“SPD city council sings a mockery about gender” from February 8th:
Absurd gaffes
The sad thing about gender is that the reality is much more absurd than City Councilor Hefter portrays in his song, which is why the topic almost eludes cabaret. If the city of Munich writes to you personally, the salutation is “Good day, Eva Mustermann” instead of “Dear Ms. Mustermann”. When asked, it is said that this is the only way to ensure gender neutrality. In the case of “Dear Sir or Madam*”, all gender options are also listed under the asterisk, some with an asterisk again, since a distinction must be made between internal and external sexual organs.
At a recent district committee meeting, the chairperson addressed two citizens who wished to attend the meeting as “guests.” There are always letters from the city to the “dear members” of the district committee. That the member is neuter does not seem to be known. Perhaps “dear members and non-members” would be a solution here.
But I have also seen a welcome letter for a new citizen, in which it says, based on the district, that it is a particularly nice neighborhood. Now I’m wondering if we should talk about twin towns or friendship in the future.
To end on a satirical note, in the future we should address mayors as “Dear mayors, dear mayors”. – The whole thing really hurts a Germanist like me.
Sabine Geissler, Munich
A police force that doesn’t even exist
As is certainly the case in other language variants (youth language, technical language), it is sometimes possible to look for a match to be found even with language-sensitive endings if you look carefully. However, if city councilor Roland Hefter uses far-fetched examples, this will not stimulate the objective discussion, but rather reinforces the impression of the party that he has rightly sidelined.
Several errors are already printed on the sign, since neither a male singular term (comparable to boy) “Bua” is expressed differently if a boy is meant, but is then referred to as “Madl”. The plural is still added to the singular because it is only a matter of “Bua”. Either there is an intentional distortion here, in which case the proximity to populist formulations should be avoided in principle, or there is a fundamental ignorance of the Bavarian minimal grammar, in which case it would be necessary to look at the rules again before doing this in this way the public is borne. After all, no one is served by basing the actually constantly taking place discussion about language developments on incorrect assertions.
Further insights into the lyrics lead to the conclusion that there was little or no direct involvement with the common designations, as the examples “aunt” or “children’s nurse” show. These are not used at all, as they already allow a clear female assignment, which is why it is not necessary to mark this word separately (as with “student*in”).
In addition, it should be explained where and how the alleged “gender police” act, because apart from occasional warnings or corrections, nobody is prosecuted or even arrested, as is otherwise the case with law enforcement agencies. This shifting of levels does not deal with the real background of the language variants. According to surveys, it is certainly correct that many people do not want to talk like this. But you don’t have to. So maybe it’s a bit more “complicated” than stringing together apparently scandalous linguistic deformities. It’s also allowed to sing, because that’s also part of freedom of expression. However, a well-founded opinion and false information are still two different things.
Stefan Angstl, Burghausen
helpers and professionals
Our language, which is beautiful in itself, knows the generic masculine noun, which includes both genders. However, gender fanatics tend to overlook the fact that there is also a generic feminine. Example: the temporary help, the skilled worker – I ask that in future, in line with the gender trend, it be called: the temporary help, the helper; the expert, the expert. Our language is becoming more and more beautiful!
dr Friedl Brych, Munich
keep the ball flat
Finally a politician speaks up on the subject of gender, and also from the SPD, which is so progressive. Wasn’t it enough that a spelling reform was imposed on the population in 1996, which nobody wanted and which then had to be corrected? And now they want to teach us gender? In conversations with a wide variety of professional and age groups, I find out how much this annoys most people. When it comes to television, gender now seems to be more important than speaking grammatically correct German. You don’t have to have studied German to find out. Keep the ball low. It would have been better to use the money that the Munich City Council is investing in this issue for other purposes, such as schools, promoting club sports…
Burkhard Colditz, Sindelsdorf
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