{"id":477,"date":"2023-07-10T16:39:49","date_gmt":"2023-07-10T16:39:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/projects.ieimedia.com\/2023arles\/?p=477"},"modified":"2025-07-11T07:26:42","modified_gmt":"2025-07-11T07:26:42","slug":"iel-or-elle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/projects.ieimedia.com\/2025arles\/iel-or-elle\/","title":{"rendered":"Iel or elle?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Photo and story by Gabriela Calvillo Alvarez<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The worst part of the first day of class is introductions. I dread having to come up with five fun facts about myself on the spot to share with strangers I have yet to know. When I came to Arles for my study abroad program, it was no different. I heard one of my professors explain that we would start the lesson off that way, by getting to know each other.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

She had just announced the agenda for the next few hours when she posed a question to the class about their pronouns. This part doesn\u2019t bother me; it actually makes me feel welcome. But what I found interesting about it is that she mentioned \u201ciel,\u201d the gender-neutral pronoun in France. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIel,\u201d pronounced roughly like \u201cyell,\u201d combines the male (il) and female (elle) pronouns of the French language and has been a source of contention within the country for some time. Originally introduced by the online French dictionary, Le Robert<\/a>, in 2021, \u201ciel\u201d has upset multiple people who don\u2019t consider it a part of the language. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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One of the main forces against its usage is l\u2019Acad\u00e9mie Fran\u00e7aise<\/a>, an institution that is designed to protect the French language. One of its statutes reads: \u201cThe main function of the Academy will be to work, with all possible care and diligence, to give certain rules to our language and to make it pure, eloquent and able to deal with the arts and sciences.\u201d As of now, \u201ciel\u201d is not officially approved by l\u2019Acad\u00e9mie. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prior to my trip to France, I wasn\u2019t aware that a gender-neutral pronoun existed here. I was under the impression that it would not be a popular concept. But to my surprise, it had already been a topic of conversation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back in 2017, l\u2019Acad\u00e9mie Fran\u00e7aise wrote a statement<\/a> on inclusive writing, warning that \u201cwith this \u2018inclusive\u2019 aberration, the French language is now in mortal danger, which our nation is now accountable to future generations.\u201d This kind of reaction in regards to inclusivity reminded me of a similar sentiment that many people in my own culture share. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

My native tongue, Spanish, has gendered pronouns for most of the words included in everyday language. And similar to the French, the Latinx community has been having a hard time accepting gender-neutral terminology. While it has gained some traction amongst folks, many do not understand it and are afraid of what it means to the integrity of a beloved culture. Some of the older generations in my family are so enthralled with tradition that they perceive this push for inclusivity as almost a personal attack on them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a queer person, it\u2019s hard for me not to feel a little alienated anywhere I go. Most of the time, I don\u2019t force people to use they\/them on me in my everyday life since I do feel comfortable with feminine pronouns. But in Arles, I have had complicated emotions surrounding gender because it feels like I have to overperform femininity to fit into the culture, both for safety and acceptance. Outside of the classroom, I\u2019m in an entirely new environment and it\u2019s hard to understand what is socially acceptable and what isn\u2019t. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, I\u2019m glad that this conversation has begun in Arles and France generally. Perhaps Spanish-speaking cultures will follow suit. Discussions about \u201ciel\u201d or even \u201celle,\u201d pronounced like \u201ceh-yeh,\u201d in the Latinx community could make way for more inclusive language in the future.

This is a personal reflection and does not necessarily express the opinion of The Arles Project or program sponsors ieiMedia or Arles \u00e0 la carte<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Photo and story by Gabriela Calvillo Alvarez The worst part of the first day of class is introductions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":479,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[50,49,44,45,48,47,46,18],"class_list":["post-477","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-postcards","tag-gender-neutral-language","tag-gender-neutral-pronouns","tag-iel","tag-inclusive-language","tag-lacademie-francaise","tag-le-robert","tag-nonbinary","tag-personal-reflection"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/projects.ieimedia.com\/2025arles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/CALVILLO_ESSAY-scaled.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/projects.ieimedia.com\/2025arles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/projects.ieimedia.com\/2025arles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/projects.ieimedia.com\/2025arles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/projects.ieimedia.com\/2025arles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/projects.ieimedia.com\/2025arles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=477"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/projects.ieimedia.com\/2025arles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":669,"href":"https:\/\/projects.ieimedia.com\/2025arles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477\/revisions\/669"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/projects.ieimedia.com\/2025arles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/479"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/projects.ieimedia.com\/2025arles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=477"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/projects.ieimedia.com\/2025arles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=477"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/projects.ieimedia.com\/2025arles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=477"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}