary or simply tiresome to keep explaining why they need more inclusive language. And it can be dangerous: Just in the United States, hate crimes against the LGBTQ community have been rising the last three years, “In classrooms and daily conversations, young people are changing the way they speak and write — replacing the masculine “o” or the feminine “a” with the gender-neutral “e” in certain words — to change what they see as a deeply gendered culture,” Schmidt wrote. “Their efforts are at the center of a global debate over gender, amid the growing visibility of non-binary identities and a wave of feminist movements worldwide.” Modern standard Arabic, based on Koranic classical Arabic, additionally has a dual option for nouns and verbs that doesn’t imply a specific gender. Some people therefore use the dual of they a...

A billboard advertisement for the delivery service Flink in Berlin uses what's called the "gender star" in the word Freund*in, a gender-neutral word for romantic partner. Esme Nicholson/NPR HANOVER, Germany — How do you pronounce a word with an asterisk or a colon in the middle? And what's the German word for inclusivity? These are just two questions businesses and organizations in Europe's largest economy have been asking themselves as the country tries to advance gender equality. In Germany, the debate about gender-neutral and inclusive language is complicated by grammar. Just as in many other languages, gender in German isn't denoted by personal pronouns alone. German nouns that refer to people have traditionally been masculine or feminine. So, a male citizen is a Bürger and a female citizen is a Bürgerin. But in the plural, the masculine is traditionally used by default — a point that's been contentious at least as far back as the second wave of feminism in the 1960s. In 2018, a new federal law stipulated that all forms of ID — from birth certificates to passports — must include three options: male, female and diverse, all of which can even be left blank. Since then, gender-neutral language has become more commonplace. German airline Lufthansa recently ditched the phrase "ladies and gentlemen," German scholars are preparing a gender-neutral edition of the Bible and in some cities — like Hanover — there's an official directive about using gender-neutral words. Known for...

I first became aware of the term “ In their personal life, Dillon embraces For many conservatives, not to mention A Google search turns up articles specificizing as many as 83 gender options and an Overwhelming? Yes. Gender is baked into society: pregnant couples hold gender-reveal parties and, for example, often attempt to make the bald baby head of girls more gender revealing with pierced ears and elastic bows. My mother did the opposite, though not necessarily out of a desire to raise me in a gender-neutral way. Until I was about eight or nine, she would cut my very curly hair in a short “pixie” cut because she thought it was cute and stylish. I hated it because I thought it made me look like a boy. Gender expression is highly personal, yet as a society we still have a very difficult time letting people out of the two boxes and into something more fluid. Meanwhile, my childhood friend down the street kept her hair short and insisted that she was a boy. Despite our different views on gender expression, we got on great, faithfully watching Batman every afternoon at her house. Gender expression is highly personal, yet as a society we still have a very difficult time letting people out of the two boxes and into something more fluid. While more flexible gender expression is nothing new, this latest push for gender-neutral pronouns is gaining traction – It made me wonder how much this issue represents a generational divide since my group of friends all agreed on the fact that...