Germany: Politicians slam university guidelines calling for 'gender neutral' language

German politicians have criticised the “gender-neutral” language in higher education institutes. While speaking with Augsburger Allgemeine, the minister-president of Bavaria and the leader of the Christian Social Union in the state (CSU), Markus Soder on September 17 claimed that the practice of using neutral language indicates a battle against the use of masculine and female nouns. He also said that he had ordered to review of guidelines he claimed to be “indoctrination.” 

According to him, language cannot be “prescribed.” Instead, he offered that students who do not follow what he described as the “neutral language” rules should not be subjected to punishment. Soder said, “Bavaria is a free state, not an indoctrination state. Anyone may use language however they want but everyone should make sure to show sensitivity and respect in their language.”

The minister-president of Bavaria claimed that people should not use the terms “parent one” and “parent two.” He told the newspaper, “You should be able to go on saying' mother and father. You don't have to say parent one and parent two. I don't want to be addressed by my children as parent.”

As per the Sputnik report, a member of the Bundesrat and Bavarian for Science and Art, Bernd Sibler also weighed in on the decision of using “gender neutral” language. He said that the universities guidelines might have recommendations that he does not wish to pursue further. But, Sibler said that he supports Soder’s disagreements with the rules and urged the Bavarian universities to reconsider the measure.

German universities ruled out new rules last month

Just last month, at least nine german universities including Konstanz and Stuttgart released common guidelines advising the staff and the students to avoid using masculine or feminine nouns. Like all other languages across the globe, German also has for both genders but in recent years, several left-wing institutions and public bodies have started to adopt the hybrid terms to be more “gender-neutral.”

For instance, as per The Times, voters in the German language can be referred to as either Wähler (male voters) or Wählerinnen (female voters). But the new hybrid term has been coined to address voters in general called Wählende (voting persons). This policy shift in the language has been criticised by the conservative groups and the German Language Society has also issued a call ‘call to resistance’ against the ‘ridiculous language structures' and 'gender nonsense.’

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