Marzia Giglioli, journalist, member of AMMPE Italy
Words are never neutral; language shapes our perception of reality, and in the issue of gender, they carry an enormous responsibility, because they define roles, perpetuate stereotypes and directly influence the awareness of equality.
There is another risk in words: that of distorting the nature of responsibility. We have seen it on numerous occasions in cases of violence against women, in expressions such as “attack of madness” or “crime of passion”, which have always tended to justify the aggressor, “pathologising” the act and minimising the systemic severity of femicides. There is still a big difference between the right and the inappropriate words in the question of gender.
Countering this toxic narrative is one of the first tasks that we must address if we want to achieve a more ethical use of language that definitively and systematically eradicates any attempt to attribute the blame not to the perpetrators, but to the victims of violence. This is a problem that has been denounced many times in recent years and is the most cited aspect of the misuse of the word in the field of women. However, there is another grammatical level, more subtle but equally dangerous: the asymmetrical use of terms, which still reflects an androcentric worldview.
The hidden roots of violence in incorrect grammar
The hidden roots of violence reside in cultural distortion, and that is where we must seek and apply the correction. We need to re-establish a language culture that dismantles interpretative misunderstandings, even in seemingly harmless areas that hide “benevolent sexism,” such as the use of paternalistic terms. These terms, apparently affectionate, undermine the authority of women, attributing to them fragility and, therefore, a compensatory and legitimate power to the male world.
The root of violence often lies in this perpetually opposed dualism. This dualism, lacking in complexity, perpetuates the error transmitted by a language that has not yet developed an egalitarian culture.
Much work remains to be done to overcome gender binarism and address the risks of its perpetuation and accentuation in new technologies. Because, if there is no initial break, Artificial Intelligence (AI) will once again propose stereotypes and prejudices, with an even more dilated and multiplier effect. If AI needs to find its ethics and its limits, and the debate is already developing globally, with more reason.
It is essential to eliminate all forms of opposition to dualism to overcome once and for all any gender distortion.
AI and the risk of perpetuating biases and distortions
The goal remains mainly cultural – we have been saying it for years – but now more than ever the battle is for the regeneration of the word. In a world where social networks expand everything without limits or rules, we must strive to adopt neutral and inclusive forms that defend the intrinsic complexity of correct grammar, which is also a new grammar of behaviour where all identities are protected and every subjectivity is properly represented.
