The organisation which is charged with deciding on the language that the State will enforce is the French Academy.
In English, the reason your parents believe that "they/them" can't be used to refer to a single person, is because grammarians in the 18th century actively changed the language to make it more misogynistic, gendered, and boring.
When I say it's impossible to talk about someone in French without gendering them, this is not strictly true. There is an entire system of "inclusive writing", complete with neopronouns (there are no gender-neutral pronouns in what I'm going to call "classical French") to remedy the language's huge flaws.
But the use of gender-neutral language in France isn't simply a question of using the words to make them more commonplace. It's a political battle.
In English, when people talk about "prescriptivist versus descriptivist", they're usually talking about a theoretical debate between linguists. "Prescriptivists" in English are just people who will call you a pleb for using "literally" as an intensifier.
In France, the State uses its monopoly on violence to force the language it wants people to speak onto them. Prescriptivism is a form of systemic violence, wilfully carried out by the State.
@00dani that one has tails as the protagonist, bcos shes trans
@audrey hot take: audrey is the cutest cutie in any cuddlepile
@audrey cis people did that too i think
@00dani who let such terrible people get to be the ones who dont have to deal with transitioning
@audrey cis people are baffling
@00dani
>insists on calling a character who wears a dress a boy
>deletes comments saying that boys can wear dresses
🤔
I actually think that law enforcement should be difficult, and I think it should actually be possible to break the law.
-- Moxie Marlinspike
@danishcookies wine is just spicy grape juice
@danishcookies genderlifting is praxis
queer/geek/artist/entomologist/professional regiphagist
transphobes/aphobes/biphobes/panphobes and pedos please kindly fuck off