What's the boeuf? Gender neutral pronouns spark fury of French establishment

France's first lady Brigitte Macron has drawn praise and criticism for speaking out against the use of gender neutral pronouns in the country.

The 69-year-old, who formerly taught literature, made the remarks in reference to the practice of neutralising the famously-binary French language which, in common with other romantic languages, has masculine and feminine words.

The practice has been adopted by some local French administrations including the Parisian council as well as elite academic institutions like the Sorbonne.

“Learning French is already difficult. Let’s not add complexity to complexity. It’s a cultural position,” Macron told L’Obs magazine in a rare foray into political statements.

Mrs Macron, who met her now husband and France's President Emmanuel Macron when she was his secondary school teacher, used the interview to disparage “inclusive writing” claiming to speak for the “silent majority” in France.

This is the second time the French first lady has spoken on the issue, previously criticising Robert dictionary for listing the gender neutral pronoun “iel” an alternative to masculine “il” and feminine “elle”.

“The language is beautiful. And two pronouns are fine,” she said at the time.

Mrs Macron was also embroiled in a gender-related controversy in 2021 when she went to court over a conspiracy theory that she was born a man named Jean Michel Trogneux.

In the anglophone world, transgender rights, non-binary people, and gender neutral language and toilets have long been a culture war talking point for both right and left alike, but the issue is relatively new to France.

In English, the gender-neutral pronoun 'they' is used for non-binary folks but existed linguistically as a neutral term for a group of people prior to