Stuttgart introduces "gender-sensitive language"
It was January 18, 2019 when Hanover was the first city in Germany to introduce a "new recommendation for a gender-fair administrative language". From then on, the administration of the state capital should speak and write as gender-neutral as possible. Almost a year and a half later, the city of Stuttgart is now following suit. In future, the administration there will speak "gender-sensitive".
Mayor Fritz Kuhn signed a corresponding template that is available to Stern. Among other things, it says: In the future, individuals should be addressed or written to without a title. And terms that could serve "role clichés" should also be avoided.
Winfried Kretschmann is against "language police officers"
The curious thing: Baden-Württemberg's Prime Minister Winfried Kretschmann doesn't think much of such rules. As he now said to the German Press Agency in Stuttgart: "Of course we have to make sure that we don't hurt anyone in our language, and language shapes our thinking a bit. But everyone should still be able to speak the way his beak has grown "said the Green politician. He was against "language police officers".
Kretschmann admitted that it was not easy for him to always mention the female form when he spoke of spectators or of police officers. "I can't do anything about the confusion between gender and sex, but to a certain extent I bow to this trend."
Majority of Germans are against "gender"
Gender denotes the grammatical gender, sex the biological. Many guidelines for gender-equitable language recommend that grammatical male forms such as "teachers" should only be used for biologically male teachers.
The curious thing: Baden-Württemberg's Prime Minister Winfried Kretschmann doesn't think much of such rules. As he now said to the German Press Agency in Stuttgart: "Of course we have to make sure that we don't hurt anyone in our language, and language shapes our thinking a bit. But everyone should still be able to speak the way his beak has grown "said the Green politician. He was against "language police officers".
Kretschmann admitted that it was not easy for him to always mention the female form when he spoke of spectators or of police officers. "I can't do anything about the confusion between gender and sex, but to a certain extent I bow to this trend."
Majority of Germans are against "gender"
Gender denotes the grammatical gender, sex the biological. Many guidelines for gender-equitable language recommend that grammatical male forms such as "teachers" should only be used for biologically male teachers.
Discussions about gender-appropriate language have been going on for a long time. Anne Will and Claus Kleber are already practicing it in their programs. But the majority of Germans are against it. This was the result of a survey by Infratest-Dimap on behalf of Welt am Sonntag. Accordingly, 56 percent of the population do not believe in the gender change of terms through a capital I in-between, an asterisk or an underscore in journalistic and literary texts as well as in political speeches.
Source: Stern
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