Is this for real? I can’t draw no other conclusion than US defaultism in trans activism gives a free pass to TERF politics in Europe. This kind of news from Germany cannot mean anything good.

According to Wikipedia:

In 2019, the German Language Association VDS (Verein Deutsche Sprache; not to be confused with the Association for the German Language Gesellschaft für deutsche Sprache, GfdS) launched a petition against the use of the gender star, saying it was a “destructive intrusion” into the German language and created “ridiculous linguistic structures”. It was signed by over 100 writers and scholars.[11] Luise F. Pusch, a German feminist linguist, criticises the gender star as it still makes women the ‘second choice’ by the use of the feminine suffix.[12] In 2020, the Gesellschaft für deutsche Sprache declared Gendersternchen to be one of the 10 German Words of the Year.[13]

In 2023, the state of Saxony banned the use of gender stars and gender gaps in schools and education, which marks students’ use of the gender stars as incorrect.[14][15] In March 2024, Bavaria banned gender-neutral language in schools, universities and several other public authorities.[16][17] In April 2024, Hesse banned the use of gender neutral language, including gender stars, in administrative language.[18]

Here are the original Wikipedia references

  1. “Der Aufruf und seine Erstunterzeichner”. Verein Deutsche Sprache (in German). 6 March 2019. Retrieved 5 April 2020.
  2. Schlüter, Nadja (22 April 2019). ““Das Gendersternchen ist nicht die richtige Lösung””. Jetzt.de (in German). Retrieved 5 April 2020. “GfdS Wort des Jahres” (in German). Retrieved 13 December 2020.
  3. Jones, Sam; Willsher, Kim; Oltermann, Philip; Giuffrida, Angela (2023-11-04). “What’s in a word? How less-gendered language is faring across Europe”. The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2024-04-05.
  4. “Schools in Saxony are forbidden to use gender language”. cne.news. Retrieved 2024-04-05.

I got into this rabbit hole from this news article

News article in German

Archived

  • Venator@lemmy.nz
    1·
    3 months ago

    Wouldn’t it make more sense just to use × instead if that was the case? I guess maybe it makes it easier to differentiate it from x?

    I guess it’s probably just a hold over from typewriters that ended up setting the standard for computers e.g. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_2741

    • Fosheze@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      3 months ago

      Wouldn’t it make more sense just to use × instead if that was the case? I guess maybe it makes it easier to differentiate it from x?

      This right here is the exact reason, especially because x is frequently used as a variable which may be sitting directly nex to ×.