الأثنين, مايو 22nd 2023
In the days since a Zurich-area middle school canceled its controversial “Gender Day” – dividing locals and Swiss politicians alike – a survey found that the majority of Swiss people aren’t interested in “gender-sensitive language.”
Last week, the Stäfa Schule canceled its annual “Gender Day” after staff members received threats over the event. The school has held the event for ten years to encourage students to “reflect on their own standards and values and to discuss gender identity and sexuality openly.” The topics are included in the “Lehrplan21” curriculum, which is a scholastic plan for German-speaking Swiss schools.
This year’s event was called “Confronting transgender ideology,” which school staff now say was a poor choice of words.
In the days preceding the planned event, Swiss politicians weighed in on its relevance. Two members of the most popular Swiss political party, the Swiss People’s Party (SVP), were particularly critical. SVP member Andreas Glarner via Twitter called for the entire school staff to be dismissed. Other members of the SVP condemned Glarner’s response; and, members of other parties said the school event was not a matter of parliamentarians’ concern.
Read more: Divisive ‘Gender Day’ canceled at Swiss school
Swiss company Tamedia set out to gauge how Switzerland as a whole feels about using gendered language and other terms which have in recent years been deemed discriminatory by some groups.
Only 24% of Swiss residents say they pay attention to “gender-appropriate language,” according to a Tamedia poll of 30,754 Swiss residents. And only 23% say that the issue is “important or rather important.”
According to the survey, 18% of Swiss say gender equality is an important issue. Only 13% say that “cancel culture” and “wokeness” is an “urgent problem.” Researchers also found that “cancelled” terms such as “gypsy,” “Eskimo,” and “Mohrenkopf” are still used throughout Switzerland today.
A mohrenkopf is a small, chocolate-dipped pastry that became popular in the 1800s in Europe. The word “mohrenkopf” translates to “Moor’s head” or the head of someone from northern Africa, typically a member of the Muslim population. While the pastry is still popular in Switzerland, it is now often called a “chocolate kiss” because “mohrenkopf” has been used as a discriminatory term in Swiss society. Nearly half of the Swiss residents surveyed say they do not believe using the word “mohrenkopf” is problematic.
Writing an editorial in local newspaper تاغس أنزيغر, Raphaela Birrer discusses how Switzerland is entering an unknown territory and why the controversy surrounding Stäfa Schule’s “Gender Day” illustrates it perfectly.
This debate “calls existing power relations into question – and shakes the right ideal of the conservative family, in which the roles of the sexes are clearly assigned. In this respect, language debates are deeply political debates, which the SVP also admits,” she writes.
Read more: Swiss voters are concerned about ‘wokeism,’ immigration
In contrast, Birrer highlights how left-wing activists have swung far in the other direction by asking for the term “women” to be replaced with “persons who menstruate” or “persons who give birth.”
In the end, Birrer believes that the debate has been so divisive because new pronouns have entered Swiss society “without broad social discourse… A process that is highly relevant to everyday life would deserve serious negotiation.” Language will keep evolving, as it has for centuries, whether Switzerland wants it to or not, Birrer adds.
“The sovereignty of interpretation should lie neither with (left-wing) activists nor with a (right-wing) party. But in the middle of society. So, let’s have this discussion – but please with style, decency and without ideological blinders,” she concludes.
يمكن مشاركة هذه المقالة وإعادة طباعتها مجاناً، شريطة أن تكون مرتبطة بشكل بارز بالمقالة الأصلية.
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