Somehow, against all odds, the French government ignored the past few centuries of history and found a spine:

"Nathalie Elimas, the State Secretary for Priority Education, said on Thursday that the attempts to make the language woke were 'a danger for our country' and 'the death knell for the use of French in the world.'"

If you're wondering how in the world it is that France is the country standing up to linguistic wokeism, it's important to note that the nation has a strict commitment to secular humanism and the enlightenment-era ideals of liberty and liberalism. It also has a very strong desire to preserve its cultural heritage in the midst of modernization and demographic trends.

Unlike English – which lost its masculine and feminine endings thanks to the Nordic influence of viking invaders – French is organized around such gendered language.

As anyone who has studied such languages, the nuances in syntax go far beyond simply referring to men, women, and differentiating singular versus plural. There are entire elements of the language that become clunky, ugly, and difficult when you abandon this aspect of the grammar (think of how difficult it is just to say a term like "Latinx").

In this case, woke Frenchies want to include periods right in the middle of words so that there can be both masculine and feminine endings everywhere.

Here's an example:

• The French word "amis" is the plural for "friends," and uses the masculine ending referring to a mixed group of both men and women.
• The woke wish to change this to ami.e.s so that it represents both men "i" and women "e."
• A full sentence might look something like this: "Mes ami.e.s sont des idiot.es."

Even if you know nothing about French, imagine reading sentences full of periods in the name of "inclusivity."

This is why the French government and academy has resisted the march of woke acolytes who demand more "inclusive" grammar norms: you know, the type that demands conformity, eliminates free-speech, and makes it impossible to communicate.

It is no wonder that the 400-year-old academic guardian of the French language, the Académie Française, says that such changes would be "harmful to the practice and understanding of" the language.

Secretary Elimas also pointed out that people would simply shift to another language like English – which is already more widely spoken worldwide – if French became too disjointed and totalitarian to speak.

"With the spread of inclusive writing, the English language – already quasi-hegemonic across the world – would certainly and perhaps forever defeat the French language," she said.

While my British heritage is onboard with the English finally beating the French (and my French heritage is surrendered to the idea), I have to agree with Elimas on this one!

France's education minister has also spoken against this woke dissection of language, but received sharp criticism from the nation's leftist teacher's union because of course he did.

"SUD Education demands from the Minister that he stop trying to impose his backwardness on the educational community," said the union, which is instructing teachers to ignore the ban on gender-neutral terms.

Personally, I think it's sexist that the word "France" itself has a feminine ending. I think words referring to the entire nation should have a masculine ending inserted as well for the sake of égalité!

"Vive la.au France.i.!"