Gender Neutral Spanish

[PedalUma]

Would it be politically correct to make Spanish gender neutral? I had just referred to an actress of 25 years ago, then realized that the proper term these day is actor. So, why not do the same with Spanish?

 

[gromike]

If you want political correctness this is the question you should ask:
¿Sería políticamente correcto hacer que el español fuera neutral en cuanto al género?

 

[Jim1348]

Would it be politically correct to make Spanish gender neutral? I had just referred to an actress of 25 years ago, then realized that the proper term these day is actor. So, why not do the same with Spanish?

Why would you want to do that?


AI Overview



No, the
Spanish language is fundamentally gendered, and there is no official, universally adopted "gender-neutral" version, in Mexico or elsewhere in the Spanish-speaking world. Traditionally, the masculine form of nouns and pronouns has served as the default for mixed-gender or general groups.

Grammatical Gender in Spanish
In Spanish, all nouns have a grammatical gender (masculine or feminine), which is not necessarily related to biological sex.

• Masculine words typically end in -o (e.g., niño for boy, or amigo for friend). In a mixed-gender group (e.g., a group of boys and girls), the masculine plural is used (los niños).
• Feminine words typically end in -a (e.g., niña for girl, or amiga for friend).
• There are no inherent gender-neutral nouns or pronouns in traditional Spanish grammar comparable to "they" or "it" in English.

Efforts Towards Gender-Neutral Language
In recent years, feminist and queer activist circles, particularly among younger and more progressive individuals, have advocated for the use of inclusive language to challenge the male-as-default perspective and include non-binary people.

• Replacing -o/-a with -e: The most common proposed change within the Spanish-speaking world is to replace the gendered endings with -e (e.g., todes instead of todos or todas, or amigue for friend). This form is considered more pronounceable in Spanish than the -x ending.
• "Elle" pronoun: The pronoun elle (plural elles) has been suggested as a gender-neutral alternative to él (he) and ella (she).
• "Latinx" vs. "Latine": The term Latinx is primarily an English-speaking phenomenon and is largely unpopular and difficult to pronounce for most native Spanish speakers. Latine is the more common gender-neutral term used within Latin American progressive communities.

official Stance and General Use
The Royal Spanish Academy (RAE), the institution widely regarded as the authority on the Spanish language, has consistently stated that the masculine plural form already functions as a gender-neutral (inclusive) term and has not recognized gender-neutral innovations like -e, -x, or @ as grammatically correct.
While these inclusive forms are used in some niche or academic environments, especially in parts of Argentina, they are not mainstream in general Mexican society, where many people view the attempts to change the language as political or unnatural. Most Mexicans prefer to be identified by their country of origin or use the traditional, grammatically correct terms.

 

[Chargeride]

then realized that the proper term these day is actor

This triggers my mother, the loss of actress, obviously shes 'silent generation' and the word is attached to a lifetimes relationship for her with femininity and all the mostly forgotten actresses of her youth she idolised when that used to be a thing.
I guess the issue is the weight of influence these words have on the continuation of inequality.
The French deal with it like this.

To make words or phrases gender-inclusive, French-speakers use two methods: Orthographic solutions strive to include both the masculine and feminine endings in the word. Examples include hyphens (étudiant-e-s), median-periods (étudiant·e·s), parentheses (étudiant(e)s), or capital letters (étudiantEs).

I can see the look on French peoples faces as they are encouraged to perfom that painful solution.
'MP François Jolivet accused the dictionary of succumbing to “wokism” by including the pronoun and its defintion, while the minister for education, Jean-Michel Blanquer, tweeted: “Inclusive writing is not the future of the French language”.'

 

[Stefan Mikes]

Would it be politically correct to make Spanish gender neutral? I had just referred to an actress of 25 years ago, then realized that the proper term these day is actor. So, why not do the same with Spanish?

You would be very surprised Uma to learn how strange ways the political correctness can take in a gendered language such as Polish.

The feminists in Poland do whatever possible to enhance the position of women by changes to the language. While the American PC is all for gender-neutral language, the Polish mainstream version is creating the names of professions for females. In traditional Polish, there are many professions taking the feminine form such as "sprzedawczyni" (selleress), "aktorka" (actress), nauczycielka (teacheress) etc. However, many other profession names are masculine. If a woman became a professor, we said "pani profesor" (Ms Professor). If she learned driving, we used to just say "kierowca" (driver). The feminist changes to Polish enforce inventing female profession names such as "profesorka" (professoress), or "kierowczyni" (driveress). These new forms sound unnatural and terrible! Still, the media are full of these new idiotic words!

The academic political correctness in Poland takes a more American approach. We had a male "student" and a female "studentka" (studentess). Now, you have to say "osoba studencka" (a student person), which is neuter but that's not enough! What if a student person identifies itself as an animal?! The extreme form would be "stworzenie studenckie" (a student creature)...

 

[PedalUma]

In the early '80's there was an Australian band called Men at Work.

Now the band would be called Flaggerts Ahead

Oh, and this thread is tagged as for entertainment only, so have fun.

 

[Chargeride]

I never turned up for any language classes at school and continued my disinterest right through into my 30s, only then did I discover that some languages are fundamentally gendered.

I was ' thats bizzarely uneccessary.'

But then I remembered English and shrugged.
Heres my list
She is ships, rockets, submarines ,planes etc, especially when they are doing something abstractly powerful, heartwarming or heroic.
Without research I guess its a nod to the notion of women having great strength and grace in reserve.

 

[gromike]

It's ju

She is ships, rockets, submarines ,planes etc, especially when they are doing something abstractly powerful, heartwarming or heroic.
Without research I guess its a nod to the notion of women having great strength and grace in reserve.

It's just that the women carry the men.

 

[CanNik]

The world is becoming rather pathetic. First of all, a female is an actress and a male is an actor. But I would be far more concerned about the bastardisation (look it up) of the English language (and others).
For example, many people today cannot even manage cursive writing (look it up). And the correct spelling is aluminium—it always has been—while the American spelling is aluminum.
Aluminium (Al) is a silvery-grey (American “gray”) metallic element with atomic number 13, known for being lightweight, strong, and corrosion-resistant.

In the real world, a woman wears a brooch, not a broach, and it is traditionally worn on the right. For Remembrance Day, a poppy should also be worn on the right, but many people now wear it incorrectly on the left.

“Right side for women” was an old etiquette convention​

Historically, some Western etiquette guides suggested:

• Women wore brooches on the right
• Men wore boutonnieres on the left

America's insistence on spelling words like "aluminum" instead of "aluminium" is largely due to the spelling reforms of Noah Webster, who aimed to simplify spelling and align it more closely with American pronunciation. The change also reflects a split in convention, as the initial British spelling was "aluminum" before being changed to "aluminium" for what were considered aesthetic reasons, while America, influenced by Webster's dictionary, continued to use the "aluminum" spelling.

• Noah Webster's influence: Webster's 1828 dictionary promoted a simplified "aluminum" spelling, which became influential in American education and language.
• Simplifying pronunciation: The "aluminum" spelling aligns better with the four-syllable American pronunciation, while the British "aluminium" reflects the five-syllable pronunciation.
• Historical divergence: The element was originally named "aluminum" by British chemist Sir Humphrey Davy. However, a change to "aluminium" was later proposed and adopted in Britain to align with Latin-based conventions for other elements.

 

[CanNik]

Here is a fact that really annoys women, if all the women walked out of work the world would struggle badly, if all the men walked out the world would collapse.

If all men walked out:​

• Energy, utilities, logistics, heavy transport, construction, and emergency services — sectors currently dominated by men — would grind to a halt.
• Large-scale infrastructure maintenance would stop.
• Many critical supply-chain roles would be lost overnight.
• Military, policing, and firefighting capacity would be heavily reduced.

The world would not “collapse instantly,” but the infrastructure backbone of modern life would fail very quickly.

Just ask a woman who argues this tell me the ratio of men to women in

1. Construction
2. Fishing
3. Emergency services
4. Fire and rescue
6. Oil rigs, deep sea rescue/diving such as oil rigs
7. Road building and houses, office blocks, construction

The list is almost endless

 

[CanNik]

Sector / Field	Approximate % of workforce who are women (or female representation)
Construction (roads, buildings, general construction)	Around 14–15% of the UK construction workforce are women. One recent source reports 303,136 women vs ~1.76 million men (≈ 14.7%) as of 2024. geplus.co.uk+2linkedin.com+2 However — “skilled trades” (on-site manual roles) are far more male-dominated: some estimates say only around 2% of skilled-trades workers in the UK are women. Elec Training+2lqgroup.org.uk+2
Fishing / Fisheries (sea / boats / catching)	Very low female representation in actual fishing on boats: in one survey many vessels had no women deckhands, and women were often “almost entirely absent” from sea-faring roles. Seafish+2Scottish Government+2 More broadly, women do have a presence in the wider fisheries and seafood processing sector (onshore work, processing, administrative roles), but as fishing / capture-fishing jobs go — women appear to be a small minority. Scottish Government+2Esmée Fairbairn Foundation+2
Emergency services (police, ambulance, paramedics etc.)	For police in England & Wales (2025), about 36.1% of police officers are women. GOV.UK For ambulance services / paramedics: in the UK, around 41.7% of paramedic registrants are female. PMC+1
Fire & Rescue	As of March 2024, about 9.3% of full-time firefighters in England are women. GOV.UK+1 (Note: other support or control-staff roles in fire services may have different proportions, but front-line fire crews remain overwhelmingly male.)
Oil rigs, deep-sea rescue/diving, offshore energy / rig work	There is far less publicly available, reliable UK-specific data for a “women vs men %” across all offshore / oil-rig jobs. Globally, similar heavy-industry / offshore roles tend to have low female representation. A 2023 global-industry survey grouped “Oil, Gas and Mining” as an area where women account for less than 25% of workers. World Economic Forum That suggests a rough ballpark — but this varies drastically by role (administrative vs marine engineer vs rig worker, for example).
Road-building, house/office-block construction (subset of construction)	These fall under the broader construction industry. So they likely follow the same ratios: ~14–15% female overall in the sector — but on-site/ skilled-trade roles likely much lower female representation (circa ~2% in “skilled trades”). linkedin.com+2lqgroup.org.uk+2

UK stats, you do the rest

 

[Chargeride]

I trust evolution, billions of years and women appear 50/50 in humans.

If they werent as important they would have dropped down drastically long ago.

Modern work is a passing phase.

 

[PedalUma]

Being a mom is the biggest, hardest, and most important job. It is also the lowest paying. There seems to be an inverse relationship between the hardest jobs and pay. The clean and most interesting jobs pay the most. The dirty and least interesting pay the least, such as picking strawberries in the hot sun. Interviewing news makers, authors and celebrities pays a lot more.

 

[gromike]

The women rule. The rest is just .... .

 

[stompandgo]

Being a mom is the biggest, hardest, and most important job. It is also the lowest paying. There seems to be an inverse relationship between the hardest jobs and pay. The clean and most interesting jobs pay the most. The dirty and least interesting pay the least, such as picking strawberries in the hot sun. Interviewing news makers, authors and celebrities pays a lot more.

AI is changing this equation. It's going after white collar jobs, not labor.

 

[Chargeride]

AI will take over once everything is modded to work with it, everything will be constructed to interface with a centralised 'intelligence'.
Specialised human robots will take over construction once fastenings and tools are standardised and other robots will make the incredible robots to deal with the chaos of the real world.
The savings from wages, pensions, safety, vacations, duty of care and managers will make it worthwhile.

 

[stompandgo]

Worthwhile for who?

Corporate executives? Most likely. They'll still be needed, but a lot less of them.
Skilled labor? It could save time in the design phase and for business work, but they still need humans until the robots take over.
Small business? It depends on what kind. I could see a lot of entrepreneurs starting businesses backed by AI that would not need workers.

The cost will be the consumption of an almost unimaginable amount of resources with no end in sight. I don't see how this ends. I liken it to the beginning of the universe.

 

[Chargeride]

Yes..but..
They said these things about the plough and the printing press and the mechanical loom, and the internet and the Temu pressure switch on the Zero point solar system ending bomb.

 

[stompandgo]

True, but none of those things consume energy like AI. Not even close.

 

[PedalUma]

It's going after white collar jobs, not labor.

It is hard for me to see a robotic hair stylist. Part of that is social and involves grooming, as with chimps. Things like tuning pianos that take subilty and feel will not be replaced. And the same goes for jobs like bike mechanics.