Gender-sensitive language use in Serbia

Between linguistic nationalism and box-checking performance

Abstract

Charting dominant views on gender-sensitive language in the Serbian public sphere, this article points to the ways sociopolitical transformations are grasped and dealt with in postsocialist Serbia. It looks at a case where the legislative action by the state, namely the adoption of the Gender Equality Bill in 2021, disrupted the usual pattern of mutual support between national linguistic experts and the nationalist politics of the state. The debate on the use of social femininatives in Serbian reveals the political force of language ideologies of authenticity, authority, legitimacy and naturalness that mobilise various expert, politicaland social actors whose views often converge in an unexpected manner. It shows that the issue of gender equality in Serbia and in postsocialist Europe in general cannot always be seen as resulting exclusively from the mutually conditioned processes of social movement and countermovement, or of gender mainstreaming and anti-gender backlash; neither can its understanding be reduced to binaries of progressiveness/openness/liberalism/Europeanness vs. conservatism/ nationalism/authoritarianism/anti-Europeanness. Rather, gender equality in these contexts must be seen as part of broader sociopolitical processes at both national and transnational levels.

Mapirajuci preovladujuce poglede na rodno osetljiv jezik koji cirkulisu u javnoj sferi, clanak osvetljava nacine razumevanja i prihvatanja sociopolitickih promena u postsocijalistickoj Srbiji. Kroz uvid u debate oko Zakona o rodnoj ravnopravnosti donetog 2021. godine, clanak analizira slucaj kada je drzavnim zakonodajnim aktom prekinut uobicajeni obrazac medusobne podrske izmedu lingvistickih strucnjaka sa nacionalih akademskih institucija s jedne, i nacionalisticke drzavne politike s druge strane. Debata o upotrebi socijalnih femininativa u spskom jeziku ukazuje na politicku snagu jezickih ideologija autenticnosti, autoriteta, legitimnosti i prirodnosti i njihov kapacitet da mobilisu razilicite strucne, politicke i drustvene aktere ciji se pogledi na pitanja rodno osetljivog jezika cesto priblizavaju na neocekivan nacin. Pokazuje da pitanja rodne ravnopravnosti u Srbiji i sire u postsocijalistickoj Evropi nije uvek moguce razumeti kao rezultat dinamike izmedu drustvenih pokreta i kontra-pokreta ili urodnjavanja javnih politika i mobilizacije nazadnih i konzervativnih snaga, niti ih je moguce redukovati na binarne kategorije progresivnosti/otvorenosti/liberalizma/evropejstva i konzervativnosti/nacionalizma/autoritarnosti/anti-evropejstva, vec ih je neophodno posmatrati kao deo sirih, nacionalnih i transnacionalnih procesa.