The Role of Language Nemi Neto

102 Chapter 6 The Role of Language in Including LGBTQIA+ Identities in the Foreign Language Classroom João Nemi Neto Columbia University, USA ABSTRACT For this chapter, the author intends to draw his ideas from feminist pedagogy (hooks, Korol, among others) and queer pedagogy (Britzman, Nemi Neto) in order to present a possible way for teachers to understand the potential of acknowledging students’ identities in the classroom. The language classroom is the place of testimony and voice. For one to learn a foreign language, it is important to rely on their voice as an important tool of recognition and identity. Shuffle the cards. Masculine? Feminine? It depends on the situation. Neuter is the only gender that always suits me. If it existed in our language no one would be able to see my thought’s vacillations. I’d be a worker bee for good. Claude Cahun (1930, 2007) INTRODUCTION ‘I drove two husbands around the city’. That was the answer by a student to a question intended to focus on the uses of the simple past in one of my classes on Portuguese for Spanish Speakers. The goal of the DOI: 10.4018/978-1-6684-8243-8.ch006 Copyright © 2023, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited. The Role of Language in Including LGBTQIA+ Identities question was to activate students’ knowledge of the preterit. Nonetheless, another student noted the use of ‘two husbands’ (dois esposos in Portuguese) and the discussion turned to the expression of gender identities in Romance Languages. The word ‘esposo’ both in Spanish and Portuguese relate to a person whose gender identity lies in the masculine spectrum, or as some would say, ‘a man’. Whereas we, as educators, understand the importance of acknowledging identity in the language classroom, the understanding of gender identity as a binary representation of humanity is simply put, not enough for the diverse array of identities people present nowadays. One of the students asked if they were married to each other or if they were two friends who happened to be somebody else’s husbands. It is an ambiguous sentence in Portuguese (and in English) indeed. The classroom reaction was not homophobic or non-inclusive. The students were interested in understanding that situation. In order to avoid the ambiguity of “two husbands,” in the end, the students opted for ‘a couple’. The situation explained above shows how language shapes our understanding of identities. I asked the students what the first image that came to mind was when they wrote “a couple”. The previous conversation had probably altered our perception of the imbedded meaning of ‘couple’, and most students refused the image of a man and a woman as the passengers in the initial story. Nonetheless, most words bring rooted meanings as several researchers have shown. Holgado (2018) discusses this concept based on a study published in Science in 2017. According to the author, Sarah-Jane Leslie, Andrei Cimpian and Lin Bian proved that stereotypes influence our perceptions of gender from an early age. These gender labels tend to be reproduced in Education. Foreign Language textbooks, for instance, tend to represent women in jobs stereotypically associated to domesticity and men as the providers (Washcinewski et al, 2017; Nemi Neto, 2018, Narloch, 2020; Vieira et all, 2022). As much as language evolves, changes, and responds to our social norms, gender identities also respond to the anxieties of the times. As an example, one can observe an article published by New York Magazine (Kern & Malone, 2015) in regards to gender identity and sexual orientation among college students in the United States. The article presents more than twenty different designations for gender identity and sexual orientation. If society’s understandings of gender identities change, it is only natural, that citizens will try to use the necessary language in order to express ourselves. Notwithstanding, most foreign language courses rely on the personal to build the knowledge in the target language. Students talk about their physical descriptions, nationalities, their families, their daily routines, their friends and so on, yet there is a gap in regards to their gender expression. Under those circumstances, why do teachers still resist to talk about such an important part of our lives? Instructors might, in many languages, rely on the word ‘a person’ in order to maintain a vague description of their personal lives (For instance, in Portuguese, French and Spanish, one can use, ‘uma pessoa,’ ‘une personne’ or ‘una persona’ in order to avoid the gendering of their partner). Why cannot instructors expand their vocabulary and understanding of language(s) in order to enrich our experience as foreign language learners? Queer visibility in the classroom has certainly been peripheral to the history of education. As Kumashiro (2002) discusses in Troubling Education: Theories and Practices of Antioppressive Education, researchers have conceptualized oppression by looking at assumptions about and expectations for the Other – especially those held by educators – that affect how the Other is treated. Therefore, in regards to gender expressions, the process of education has always been dissonant and uneven: which queer representations were (and are until today) erased and which ones acknowledged in the cultural translation of LGBTQIA+ identities? What is an appropriate class pedagogy to help us understand how issues of visibility inform our perception of intersectional identities? 103 The Role of Language in Including LGBTQIA+ Identities Therefore, for this chapter, I intend to draw my ideas from feminist pedagogy (hooks, Korol, among others) and queer pedagogy (Britzman, 1998; Nemi Neto, 2018) in order to present a possible way for teachers to understand the potential of acknowledging students’ identities in the classroom. As Korol (2007, p. 19) says, “feminist pedagogy has one of its keys in the meeting of memory, not only of oppression, but also of resistance. It is a type of pedagogy that prefers the testimony to the silence of the texts”1. As Korol explains, the language classroom is the place of testimony and voice. For one to learn a foreign language, it is important to rely on their voice as an important tool of recognition and identity. First, I will present a brief overview of queer pedagogy as a transformative practice for our language classrooms. In previous articles (2015, 2018) I have proposed queer pedagogy as a tool to both question the normalcy of our practices and for observing instances of heteronormativity in the textbooks used in the classrooms. I intend to expand that notion, discussing the classroom as a place for transformative practice through our languages. Second, focusing on Romance languages, I will present a discussion on non-binary or inclusive language and the importance to acknowledge its use as a way to include all identities in our classes. As part of the inclusive language proposition, I consider relevant the presentation of grammatical gender and social gender as practices in the classroom. When one understands that language is not only a tool for control and regulation, but also a tool for communication and identification, one must reshape their role as teachers and instructors (Paulo Freire and bell hooks have extensively discussed this issue). Therefore, this chapter intends to discuss how foreign language classrooms tend to reproduce cis/hetero/binary-normativities and how one can reshape the way they present those identities in the classroom. In addition, I aim to understand how these forms of invisibility regarding gender identities reproduce forms of oppression inside and outside the classroom. By bringing to light these questions, I will hopefully help show several ways in which instructors can create and sustain non-discriminatory spaces in a learning environment. QUEER PEDAGOGY Queer pedagogy, in this chapter, is understood as an educational practice that reflects on sexual diversity and gender identity variance, and that seeks to acknowledge oneself in a manner that affirms difference among our students. Queer Pedagogy helps us to develop and apply teaching practices that increase inclusion and visibility of LGBTQIA+ individuals. Through the understanding of the gender spectrum and queer pedagogy, one fosters discussion among instructors and students to develop tools and strategies that can promote an inclusive space of affirmative visibility for sexual, transgender and queer/ questioning minorities in our classrooms. Instructors must be creative and critical, in order to present in class what most language textbooks neglect. Queer pedagogy can contribute to the expansion of tools that guarantee an affirmative place for all gender expressions in our classrooms. As I have proposed before (Nemi Neto, 2018), queer pedagogy allows instructors and students to look at their practices in a more critical way. Education can be a normalizing practice. Textbooks, syllabi and grading for instance help us create a (false) sense of standardization in our courses. By queering our perspective, one may be able to revisit the instances of normalcy in our daily practices. For example, Lee and Mccabe (2020) showed that male students tend to speak more than female students in college classrooms. Understanding gender disparities is fundamental for educational practices that aim at equity and equality. 104 The Role of Language in Including LGBTQIA+ Identities The disparity observed by Lee and Mccabe is seen in different instances in our practices. A queer critique on education proposes a view on occasions of exclusion that shape education. In terms of heteronormativity (popularized by Michael Warner in 1995) and homonormativity (framed by Lisa Duggan in “The new Homonormativity,” 2002), our foreign language classrooms are filled with examples from our textbooks ignoring representations of gender identity and sexual orientation. In regards to gender identity and sexual orientation, very few textbooks present the language needed for a person to identify themselves. Gay, lesbian, cis/trans, and non-binary language are rarely shown in formal materials. It is up to the instructors to present that vocabulary and structures in order to make the students visible in the classroom. For instance, if a student intends to say “I am trans,” instead of disregarding that structure as unimportant, instructors could simply accept that sentence as part of the person’s identity or confirm (without questioning) what they meant. There are ways to acknowledge sexuality in the classroom without making it a joke or drawing attention to a possible ‘mistake’. Textbooks tend to reproduce forms of normativity that exclude different identities (including race, religion and ethnicity). By queering our practices, instructors and students alike become aware of all the ways they tend to normalize ourselves. For example, one of the most common practices teachers use in language classes is correcting students’ mistakes. Most textbooks use the normative grammar as a starting point for students to learn a foreign language. In Romance Languages, for example, there is a tendency to accept European varieties as the norm. With respect to gender identity and sexual orientation there is, in most textbooks, a complete erasure of such vocabulary and structures. INCLUSIVE LANGUAGE “This man who is so skeptical has grammatical certainties. Alas, Madame Strans, there are no certainties, even grammatical ones … [O]nly that which bears the imprint of our choice, our taste, our uncertainty, our desire and our weakness can be beautiful.” Alain de Botton (1997) In order to understand inclusive language, non-binary language and the role they play in our language classes it is important to go back in time for a while. In 1993, Alexander Doty wrote, I want to construct “queer” as something other than “lesbian,” “gay,” or “bisexual”; but I can’t say that “lesbian,” “gay,” or “bisexual” aren’t also “queer.” I would like to maintain the integrity of “lesbian,” “gay,” and “bisexual” as concepts that have specific historical, cultural, and personal meanings; but I would also like “lesbian,” “gay,” and “bisexual” culture, history, theory, and politics to have some bearing on the articulation of queerness. (p. xvii) Almost ten years later in 2000, Doty, in Flaming Classics Queering the Film Canon reconstructed his thinking around queer and queerness as follows, Queer/queerness has been used 1. As a synonym for either gay, or lesbian, or bisexual. 2. In various ways as an umbrella term (a) to pull together lesbian, and/or gay, and/or bisexual with little or no attention to differences . . . (b) to describe a range of distinct non-straight positions being juxtaposed with each 105 The Role of Language in Including LGBTQIA+ Identities other. (c) to suggest those overlapping areas between and among lesbian, and/or gay, and/or bisexual, and/or other non-straight positions. . . . 4. To describe any nonnormative expression of gender, including those connected with straightness. 5. To describe non-straight things that are not clearly marked as gay, lesbian, bisexual, transsexual, or transgendered, but that seem to suggest or allude to one or more of these categories. (p. 6) In both texts, the author is trying to grasp with the meaning of queer. However, in the second text, queer incorporates transgendered identities that seemed to be missing in the first one. By reframing and constantly questioning what queer is, Doty shows us the fluid nature of the idea of queer which should help us understand that our linguistic practices are not ‘natural’ as some will argue (more later). But allow me to go back a little further in time. In 1903, Henry James used the word queer in his novel The Beast in the Jungle, The rest of the world of course thought him queer, but she, she only, knew how, and above all why, queer; which was precisely what enabled her to dispose the concealing veil in the right folds. (kindle) To Henry James, queer is strange, nonetheless how queer is this man who refuses to get married and seems to live a quite strange life? Henry James does what Morris (2009) says, while discussing Gertrude Stein’s Ida. Both James and Stein insist “that the familiar be made strange” (p. 275). In the 1960s though, queer takes a more familiar meaning and tone with our times as Alexander Lowen (1967) shows us: In the preceding chapters, I stressed the sexual nature of life. Homosexuality appears to be a contradiction of this view. It raises the questions whether there are two sexes or three. It makes one question whether man is basically bisexual, since he can be either heterosexual or homosexual. Is the homosexual a freak of nature who merits the popular designation of ‘queer’? (p. 72) Queer, in the 1960s, is not only strange, but an offense. It will take a few more years for queer to be reclaimed by the embryonic LGBTQIA+ movement and become a word that reflects an identity, or a multitude of identities, as proposed by the Queer Nation Manifesto in 1990 (and later queer theory or a multitude of queer theories): Ah, do we really have to use that word? It’s trouble. Every gay person has his or her own take on it. For some it means strange and eccentric and kind of mysterious. . . . And for others “queer” conjures up those awful memories of adolescent suffering. . . . Well, yes, “gay” is great. It has its place. But when a lot of lesbians and gay men wake up in the morning we feel angry and disgusted, not gay. So we’ve chosen to call ourselves queer. Using “queer” is a way of reminding us how we are perceived by the rest of the world. (parr. 45) Finally, I want to briefly discuss a 2018 rap from Brazil: O bonde das femininas que vem de strike a pose para as revistas, mas é revista fina. Não vem de ‘Ti Ti Ti’. Se não aprendeu com elas é cultura queer [The effeminate band that comes from strike to pose to magazines, but it’s a fancy magazine. It does not come from ‘Ti Ti Ti’. If you haven’t learned from them, it’s queer culture]. (Rap Box) 106 The Role of Language in Including LGBTQIA+ Identities In Brazil, in 2018, queer becomes a word, a neologism incorporated into the language. I have suggested in Cannibalizing Queer: Brazilian cinema from 1970 to 2015 (2022) the idea of queer as a traveling theory as proposed by Edward Said, that is, words gain new meanings in different countries. Yet, they belong to the same identity group. Society is constructed by language as Morris (2009) says, however one can also be erased by language. Language changes as much as our understandings of our identities change (as much as borders and nationalities change as well2). Language as part of society describes new technology, feelings, and identities. Speakers will use language to describe or to name who they are – both as a praise and as an offense. Understanding the history of queer as a politically charged vernacular allows us to visualize how language is not a separate mechanism from society. It is through the interaction of its speakers that words gain meaning, traction or even disappear (very few young American queer people would understand the word homophile for instance). Inclusive language has become a big debate in foreign language teaching. In ESL courses, for example, the discussion revolves around if teachers should accept the use of singular they, which has already been incorporated by dictionaries (Merriam-Webster, n. d.). In Romance languages, in turn, the debate is similar, questioning though the gendered nature of such languages (i.e., if one should accept non-binary suffixes). As Parra and Serafani (2021) explain, inclusive language has been part of heated debates in the Hispanic world. One can expand this issue to most romance languages. One finds similar debates in French, Italian and Portuguese (Guardian News and Media, 2017; Holgado, 2018). Even in the United States, the debate has created commotion. For instance, Arkansas has recently become the first American state to ban the use of the word ‘Latinx’ in official documents event though, latinxs has been widely used in the United Sates as an ungendered mark for the then Latino community. In Brazil, there are dozens of bills being proposed in different states aiming at banning the use of inclusive language. Nonetheless, the definition of the term Inclusive Language can cause debate. In order to offer a clear definition of what inclusive language means, Parra and Serafani (2021) provide a concise yet well-defined idea of inclusive language. To the authors, inclusive language refers to the use of language —verbal and written— in social, work and educational spaces that seeks to represent and make visible groups and communities that have generally been excluded, marginalized or discriminated against throughout life (p.145). In their article, they include, women, communities of color, people with disabilities, and members of LGBTIQ+ communities as the identities for which inclusive language refers too. Non-binary language is just one aspect of inclusive language, as Artemis López (qtd in Míguez Bóveda, 2022) explains, “non-binary language is only a small part of ‘inclusive language’, which also includes anti-racist, anti-ability and anti-colonial linguistic strategies, among many others”3 (p. 124). Even though the term can be understood in different ways in different contexts, most criticism lies on the use of non-binary language and language that makes clear the presence of women such as the use of “todas/todos” in Portuguese and Spanish. The Royal Academy of the Spanish Language has issued a series of documents arguing that ‘todas y todos’ is repetitive and against linguistic norms. As Parra and Serafani explain, these debates have focused on criticizing the use of the generic masculine as the unmarked gender, considering it sexist and excluding women and those people who they do not identify with the masculine-feminine binary (p. 145). Most critics (including law makers) in favor of the elimination of inclusive language present vivid arguments related to language, nonetheless, they rarely manage to take into consideration the dynamic role of language in societies. Most arguments tend to ignore the social aspects of language. As Del Valle 107 The Role of Language in Including LGBTQIA+ Identities (2018, parr. 2) points out, “conceived in this way, grammar is not the product of an autonomous reason; no grammatical form is as it is because the grammar itself requires it; no record of verbal regularities can justify its authority or validity based on rules that are claimed to be alien to social praxis, to the specific material conditions in which one speaks, reproducing or transgressing inherited patterns”4. Also, this normative approach in regards to language that Del Valle criticizes, fails to understand gender identity beyond the masculine-feminine binary. When critics assume that language itself (as if languages were independent systems not subjected to humans’ prejudices and preconceived ideas) has its own mechanisms, they fail to acknowledge the existence of non-binary identities, for instance individuals who do not identify either as masculine or feminine. This discomfort caused by the use of inclusive language and the acknowledgment of identifies that do not conform to the norm are not something new. Marcos Bagno (2015) has discussed in detail the questions of linguistic prejudice in regards to less privileged varieties of Portuguese (a phenomenon observed in most languages). To Bagno, linguistic prejudice is derived from the idea of a language variety that holds more power and prestige than others. In the case of Portuguese, analyzed by the author, urban centers as São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro tend to be seen as standards of Brazilian Portuguese (for instance, most dictionaries present Rio de Janeiro’s variety as standard Brazilian Portuguese pronunciation). Linguistic prejudice is intrinsically related to questions of class, race and gender5. As Bagno (2015) explains, Traditional grammar tries to show us language as a closed package, a ready-made package, but it’s not. Language is alive, dynamic, in constant movement – every living language is a language in decomposition and recomposition, in permanent transformation. It is a phoenix that from time to time rises from its own ashes. It’s a rosebush that, the more we prune it, the more beautiful flowers it produces6. (p. 117) Maria Ángeles Calero Fernández (1999) presented extensive research showing how our perceptions change according to the social gender a word represents. Among other topics, the author shows that words have different moral attributes depending on the gender they represent. Among her several contributions to understanding how language shapes our gendered comprehension is the idea of a ‘masculinolecto,’ or a masculine dialect. According to Calero Fernández, Various circumstances came together so that the masculinelect7 became the point of reference for linguistic analysis: 1) the existence of sexlects was not suspected, 2) the rules were abstracted from the use of the language by the authorities, usually male writers; and, 3) grammarians have traditionally also been male, so that they use the same variety as the authorities, which has made it impossible for them to question whether or not there is another way of speaking apart from registers or styles, of which there is. they have been aware8. (p. 76) Thus, to her, males have been not only researchers, but also the sole object of their own research. The author concludes saying that, “it is normal for grammars to be partial and reflect only one aspect of the reality of the language, once again from the male perspective” (p. 76). One important aspect of her idea of masculinelect is that once the rules were fixed and divulged, anything that does not conform to the normative grammar becomes a deviation. Thus, women, queer, people of color, original peoples, uneducated citizens, immigrants… they all speak varieties that differ from the masculinelect perpetrated by the grammar norms. 108 The Role of Language in Including LGBTQIA+ Identities Kiki Kosnick (2019) in “The Everyday poetics of gender-inclusive French: Strategies for navigating the linguistic landscape,” agrees with Calero Fernández when she discusses the position of the French Academy. According to Kosnick, “the Académie clearly underscores a conservatism intent on maintaining the centrality of linguistic practices in a sort of patriarchal mission civilisatrice in which, as is true to most civilizing missions, unity and legibility take precedence over liberté, égalité, and ‘fraternité’” (p. 178). Institutions as the French Academy and the Spanish Royal Academy tend to maintain a conservative approach to changes or as the authors above mention, the maintenance of a masculine view of normative language should be. As Ariane Leitão, a Brazilian politician said in 2016, “Sexist language, used unrestrictedly, imposes on us that the masculine (man) is used as the norm, with the feminine (women) included as a reference to masculinized discourse”9 (qtd. in Freitas, 2016). On the other hand, Gisela Collischon and Luiz Carlos Schwindt (2019) try to explain that the Portuguese language is not sexist. According to the Brazilian linguists, the ‘general masculine’ (masculine generalizado) as it has been conventionally used refers to both men and women. The authors are not necessarily wrong. In fact, languages are only sexist as long as the speakers use it in a sexist manner. Arguments like theirs attempt to distance grammar from the realities of everyday use as Del Valle (2018) has discussed. The incorporation of all genders into the masculine in Romance languages, nowadays, portray a sexist use of the language though. During one of my courses in 2023, a student wrote a paper on the history of women’s voting rights in Brazil. Bia Teixeira, a senior student at Columbia University, explained that the Brazilian Constitution of 1824 was not explicit that women could not vote, nonetheless the Carta Magna uses the word “cidadãos” (masculine for citizens). Yet, the word ‘cidadãos’ was used by judges at the time to reject women’s rights to vote. Through her analysis of Teresa Cristina de Novaes Marques’s book, Bia Teixeira presents a compelling argument against the idea that the generic masculine refers to both men and women. After all, if the generic masculine did refer to both, women would have been able to vote in Brazil a century before it was finally approved in 1932. Collischon and Schwindt (2019) attempt to appeal to the importance of the distinction between grammatical gender and social gender. Once again, they are not wrong. Their argument, though, seems to not comprehend that inclusive language is not about neutralizing all genders. It is about acknowledging the existence of human beings that do not conform to the binary of gender. Therefore, the distinction between social and grammatical genders is fundamental for our understanding of genders beyond the binary proposed by the linguists in their article. As Calero Fernandez and Kosnick have showed, these rules come from a masculinist point of view, a perspective that has historically erased anyone who does not respond to the norm (mostly white, straight and male). Other critics constantly bring Latin as a reason for Romance Languages not to be sexist. The neutral gender in Latin was incorporated by the masculine, therefore, the neutral gender is part of the masculine. Calero Fernandez (1999, p. 31) gives us one example that illustrates how terms travel. According to her, ‘hombre’ in Spanish (‘homem’ in Portuguese; ‘homme’ in French – man) meant human being (homo) in Latin. Human beings were classified according to their sex, vir for man and mulier for woman. In the evolution of Latin, the term hombre (the accusative hominem) in addition to conserving its original meaning, absorbed vir (varón in Spanish, varão in Portuguese), thus producing ambiguity nowadays. Her example helps us understand that languages do not simply transform themselves. Latin did not become Portuguese, French and Spanish… As Proust’s Marcel said, “those French words which we are so proud of pronouncing accurately are themselves only blunders made by the Gallic lips which mispronounced Latin or Saxon, our language being merely a defective pronunciation of several others” (qtd 109 The Role of Language in Including LGBTQIA+ Identities in Spivak, 1990, 212). Romance languages, each with their own vicissitudes, geographical, social and historical aspects evolved based on communication, and interaction among speakers. The argument that Romance languages are not sexist simply because they come from Latin therefore following historical rules does not help us solve the issue of visibility and erasure of different identities when one uses their languages. One’s perception in regards to gender identity and sexual orientation change inasmuch one understands different realities. So, todas y todos, ‘ladies and gentlemen,’ and other expressions might sound inclusive at first, yet, they still exclude non-binary identities. In the end, most critics tend to be more concerned with the prohibition, exclusion and erasure of non-binary identities than with language since most arguments fail to present valid points besides control mechanisms. As Paul Preciado (2020) says, “we can stop thinking of the heterosexual-homosexual opposition and start thinking in terms of tension between the normative and dissident uses of techniques of production of sexuality with which we are all, absolutely all, confronted” (p. 120). Even though, they use grammatical reasons, the critics of inclusive language seem to be more concerned with gender identities than grammar itself, as Del Valle and Bagno pointed out. If the concern is with the standardization of language, why there has never been a bill proposing the ‘correct’ use of the pronoun system in Brazilian Portuguese, for instance? Bagno in his Gramática Pedagógica do Português Brasileiro (“Pedagogical Grammar of Brazilian Portuguese,” 2012) documents the disappearance of the object pronouns in Brazilian Portuguese. Yet, there has never been a bill proposing the standard use of pronouns. One can present different examples in different languages in regards to standard grammar uses, yet it is the use of non-binary language that has caused conflict in most parliaments and universities. Are these critics language guardians, or simply gender police? Words are borrowed from different languages all the time. Internet has created the necessity of new vocabulary and its use by a myriad of speakers in different societies. In Continental Portuguese (spoken in Portugal), the device ‘mouse’ was translated to ‘ratão’ (literally mouse), however, in Brazilian Portuguese, the word ‘mouse’ has been incorporated into the local vernacular10. It is important to note that, every loanword assumes a gender in Romance Languages. Recently, the writer Margaret Atwood (2023) asked on twitter why bagel is masculine in French. Atwood’s question will help us clarify the distinction between grammatical gender and social gender. In regards to social gender, it is remarkable to see American companies assuming gender identities on social media. For instance, in Brazil, Netflix uses feminine articles when talking about ‘herself’ on social media. In 2016, a user posted on twitter that he was happy with “o Netflix” (using the masculine definite article) and the company’s twitter replied saying that “she” was a girl. The American company clearly understood the vicissitudes of grammatical and social gender in Portuguese and assumed a female identity11. These concepts are fundamental in our understanding of the role of language in the foreign language classrooms. As briefly seen above, neologism is also a strong part of any language. For instance, who knew what social media was thirty years ago? Also, if someone said “let’s take a selfie,” who would be able to understand it? Even though the idea of taking photos of ourselves has always existed (who does not remember the first cameras with timers?), the word selfie comes to existence from our need to define an activity that has become quintessential of our times (as beepers once were). In romance languages, those words will be gendered. Selfie has become a feminine noun, for example in most romance languages. Once again, one can present a myriad of examples of neologisms that never seemed to bother the population. Nonetheless, once a word that deals with gender identity or sexual orientation is used, moral 110 The Role of Language in Including LGBTQIA+ Identities panics are installed as Gilbert Herd (2009) proposes in Moral Panics, Sex Panics Fear and the fight over Sexual Rights. According to the author moral panics are “characteristic of states that experience times of divided public opinions, changing social economic and political circumstances, and a clash between state mechanism of control and the free expression” (p. 32). Even though there has been attempts to ban the use of foreign words in different countries, it is very difficult to legislate over the use of language. Most recently, in France, Marine Le Pen said during her presidential campaign that she intended to ban the use of foreign words in public communications as a way to save the French language12. Her comments generated a series of memes (another word one would not be able to understand twenty years ago), including one proposing her name to be changed to “Marine Le Stylo”. The examples above in regards to neologisms and loanwords tend to elucidate the dynamism of languages as part of our social spheres. Languages do not exist solely on textbooks. Languages represent our daily lives, anxieties, identities and needs. Our classes should also be able to represent these aspects. Yet, foreign language teaching is mostly based on normativity and rules. Most courses follow a ‘standard’ variety and present fixed rules of grammatical use. Concepción Company, a Mexican researcher (in Mendoza, 2021), argues against inclusive language by saying among other things that, “grammar does not necessarily reflect the world. The world is divided in two: men and women. Grammar is not13”. One can agree with her that grammar does not necessarily reflect the world. In reality most grammar books reflect a specific temporal aspect of a language and not necessarily what is used by its speakers. What the Mexican linguist fails to acknowledge, as the other critics mentioned in this chapter, is one of the most important aspects of inclusive language, that is, the acknowledgment of the existence of nonbinary individuals. People who do not identify neither as masculine nor feminine. In a binary world as she envisions, grammar fits perfectly a normative agenda. In regards to teaching, most arguments against inclusive language align the Company’s binary perspective and do not take into consideration the distinction between social gender and grammatical gender. GRAMMATICAL GENDER AND SOCIAL GENDER Portuguese, Spanish, Italian and French, and other romance languages are considered gendered languages (DeFranza et al., 2020), that is, languages in which neutral nouns have disappeared. However, only 13% of nouns are linked to sex and gender identities. Also, some of the remaining 87% words are not as fixed as one might think. For example, mapa (map) in Portuguese appears as feminine in 19th century texts. It was in the 20th century that it was consolidated as masculine. The word bridge varies between Spanish (masculine) and Portuguese (feminine). For all of us who speak multiple Romance languages, the issues related to grammatical gender are a constant struggle (bridge, milk, tree… these are a few words whose grammatical gender tends to vary among Romance languages). It seems fair to assume that grammatical gender also presents fluidity in different languages. Also, even words related to sexual and gender identities are fluid. One notices the use of ‘actor’ by people who identify in the female spectrum in the United States. In Brazil, for instance, the word poetisa (poetess) has not been widely used as well. Most women prefer the term ‘poeta’. Therefore, language and gender are intrinsically intertwined. Demanding this rigidity from any language seems to go against language’s own nature14. 111 The Role of Language in Including LGBTQIA+ Identities Inclusive language has shown how language is connected to our practices and that our use is as alive as its speakers. As an attempt to be inclusive, both in Portuguese and Spanish, the arroba sign was first seen as a non-binary mark in writing. However, the sign caused confusion for speakers. Speakers tried to use ‘x’ (Latinx is one word that seems to be crystalized as part of the vernacular15). Later, blind activists (Quebrando o Tabu) explained both @ and ‘x’ complicated their lives in regards to technology, since most online readers did not understand the symbols as part of the words. With time the use of ‘e’ as a non-binary mark seems to be on its way to consolidation in both languages. After all, thinking ways to communicate is part of the social use of languages. One of the most telling examples regarding the arbitrariness of gender in languages is ‘sun’ and ‘moon’. In some languages (Portuguese, Spanish, French…) moon is feminine and sun is masculine, whereas in others (German and Arabic) is the other way around. There are several stories describing the beginning of the world as a love affair between the sun and the moon. In some stories told by the original peoples of Brazil the moon is portrayed as a woman. For example, a myth that is widely spread in Brazil, tells the story of the birth the moon (female) and the sun (male). According to the Cuicurus (an indigenous group from the Xingu region), Rit, a male entity, was the sun and Une, a female entity, was the moon16. There are several examples in anglophone culture where the sun is described as a female being. For instance, in Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings,” the sun is described as a she. Yet, in the Portuguese translation, the sun becomes a male being. While the “misgendering” of inanimate objects seems harmless, concerning social gender and identities, misgendering can create setbacks. Our ‘girlfriend’ Netflix has had problems with the subtitling of ‘her’ shows. In the teenage drama, “Sabrina, the teenage witch,” one of the main characters comes out as a trans man in the show. The character identified in the masculine during the last seasons, nonetheless the Brazilian viewers were not able to understand his identity since the subtitles used feminine pronouns for the character. This misrepresentation of gender can be quite common in foreign language classrooms as well. A non-binary student, a transfemme, a butch queen, a transman must learn the necessary language in order to name their gender identity and sexual orientation as much as one learns about religion, nationality, race, ethnicity and so on. Being erased should not be an option in a language classroom. Inclusive Language in the foreign language classroom helps us to avoid the reproduction of cis/heterno/ normativities in our practices creating places of visibilities for all those persons who do not conform to the binary of gender. As bell hooks (1994) taught us, Most of us were taught in classrooms where styles of teachings reflected the notion of a single norm of thought and experience, which we were encouraged to believe was universal. (p. 35) Our practices must break the imposed norms of language in order to guarantee a more vibrant communication. Restricting access to language is a form of oppression, therefore restricting a person’s identity in the classroom is a form of reproduction of dominant power that insists on normalizing the gender binary as the only representations in grammar. There are several ways in which one can respect students’ identities and learn from them. The conscious use of pronouns is an example of acknowledging and respecting our identities. Because the foreign language classroom tends to start from the same point: “I”. We only talk about ourselves in a language course. I am, I want, I go, I do, I live…. The foreign language classroom is the space of individual identity. As I discussed before (2018), most textbooks bring a chapter on families. Allowing the 112 The Role of Language in Including LGBTQIA+ Identities students to understand the differences between grammatical gender and social gender is a way to accept their individualities and enrich their social practices. In regards to students’ correction, which is very important for language teaching, grammatical gender should be pointed out to the students. For instance, mesa (table), in Portuguese, is feminine. So, if a student writes o mesa (‘o’ marks the masculine), the instructor should discuss it because in this historical moment we live, table is still a feminine and there is no record of the use of table in Portuguese in the masculine. Social gender, on the other hand, is not up to the instructor to correct. This is where the importance of dealing with these issues in the classroom comes in. Gender presentation, gender identity, sexual orientation, all of these are included in these questions. So, marking right or wrong for social gender is a way of marking our yearnings (and moral panics) in regards to gender diversity. Recently, in one of my classes, a student described the island of Manhattan in the masculine. I pointed out that in Portuguese Manhattan is feminine (it is probably connected to ‘island’ being a feminine noun). The students laughed at the idea of Manhattan being ‘female’. I explained the difference between social and grammatical genders. In my practice, I have noticed that the students’ attention to gender identity makes them more prepared for grammatical gender issues, especially for students who come from less gendered languages such as English. Correction is vital in our educational system. It is a form of giving value to the students’ works and to control (Foucault) our knowledge. Nonetheless, correction and grading should be seen, not as forms of oppression, but rather as forms of growth. As Katopodies and Davidson (2022) say, Practical choices that go into redesigning classroom assessment inspired by equality, not oppression (to use Paulo Freire’s famous terminology). A pedagogy of equality aims to support and inspire the greatest possible student success, creativity, individuality, and achievement, rather than more traditional hierarchies. (p. 106) Consequently, social gender should not be corrected. Non-binary identities are part of social relations. There are people who do not identify in the binary spectrum. It should not be up to the instructor to assume one’s gender or to ask the students to either use masculine or feminine as long as it is consistent (I have heard this from a Portuguese language instructor). Inconsistency is also a powerful tool for learning a language. There are several examples of individuals who transit between pronouns (Eliot Page has recently explained that their pronouns are ‘they/ he’). Students should be able to understand this possibility in the foreign language classroom. There are several examples that one can put forward for the students. Instructors, then, must respect any particular gender(s) of the students. FINAL REMARKS “I can not be a teacher without exposing who I am.” – Paulo Freire While I write this text, there are more than 40 bills restricting trans people’s rights in Brazil. In the United States, a series of restrictions affecting women and LGBTQIA+ individuals have been voted into law in different states. In the May 8, 2023 edition, New York Magazine compiled more than 60 state school 113 The Role of Language in Including LGBTQIA+ Identities laws restricting minorities rights have been passed (Chait, 2023). Books have been banned from schools in Florida and other American states. Conversations about gender identity and sexual orientation are more than vital these days. There are also more than 30 bills in Brazil in regards to the prohibition of inclusive language. Arkansas has recently voted a bill to forbid the use of ‘latinx’ in any official document (Acevedo, 2023). Society changes. Language is part of society; therefore, it changes too. As much as we, as a society, want to advance and make sure the place we live and share with others is a place of community, we must face restriction and impositions from individuals that believe in a normative and “correct” way to express our identities. As Maria Lens (2021) explains, Because it is a whole structural social construction that is imposed, it is indeed a structure of oppression, which is violent, at all levels (norms, mechanisms, system of social-economic-political discrimination, etc.). Wanting to change society therefore requires deconstructing all the mechanisms that reinforce the system: conditioning (mentality/psychism, identities), and all the economic, political, legislative mechanisms... on which it is still based.17 (p. 23) Our classrooms, and educational practices should reflect the society we live. As educators, we have the power, as Tanner (2013) says, “to choose to attend explicitly to issues of access, inclusiveness, fairness, and equity” (p. 330). Therefore, in the classroom, students should be able to express themselves in manners that take into consideration their identities. Houston introduced the concept “teach off your students and not at them”18 for ESL classrooms (Amory, 2020). Such concept allows instructors to understand the students in a foreign language classroom not as “empty vessels” but rather as individuals with their own identities and experiences. By listening to the students, teachers and instructors foster a community as envisioned by critical pedagogy and feminist researchers influenced by Paulo Freire who proposed “conscientização” translated into English as consciousness raising, or in Freires’s words (1999) “to perceive social, political, and economic contradictions, and to take action against the oppressive elements of reality” (p. 17). In the end, the acknowledgement of students’ gender identities is not about reinventing practices, but simply of creating spaces in which language is a vital part of our understandings of individualities. It is a practice of consciousness raising as envisioned by Freire, but also as explained by Vivian Gornick (2020), a “feminist practice of examining one’s personal experience in the light of sexism” (p. 196). All of us must keep fighting for full representation in regards to the diversity of identities – race, gender, religion, abilities…. – in the language classroom. As Paulo Freire (1997) once explained, “The refusal of the sexist ideology, which necessarily implies the recreation of language, is part of the possible dream in favor of changing the world” (p. 35). REFERENCES Acevedo, N. (2023, January 11). Arkansas gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders bans term ‘latinx’ on her first day in officeNico. NBCNews.com. https://bit.ly/45Eo9Cm Amory, M. D. (2020). 6 teach off your students: A longitudinal analysis of an ESL pre-service teacher’s twisting process of conceptual development. The European Journal of Applied Linguistics and TEFL, 9(2). 114 The Role of Language in Including LGBTQIA+ Identities Ángeles, C. F. M. (1999). Sexismo lingüístico: Análisis y propuestas ante la discriminación sexual en el Lenguaje [Linguistic sexism: Analysis and proposals regarding sexual discrimation in language]. Narcea. Atwood, M. [@MargaretAtwood]. (2023, April 16). Ahem, rather bad French, but understandable I hope. (But why IS “bagel” masculine? A mystery!) [Tweet]. Twitter. https://bit.ly/43GCz3b Bagno, M. (2015). Preconceito lingüístico [Linguistic prejudice]. Parábola Editorial. Cahun, C. (2007). Disavowels. The MIT Press. Campos, L. V. (2019, April 26). Enem 2019 não terá questões polêmicas e ideológicas, diz Ministro da Educação - Brasil escola. Vestibular Brasil Escola. https://bit.ly/43deAbQ Chait, J. (2023, May 8). Indoctrination nation. New York Magazine, 18–24. Collischonn, G., & Schwindt, L. C. (2019, July 19). Por que a distinção entre gênero social e gramatical na língua portuguesa É necessária ao idioma [Why the distinction between social and grammatical gender in Portuguese is necessary for the language]. GZH. https://bit.ly/45GkF28 da Waschinewski, S., Rabelo, G., & Alves, I. G. (2017). Gênero e a invisibilidade da mulher nos livros didáticos de geografia do Ensino Médio no Sul de Santa Catarina [Gender and the Invisibility of Women in High School geography textbooks in Southern Santa Catarina]. Revista Inter Ação, 42(3), 574. doi:10.5216/ia.v42i3.48855 Davidson, C. N., & Katopodis, C. (2022). The new college classroom. Harvard University Press. DeFranza, D., Mishra, H., & Mishra, A. (2020). How language shapes prejudice against women: An examination across 45 world languages. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. doi:10.31234/ doi:osf.io/mrbcf Del Valle, J. (2018, August 21). Notas sobre gramática y lenguaje inclusive [Notes and grammar and inclusive language]. Anuario de Glotopolítica. https://bit.ly/3WICppw Doty, A. (1993). Making things perfectly queer: Interpreting mass culture. University of Minnesota Press. Doty, A. (2010). Flaming classics: Queering the film Canon. Routledge. Duggan, L. (2002). The new homonormativity. Materializing Democracy, 175–194. doi:10.1215/9780822383901-007 Freire, P. (1997). Pedagogia da esperanca [Pedagogy of hope]. Paz E Terra. Freire, P. (1999). Pedagogy of the oppressed. Continuum. Freitas, A. (2016, July 11). Todxs contra x língua: Os problemas e as soluções do uso dx linguagem neutrx [Everybody against the Language: The problems and solutions of using neutral language]. Nexo Jornal. https://bit.ly/3IRK8f4 Gornick, V. (2022). Taking a long look: Essays on culture, literature, and feminism in our time. Verso. Guardian News and Media. (2017, November 21). No more middots: French PM clamps down on genderneutral language. The Guardian. https://bit.ly/3oFNM4W 115 The Role of Language in Including LGBTQIA+ Identities Herdt, G. H. (2009). Moral panics, sex panics fear and the fight over sexual rights. New York University Press. Holgado, M. A. (2018). El Lenguaje inclusivo frente a la RAE [Inclusive language facing RAE]. ctxt.es | Contexto y Acción. https://bit.ly/3oMnbDh hooks, b. (1994). Teaching to transgress: Education as the practice of freedom. Routledge. James, H. (2015). The beast in the jungle. Xist Classics. Johnson, K. E., Verity, D. P., & Childs, S. S. (2023). Praxis-oriented pedagogy for novice L2 teachers: Developing teacher reasoning. Routledge. Kern, L., & Malone, N. (2015, October 19). The sex lives of college students. The Cut. https://bit.ly/3N8v2oa Korol, C. (2007). La educación como práctica de la libertad: Nuevas lecturas posibles [Education as Practice of Freedom: New possible readings]. In Hacia una pedagogía feminista: Géneros y educación popular: Pañuelos en rebeldía. Editorial El Colectivo. Kosnick, K. (2019). The everyday poetics of gender-inclusive French: Strategies for navigating the linguistic landscape. Modern & Contemporary France, 27(2), 147–161. doi:10.1080/09639489.2019.1588869 Latinx. (n.d.). Cambridge Dictionary. Retrieved April 19, 2023, from https://bit.ly/3WRgwVe Lee, J. J., & Mccabe, J. M. (2020). Who speaks and who listens: Revisiting the chilly climate in college classrooms. Gender & Society, 35(1), 32–60. doi:10.1177/0891243220977141 Lens, M. (2021). Construction et reconstruction des normes héterosociales [Construction and reconstruction of heterosexual men]. Het Ondraaglijk Besef/La Notion Insupportable, 27, 20–23. Lévi-Strauss, C. (1970). Mito e linguagem social: Ensaios de antropologia estrutural [Myth and Social Language: Essays on Structural Anthropology]. Tempo Brasileiro. Lowen, A. (1975). Love and orgasm. Collier Books. McNeil, E., Wermers, J. E., & Lunn, J. O. (2018). Mapping queer space(s) of praxis and pedagogy. Springer International Publishing. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-64623-7 Mendoza, E. (2021, October 27). “La gramática no tiene sexo, no es ni incluyente ni excluyente”: Concepción Company [“Grammar has no sex, it is neither inclusive nor exclusive, Concepción Company]. Semanario ZETA. https://bit.ly/3CpSTd3 Merriam-Webster. (n. d.). Singular ‘they’. Merriam-Webster. Retrieved April 19, 2023, from https://bit. ly/42r94kU Míguez Bóveda, C. (2022). Perspectiva de género para todes [Gender perspective for everybod]. Asparkía. Investigació Feminista, (41), 115–137. doi:10.6035/asparkia.6070 Morris, M. (2009). Unresting the curriculum: Queer project, queer imaginings. In W. F. Pinar (Ed.), Queer theory in education (pp. 275–286). Routledge. 116 The Role of Language in Including LGBTQIA+ Identities Narloch, L. (2020, July 31). MEC reprova livros didáticos por ver racismo e machismo em imagens cotidianas: Caçador de mitos [MEC disapproves textbooks for seeing racism and sexism in everyday images: Myth hunter]. VEJA. https://bit.ly/45AK39D Nemi Neto, J. (2015). Questões de identidade(s) de gênero(s) e orientação sexual: Uma abordagem através da pedagogia queer [Questions of gender identity and sexual orientation: A queer pedagogy approach]. Revista Espaço Acadêmico, 14, 27–34. Nemi Neto, J. (2018). Queer pedagogy: Approaches to inclusive teaching. Policy Futures in Education, 16(5), 589–604. doi:10.1177/1478210317751273 Nemi Neto, J. (2021). Cannibalizing queer: Brazilian cinema from 1970 to 2015. Wayne State Unviersity Press. Parra, M. L., & Serafini, E. J. (2021). “Bienvenidxs todes”: El lenguaje inclusivo desde una perspectiva crítica para las clases de español [Welcome all: Inclusive Language from a critical perspective for Spanish classes]. Journal of Spanish Language Teaching, 8(2), 143–160. doi:10.1080/23247797.2021.2012739 Pinar, W. F. (2009). Queer theory in education. Routledge. Preciado, P. B. (2020). An apartment on Uranus: Chronicles of the crossing (C. Mandell, Trans.). Semiotext(e). Quebrando o tabu - Dica importante sobre a neutralização de gênero [Important tips for gender neutral]. (n. d.). Facebook. Retrieved April 19, 2023, from https://bit.ly/3oHp1p7 Rap Box. (n. d.). Quebrada Queer. Author. Samuel, H. (2022, February 16). Marine Le Pen to ban ‘Franglais’ and other languages from French adverts if elected president. The Telegraph. https://bit.ly/3C91qka Tanner, K. D. (2013). Structure matters: Twenty-one teaching strategies to promote student engagement and cultivate classroom equity. CBE Life Sciences Education, 12(3), 322–331. doi:10.1187/cbe.13-060115 PMID:24006379 The Queer Nation Manifesto. (n. d.). Retrieved April 19, 2023, from https://bit.ly/3OKawvo Veja Resolução de Questão do Enem Que Aborda status do pajubá como ‘dialeto secreto’ dos gays e travestis [See Resolution of the Enem Issue That Addresses the Status of Pajubá as a ‘Secret Dialect’ of Gays and Transvestites]. (2018, November 5). G1. https://bit.ly/3C4pJQi Vieira de Souza, J., & Elias, M. A. (2022). Que mulher é essa? A representação da mulher nos livros didáticos de ciências e biologia [Who is this woman? The representation of women in science and biology textbooks]. Revista Educar Mais, 6, 429–449. doi:10.15536/reducarmais.6.2022.2733 Warner, M. (1995). Fear of a queer planet: Queer politics and social theory. University of Minnesota Press. 117 The Role of Language in Including LGBTQIA+ Identities ADDITIONAL READING Atay, A., & Pensoneau-Conway, S. (2022). Queer communication pedagogy. Routledge. Britzman, D. (1998). Is there a queer pedagogy? Or, stop reading straight. In W. F. Pinar (Ed.), Curriculum: Toward new identities (pp. 211–227). Garland Publishing. Buggs, S. G., & Hoppe, T. (2023). Unsafe words: Queering consent in the #Metoo era. Rutgers University Press. doi:10.36019/9781978825444 de Novaes Marques, T. C. (2019). O voto feminino no Brasil. 2nd ed., Edições Câmara, 2019, Câmara dos Deputados. Câmara dos Deputados. https://bit.ly/3qpK93w Manuel, M. J. R. (2002). Sexualidades transgresoras: Una Antología de Estudios Queer. Icaria. Nelson, E. S. (2009). Encyclopedia of contemporary LGBTQ literature of the United States [2 volumes]. Greenwood. Pinar, W. (1998). Curriculum: Toward new identities. Garland Publ. Srinivasan, A. (2022). The right to sex: Feminism in the twenty-first century. Picador/Farrar, Straus and Giroux. KEY TERMS AND DEFINITIONS Fluid: A term that refers to society’s ability to change, adapt and simply reject normativities that impose a fixed standard. Foreign Language(s): A foreign language refers to any language in which a person learns a besides their native/ first language. Gender Binary: A system of classification that divides people into two categories – male and female – only. Heteronormativity: An imposition that makes heterosexuality seems natural and coherent. Identity: The characteristics that inform who one is. Inclusive Language: A linguistic practice that includes non-binary people and avoids sexism in our language usage. It also promotes diversity, respect, and equal chances. LGBTQIA+: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, Asexual Queer Pedagogy: A pedagogical practice that intends to acknowledge and celebrate diversity in the classroom. ENDNOTES 1 118 “la pedagogía feminista tiene una de sus claves en el encuentro de la memoria, no sólo de las opresiones, sino también de las resistencias. Pedagogía que prefiere el testimonio al silencio de los textos. Testimonio colectivo, hecho de muchas memorias, capaces de afirmar o de cuestionar identidades” (Korol, 2007, p. 19). All translations are mine unless otherwise noted. The Role of Language in Including LGBTQIA+ Identities 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 I do not intend to oversimplify the problematics of geopolitics, violence and displacement that some cultures, and ethnic groups face. I just intend to point out that as borders change, one might have to recreate the vocabulary around their own nationality. «[e]l lenguaje no binario es solo una pequeña parte del «lenguaje inclusivo», que también incluye estrategias lingüísticas antirracistas, anticapacitistas y anticoloniales, entre muchas otras». “así concebida, la gramática no es producto de una razón autónoma; ninguna forma gramatical es como es porque la gramática misma así lo exija; ningún registro de regularidades verbales puede justificar su autoridad o validez en base a reglas que se pretendan ajenas a la praxis social, a las condiciones materiales concretas en las que se habla, reproduciendo o transgrediendo los patrones heredados”. In 2018, ENEM, the national exit exam for high schoolers in Brazil, added a question about Pajubá. Pajubá is a dialect mostly spoken by trans women of color in Brazil. The dialect borrows several words from different African languages. There was a backlash afterwards (Veja Resolução de Questão do Enem Que Aborda status do pajubá como ‘dialeto secreto’ dos gays E travestis, 2018) from different parts of society using the infamous ‘gender indoctrination’ and ‘gender ideology’ excuses. widely spread in Latin America. In 2019, the government decided to avoid “polemical” questions as a result of the backlash of the previous year (Campos, 2019). A gramática tradicional tenta nos mostrar a língua como um pacote fechado, um embrulho pronto e acabado. Mas não é assim. A língua é viva, dinâmica, está em constante movimento – toda língua viva é uma língua em decomposição e em recomposição, em permanente transformação. É uma fênix que de tempos em tempos renasce das próprias cinzas. É uma roseira que, quanto mais a gente vai podando, flores mais bonitas vai dando. Masculinect is my attempt to translate the author’s neologism ‘masculineto’. “Por consiguiente, se juntaron diversas circunstancias para que el masculinolecto se convirtiera en el punto de referencia del análisis lingüístico: 1) no se sospechaba la existencia de los sexolectos, 2) las reglas se abstraían a partir del uso de la lengua que hacen las autoridades, por lo general escritores varones; y, 3) los gramáticos han sido tradicionalmente también varones, de modo que usam la misma variedad que las autoridades, lo que ha hecho imposible que se cuestionaran si hayo no otra manera de hablar al margen de los registros o estilos, de los que si han sido conscientes”. “A linguagem sexista, utilizada de forma irrestrita, impõe-nos que o masculino (homem) é empregado como norma, ficando o feminino (mulheres) incluído como referência ao discurso masculinizado”. According to the Houaiss Dictionary (Portuguese) the word was incorporated in the 20th century. On their turn, Uber and Google have consolidated as masculine nouns in Portuguese. “Nationalist French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen on Tuesday pledged to ban the use of foreign words in advertising and public communication as part of an “emergency plan” to “save” the French language” (Samuel, 2022). “La gramática no refleja necesariamente el mundo. El mundo está dividido en dos: hombres y mujeres; la gramática no lo está”. Once again, I am using the term ‘nature’ conscious of its implications. According to Cambridge dictionary, Latinx is “from Latin America, or having a family from Latin America; used when you do not want to say if the person is a man or a woman. (Latinx, n. d.). Roque de Lara Barros has collected several stories about the Sun and the Moon among the Xingu people in Brazil (Lévi-Strauss, 1970). 119 The Role of Language in Including LGBTQIA+ Identities 17 18 120 Parce que c’est toute une construction sociale structurelle qui est imposée, il s’agit bien d’une structure d’oppression, qui est violente, à tous les niveaux (normes, mécanismes, système de discriminations social-économique-politique, etc.). Vouloir changer la société, demande de ce fait de déconstruire tous les mécanismes qui confortent le système: le conditionnement (mentalité/ psychisme, identités), et tous les mécanisme économiques, politiques, législatifs… sur lesquels elle repose toujours. Teach off your students, not at them is a simple play on prepositions, but as a pedagogical concept it has powerful consequences for how teachers orient to their learners and how learners’ histories and current understandings are both valued and made part of any instructional conversation. It does not negate the important role of the teacher in the processes of teaching/learning, but it encourages more dialogic, collaborative, co-constructed interactions between teachers and learners (Johnson et al., 2023).