Why did the law partial written in inclusive script cause such controversy?

The partial that students in lawuniversity Lyon-2 spent last week aroused strong reactions. If the students were the first to denounce the wording of the title in inclusive writing, others have taken up the subject. What exactly are we talking about? And what have been the reactions in recent days? 20 minutes takes stock of this affair which has gone far beyond the borders of Lyon.

What was this topic about?

During the partial which took place last Wednesday, the law students at Lyon-2 University had three or four hours to complete the requested subject, depending on the option chosen. To know how to write a dissertation on family law, as if they were in 2050, in order to return “to the main developments that have occurred since the beginning of the 2000s”. Or solve the case presented to them during the test.

Marti, in the middle of a divorce petition, comes to find them to ask for their advice. The story goes that Marti and Maki, of German nationality and “non-binary” [ni exclusivement femme, ni exclusivement homme], have been married since 2018 and live in France. Unable to have children, the couple resorted to artificial insemination with egg donation. At the time of their approach, the two looked like “women”, specifies the title of the subject. After insemination, the couple performed joint double recognition. But things went wrong a few months after the birth of their child.

Maki, recognized in the civil status as “the mother” at the time of childbirth, now disputes the right of filiation of Marti, having been recognized as the father “at that time” since he “resembled a man “. Except that today, his wife maintains that he was not a man and that he cannot claim the presumption of paternity.

To make matters worse, Marti had welcomed a Belarusian orphan into her home, before meeting his future wife. The child was adopted by Maki but not by Marti, whose request was refused by the judge. And today, he is only allowed to have visitation rights.

What is the problem?

It is not the subject in itself or the difficulty of the exercise that has caused controversy, but its wording. The two teachers wrote the title in inclusive writing, which makes it possible to integrate all genders and not just the masculine. They did not use the midpoint but a “trans-inclusive” form of writing marked by the use of an “x” or other unusual turns.

Thus, the “they” became “als”. The word “all” was replaced by “touz”, “this last” by “cæt derniær” and the “professionals” were written “professionals”. One could also read as a sentence: “At the birth of the child called [prononcer Prisse]Maki, who had given birth, was recognizedx in the civil registry…” or “at the crèche, where Pris is registeredx, everyone treats Arti as a parentx”.

“These are invented words that mean nothing,” protested Barthélémy Cayre-Bideau, one of the UNI officials. The student union quickly posted the given subject on its Twitter account in order to show how “illegible” it was. “How do you expect students to be focused on the content and the legal issues posed by the teacher if they spend half the time translating? “, notes the young man with BFM Lyon.

“We put ourselves in the place of the first-year student, who has revised for his exams, who is under stress and who finds himself faced with this. An incomprehensible statement, ”points in turn Rémy Perrad, national delegate of the United, on the television set of Cnews. The union, which denounced a “propaganda of wokism”, also accuses the teachers of having encouraged the pupils to write their texts in inclusive writing. The instructions stipulated: “You can answer in standard or inclusive French with the form of inclusiveness that you master”.

What were the reactions?

Several elected officials from the Rhône, mostly LR elected officials, did not fail to react through the networks. Starting with Jérémy Bréaud, the mayor of Bron, a town on which one of the campuses of the Lyon-2 university is located. ” A shame. Sad to come to this. Long live the French language”, he wrote, adding that he had asked the establishment to “stop writing to the city in inclusive writing under penalty of no response”. “We had been heard,” he added.

Sébastien Michel, the mayor of Ecully, described the subject as a “rag of nonsense” “full of a vocabulary as incomprehensible as it is militant”. “The woke delusions of some, fortunately ultra-minority, do not have to contaminate our universities”, he is indignant.

As for the editorialists, the journalist Emmanuelle Ducros estimated, this Monday on Europe 1, that “it is extremely excluding for all dyslexic, stressed, foreign students”, for whom “the confrontation with the text, with the French language is already difficult “. “Law students are not meant to be guinea pigs for this kind of snobby, pedantic experimentation,” she added.

Finally, comedian Gaspard Proust wrote a column in the pages of JDD where he considers that inclusive writing, “apart from the congenital ugliness of these hieroglyphs for Champollion with an oyster IQ” is “a formidable machine for excluding”.

What does Lyon-2 University say?

In a press release, the establishment wanted to support its two teachers, defending pedagogical freedom. “In general education, teachers are completely free as to the subject of examinations and their formulation,” he recalls. And to specify that he “does not therefore exercise any control over the subjects, any more than over the educational content”. Except in cases where defamatory, abusive or discriminatory remarks are made, “which is not the case here”.

The university also claims to want to “develop the critical sense of students”. Recognizing that the wording of the subject “may surprise at first glance”, the establishment considers that the exercise made it possible to “reflect on linguistic norms and the way in which they shape the social representations of ties of alliance and kinship”.

As for the teachers targeted, they have not yet been announced but should do so soon.

Caroline Girardon