Inclusive writing and post-binary glyphs

 Inclusive writing aims to better represent men, women, and non-binary people. It seeks to demasculinize language and avoid reinforcing gender stereotypes. This evolution tends toward a more egalitarian perception of individuals, but unfortunately, it struggles to gain acceptance and is divisive. The French language is extremely gendered. Over time, changes in grammar rules have reinforced the masculine gender in the language, and today, in light of issues surrounding gender and gender identity, we may wonder whether it would not be more beneficial to challenge these outdated rules. 

In the 1980s, feminist groups called for the feminization of job titles in order to be better represented in the labor market. Indeed, in an advertisement that reads “recherche un professeur d’anglais,” women may be discouraged from applying because the word “un” (a masculine article) is used. It took almost 30 years for this feminization of job titles to cease being a complicated issue and for the use of terms such as “auteure” (female author) and “médecine” (female doctor) to be tolerated by the authorities, even though in everyday life these words are still sometimes frowned upon. Some people are outraged that new words are being invented to include women, which is a bit ridiculous when you consider that before the 17th century, both genders were systematically represented in job titles. It was with the creation of the Académie Française in 1635 that the use of these words disappeared. The grammarians of the time had a real desire to masculinize the language. Then, in 1767, the rule that the masculine “takes precedence” over the feminine was established and taught. This means that if a single masculine word is found alongside two feminine words, its gender will be attributed to the adjective associated with them.

ex: La cerise, la fraise et l’abricot sont mûrs 

The Académie Française has opposed the reuse of feminized job titles, supporting the idea that the masculine gender is a generic masculine and is the successor to the neutral gender in Old French. For me, that's not neutrality, and I think it's terrible to learn at school that one gender is superior to another.

Today, a new element is shaking up the Académie Française: the median point. The median point is one of the solutions found to demasculinize French. It allows both genders to be represented at the same time.

ex: étudiant·e·s

étudiant·es

It can be used by cutting out each sign at the end or by calling it just once. But this little sign is highly controversial. There are those who refuse to use it. Jean-Michel Blanquer, Minister of National Education between 2017 and 2022, expressed his disagreement with the use of this system in several interviews. He says that the median dot is too elitist and excludes students with difficulties (dyslexia). A law passed in 2017 prohibits its use, as well as the use of inclusive writing in teaching programs and official documents. And defenders of the beautiful French language consider it an orthographic aberration. They also find that it makes reading more difficult.

In light of new thinking around gender identity, I believe it is necessary and consistent to adapt the writing system and make it more representative. There are other solutions besides the median dot, such as proximity agreement or the use of generic words. Proximity agreement comes from Latin and is a grammatical rule that assigns an adjective the gender of the word closest to it. It is used in some newspaper writing. We can also choose more inclusive words that do not determine gender. We are seeing the spread of new pronouns that are intended to be neutral, such as “iel,” “celeux,” and “toustes,” but once again, they are not well received. This method requires a little work upfront to learn this new vocabulary, but it is easy to understand the meaning of the word. This argument of complexity is often used against the use of this neutral form. 

Camille Circlude will focus her master's thesis on this link between typography and gender. She distinguishes between several inclusive writing systems, including epicene writing, which involves writing the masculine form of a word followed by its feminine form, inclusive writing with the use of the median point, and finally inclusive or non-binary typography.

Post-binary characters

I would now like to discuss typographical innovations. For several years now, we have seen the emergence of new characters, known as inclusive glyphs. The Bye Bye Binary collective brings together and disseminates the work of typographers who design post-binary characters.  This Franco-Belgian collective is at once an experimental laboratory, an educational center, and a network of creators.

These glyphs function as ligatures, meaning they are combinations of two or more characters. Compared to the midpoint, ligatures reinforce the idea of links and connections, whereas the midpoint separates. The development of these new characters requires the creation of new boxes in the list of characters in a font. This list assigns a code to each character, which allows for the transition from one font to another.  The collective developed the Queer Unicode Initiative (QUNI) to harmonize and standardize the functioning of post-binary characters. It allows for the coordination of encoding. Mixing these glyphs with the midpoint allows for better typographic gray and avoids an overabundance of cracks.

At the same time, the collective organizes surveys and typographic crash tests to test post-binary characters and find out which form is the most readable, understandable, and identifiable for people who may have difficulties (dyslexia). It conducted a survey of three distinct groups of people: children learning to read, adults diagnosed with reading disabilities, and a third group of people with no reading difficulties. In this survey, participants were asked to read aloud sentences written in the typefaces developed by the collective using post-binary glyphs. A short questionnaire accompanied each sentence, asking participants if they had experienced any discomfort while reading and, if so, where in the sentence (word, syllable, character).

Here are a few examples of post-binary typefaces. Baskervvol, designed by the Bye Bye Binary collective, was created for use in work texts. It has serifs to make it easier to read. It is based on John Baskerville's Baskerville design. It is available for free.

DINdong, designed by Clara Sambot, is based on the style of DIN 1451 fette Breitschrift. 

Times New Roman Inclusive, designed by Eugénie Bidaut, features very thin ligatures connecting the letters. These ligatures replace the use of median point. She decided to rework the font recommended for academic writing.

Akkurat Inclusive, designed by Tristan Bartolini. He added 40 inclusive glyphs to the existing Akkurat font, a typeface known for its legibility. 

 

A language must constantly evolve. Every year, new words are added to dictionaries. There are always expressions and ways of speaking that are passed on and that sometimes stray from the language of the great authors. I think it is interesting to suggest new written forms as well; written language should not remain static, it must evolve like spoken language. The initial results of these experiments may not be the ones that are retained in the future, but they are an interesting avenue to explore in order to better represent individuals.

The unsuspected helping hands, when gender stereotypes become acts of resistance

 Following the discussion in the last class on the issue of gender, I remembered a practice used during the First and Second World Wars that relied on gender stereotypes to convey information.

A quick reminder about gender stereotypes. A gender stereotype is a generalized prejudice about the presumed roles of men and women in our society. It is the preconceived idea that a particular activity, hobby, or profession is intended only for men or only for women. For example, a woman is supposed to be maternal, gentle, delicate, calm, etc. These prejudices are harmful because they limit and compartmentalize the possibilities for one gender or the other. In addition, they reinforce other social inequalities such as those affecting minorities or indigenous populations, people with disabilities, or people belonging to a social status recognized as inferior. Today, we are increasingly trying to break down these stereotypes or subvert them. But there are examples where they are clearly embraced and become acts of resistance. During the First and Second World Wars, but also in other older historical events, women used knitting to code and transmit information about the enemy camp.

Women, knitting, war, and espionage

In the 20th century, society was very gendered, and women were the main actors in domestic life. They had roles and activities to perform within the home, such as cooking, cleaning, raising children, and making household linens and clothing. Sewing and knitting were seen primarily as domestic activities for women. These practices were affected by the First World War, primarily due to rationing. Clothes were unraveled to recover wool for making new ones. This is why the clothes made at that time were more form-fitting, because raw materials were scarce and had to be conserved, so clothes that required less wool were made. 

There was also the war effort. Women were called upon to replace men in factories, but also to knit clothes for them to keep them warm at the front. Propaganda posters were circulated, particularly in the United States, asking women to knit socks to be sent to soldiers.

There were also magazines that published patterns for women to knit specific garments, such as Knitting for the Victory.

Some women therefore took advantage of this gender stereotype as an alibi for spying. They exploited the endearing image of the knitter to gather information, pass through checkpoints with their knitting baskets, and hide messages inside their knitting. Women observed the comings and goings and, so as not to appear suspicious, knitted at the same time. One example is Madame Levengle (Belgium). A German officer was living in her house, and she spent her days upstairs, watching the trains from her window while knitting. She would tap her foot to communicate what she saw to her children, who would translate the code while pretending to do their homework and then pass on the message. In this case, knitting served as a cover to avoid arousing suspicion. There is also the older example of Molly Ricker during the American Revolution in 1763. During this period, the English lived in people's homes and inns. Mrs. Ricker was an elderly woman who worked in an inn. She used her job to gather information about British soldiers by listening to their conversations during meals or drinking sessions. She wrote down her information on a piece of paper, then wrapped a small stone with her paper and rolled her wool around it. Then she played on the stereotype of the old woman who knits, going to sit on a rock to knit socks and dropping her ball of wool from the rock, which rolled down into the woods where the American forces were stationed. In this way, she informed them of the British intentions.

Knitting and coding

I have previously discussed the use of knitting as a cover for transmitting messages, but its structure also made it a way of coding messages. Knitting thus became a tool for steganography, i.e., a technique for concealing information using a seemingly innocuous form so as not to arouse suspicion.

There is the knot technique, popularized by a British newspaper. Women would tie knots in their wool at certain intervals, then knit a garment, which they would send by mail. The recipient would unravel the garment and could then read the wool and decode the message.

Knitting works with a system of alternating purl and knit stitches, which visually translates into either a “v” or a bump. It is a binary system. It can easily be applied to Morse code. Silence is translated into a purl stitch and sound into a knit stitch, with one dot corresponding to one stitch and one dash to three stitches. 

Here is a contemporary example of a sweater made by Kristen Haring in 2007. The coded pattern is S.O.S.

The British postal service ended up censoring shipments of knitted clothing; if a piece looked suspicious, it was blocked.

Phyllis Latour Doyle joined the Women's Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) in November 1941 as a mechanic. She was then spotted by the Special Operations Executive (SOE) and enlisted to avenge her grandparents, who had been victims of the Nazis. She was parachuted into France in May 1944. She pretended to be a traveling soap saleswoman and tried to be invisible. In reality, she was gathering information for the SOE. She transmitted it by piercing holes in a silk handkerchief with her knitting needle, then slipping the piece of silk into a flat lace before using it to tie her hair. She was interrogated and searched several times by the German authorities. During one interrogation, after finding nothing in her clothes or on her body, a female inspector stared intently at her tied-back hair. Phyllis spontaneously removed the lace that held it in place and shook her head to dispel any suspicion. At no point did the interrogator suspect that there might be anything in the lace. She is believed to have transmitted more than 135 messages and to have actively participated in the June 1944 landings. In 2014, she received the Legion of Honor in recognition of her work.

And today

Knitting is also being repurposed as a means of self-expression and resistance. It is often used by feminist organizations for activism purposes. One example is the Pussyhat Project. Following the 2016 US presidential election, Krista Suh and Jayna Zweiman decided to create and distribute patterns for making pink cat-eared hats. They wanted to wear them for the 2017 Women's March. The patterns were widely distributed and can be adapted to different knitting, crochet, and sewing techniques. The stitches are simple, making production quick and accessible. The pink hats became a symbol of solidarity for women's rights. The project has been criticized for not representing all women, as it only represents cis white women, and for not representing trans women and women of color.

Hansol Kim, a student at La Cambre, created a crocheted book in 2023. She was inspired by coded knitting from World War I. She adapted the code to the crochet technique and, during evening crochet gatherings, she made a scroll book (scarf) with her friends. Feminist phrases are hidden on the scarf. Each participant made a square and encoded part of the manifesto into it, then the squares were put together.

Punctuation, a complex and rigorous system, from the archives of the Library of Alexandria to our digital keyboards.

 I took many classes on the history of writing, from the earliest evidence of human traces to the Roman alphabet we use today. In these classes, I learned how different alphabets succeeded one another and evolved, but I never learned anything about punctuation. 

According to linguist Paolo Poccetti, the earliest traces of punctuation date back to the third and second millennia BCE. They took the form of vertical or horizontal dashes in cuneiform writing. Today, linguists debate this, preferring to agree that punctuation originated between the third and second centuries BCE in the Library of Alexandria. The purpose of punctuation was to organize writing. Texts were written in scriptio continua, i.e., without separating words and sentences, just lines of letters. Points were used, which were an evolution of the dash. There were three different types: the high point, the mid-point, and the low point, which today correspond to the full stop, semicolon, and comma. They were used to clarify texts but also to provide reading cues, allowing for spacing and pauses. Punctuation was thus separated from writing; it was not the author who formatted the text, but archivists or those who would read it aloud.

The use of punctuation spread with the production of the Vulgate in the 5th century. This is a copy of the Bible intended to be read aloud. It therefore requires the sentences and text to be structured, and in addition to periods, symbols were introduced to mark the importance of a word or the beginning of a section in the text. There was still no consensus on the use of punctuation, so each abbey had its own rules. Copyist monks introduced new symbols such as the comma, which was a slash, the comma, the ancestor of the colon, and the first question marks. They used the white space in the margins to comment on and embellish the texts they copied, which is known as glossing. It was also at this time that the distinction between upper and lower case letters appeared. It was Alcuin, a cleric of Charlemagne, who democratized the use of a capital letter to mark the beginning of a sentence. Gradually, a certain form of standardization of punctuation emerged, but this took place over several centuries. It was during the Renaissance and with the development of printing that rules were established.

In 1450, Gutenberg revolutionized printing in Europe by using movable metal type. This saved a huge amount of time in book production. For example, it took a monk three years to copy the Vulgate, whereas between 1452 and 1455 Gutenberg was able to produce around 180 copies of his famous Bible, the B42. This invention enabled the development of the book industry. The characters were standardized and had to be molded in advance, as did the punctuation. Venetian printers also contributed to the standardization of punctuation. Aldus Manutius popularized the use of periods and colons at the end of sentences and developed the use of semicolons, commas, and parentheses. In 1471, Jean Heynlin (philosopher and founder of the Sorbonne printing workshop) wrote the Compendiosus de arte punctandi dialogus, a fairly short treatise that explains, in the form of a dialogue between a master and his apprentice, how to use the virgula, the comma, the colon (full stop), the periodus (semicolon), and other signs that have since disappeared. The rise of writing also offered more freedom in layout, with more white space, resulting in better structured and organized texts. 

Punctuation underwent a similar evolution, becoming more precise. At the end of the 16th century, the punctuation marks we still use today began to emerge: the question mark, the exclamation mark, the period, the comma, quotation marks, etc. In 1527, Geoffroy Tory published his own treatise on punctuation, Champ Fleury, in which he presented eleven punctuation marks and was the first to replace the full stop used since ancient times with a classic period to end a sentence. The most famous treatise on punctuation is Etienne Dolet's De la punctuation de la langue francoise (1540). Punctuation finally became universal, with a name, usage, and properties for each symbol. This code became a reference for typographers.

When punctuation first appeared, it was not managed by the author but was introduced retrospectively, and was used to make reading aloud easier. With movable type printing, it was publishers and typographers who punctuated texts. But with the popularization of reading and silent reading, punctuation also came to be used as a stylistic tool.

Some authors (poets) eliminate all traces of punctuation marks and create graphic compositions by playing with white space and line breaks. Like Apollinaire with his Calligrammes, and Mallarmé with Un coup de dés jamais n’abolira le hasard. Apollinaire gave shape to his text by breaking free from the rules of composition. There are examples of poems in the shape of a cat or a human silhouette. In this work by Mallarmé, he completely removed punctuation and created a more airy and graphic composition.

During my research, I came across an article by France Culture that discusses non-standard punctuation. In the 19th century, to counter the influence of rules imposed by printers, some authors invented new punctuation marks, new symbols that express emotions or moods. They tried to restore a more oral style, as they considered the punctuation system to be too limited.

They invented punctuation marks for irony, contempt, anger, love, hate, joy, pain, and more. These new symbols did not become part of everyday punctuation usage. 

Today, punctuation still follows (very) strict rules, which vary from language to language. For example, French and English typographical rules use different symbols for quotation marks. Punctuation is no longer a point of contention between publishers and authors; it has become a playground for graphic designers and typographers. Thierry Fetiveau designed the Andersen typeface and introduced 13 new punctuation marks. This font is intended for reading children's stories. 

We are also seeing the development of new characters, emoticons, and emojis, which are disrupting the rules of punctuation. We see that periods are disappearing in text messaging language, where it is necessary to be quick, efficient, and use as few characters as possible. A new syntax is developing, words are abbreviated, and punctuation is disappearing. In our digital writing, they replace full stops and give indications of the intonation or tone of the text. They appeared on online forums between 1980 and 1990. Scott Fahlman invented the smiley by combining several punctuation marks; it is used to indicate humor or seriousness in a conversation. The smiley expresses different emotions using different combinations of symbols to represent the mouth. In Japan, emotions are expressed through the eyes, which is reflected in kaomoji (Japanese emoticons), which I find more complex and interesting than smileys. They allow nonverbal expression and avoid misunderstandings. In 1999, again in Japan, emojis were invented, a graphic version of emoticons. Are they a new evolution in punctuation? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯¯ We don't know, but they allow us to express emotions or tones, although they are not yet at the point of completely replacing traditional symbols.

Vivienne Westwood, o salto da tigresa

At the MUDE, visitors can view a collection of clothes created by Vivienne Westwood. Each piece highlights her interest in history and her originality in reinterpreting and updating garments linked, for example, to the Renaissance or the 17th century.

The title of the exhibition is Vivienne Westwood o salto da tigresa, which refers to a philosophical concept developed by Walter Benjamin. It is a metaphor for revolutionary action. It is a sudden and unexpected break with the course of history. It invites us to think about time in a new way and to move away from a linear and straightforward view of it. The tiger's leap is the moment when past and present converge. Benjamin uses the tiger's leap to understand struggles and revolts. It corresponds to the reappropriation of the past and its activation in the present by giving it a new image. This concept perfectly illustrates Vivienne Westwood's creations, as she herself has explained in several interviews: “All my ideas come from studying the ideas of the past. There is a link between art and fashion. I couldn't create anything without being inspired by art.”

Vivienne Westwood (1941-2022) was a British fashion designer who played a major role in popularizing the punk and new wave movements. She was also deeply committed to freedom of expression, civil rights, and environmentalism. She started out as a schoolteacher and began designing clothes after meeting Malcolm McLaren, the future manager of the Sex Pistols. Together, they opened a boutique that changed names several times. Let It Rock in 1971, their first designs were influenced by counterculture movements. In 1972, the shop became Too Fast To Live Too Young To Die, in 1974 it became Sex, in 1976 it became Seditionaries, and in the 1980s it changed its name again to Wolrds End. They spread the punk aesthetic in their designs by making torn clothes with safety pins or by subverting symbols of royalty, such as the famous T-shirt with the portrait of Queen Elizabeth. Vivienne Westwood also questions gender issues in her designs by developing androgynous lines. Her designs also feature many historical influences, borrowing from the Renaissance, British tradition, and 17th- and 18th-century paintings.

The exhibition begins with a dress from the Pirate collection for fall/winter 1981-1982, the first official collaboration with Malcolm McLaren. This collection is highly imaginative, with a theatrical feel to the silhouettes. They are characterized by shapes borrowed from the world of piracy and 17th-century nobility. Westwood reinterprets historical shapes, making them looser and more comfortable, with asymmetrical and androgynous cuts. Several iconic pieces can be found in this collection, such as the soft leather pirate boots with multiple buckle straps and the shirt with wavy prints. The motifs come from nautical vocabulary and are inspired by galleons and Native American designs. This collection is also inspired by French Romanticism, referencing Géricault's painting The Raft of the Medusa. The dominant tones of the dress on display are the same as those in the painting (brown), but through her choice of materials, which reflect the light and add shine, and the addition of touches of color, Westwood brings the dress to life, moving away from the morbid nature of the painting.

Corsets, iconic pieces from Vivienne Westwood's collections, are excellent examples of her ability to draw on elements from history and give them a new purpose. The corset is a rather controversial garment in the history of fashion. It has been seen as a symbol of wealth and nobility, an erotic symbol, and even a patriarchal instrument. Corsets were first used as undergarments, worn over a blouse or tank top rather than directly against the skin to keep them cleaner and more comfortable. In the 20th century, they were perceived as restrictive garments. It was used to alter the female silhouette by slimming the waist and lifting the chest to conform to aesthetic standards. It is complex and traditionally made to measure to fit the wearer's shape as closely as possible. Vivienne Westwood changed its primary use, incorporating it into her collections and giving it the status of outerwear. By diverting it from its usual function, she transformed it into a symbol of female liberation and emancipation. She used modern materials such as Lycra to make it more comfortable and flexible, abandoning the traditional, overly rigid whalebone stays. She incorporated a zipper to replace the lacing and hooks that traditionally fastened it, and added elastic at the sides. Westwood reappropriated the shape of the flat corset of the 18th century, becoming the first designer to reinterpret its structure. The first corset to appear in her collections was the Portrait corset in the fall/winter 1987-1988 collection. For this piece, Vivienne decided to print the painting Daphnis and Chloe on the front.

Vivienne Westwood also draws inspiration from British tradition, revisiting classic suit styles and incorporating tartan patterns into her collections. She offers clothing with a strong classic foundation, but styles them in unconventional ways by exaggerating proportions, making seams visible, or even tearing them. 

Tartan is a Scottish wool fabric traditionally used to make kilts. It is created by weaving alternating bands of colored threads in the warp and weft. Associated with rebellion, the tartan pattern was banned between 1746 and 1786 following the Jacobite uprisings. Vivienne Westwood incorporated it for the first time in her Fall/Winter 1988-1989 Time Machine collection, and it became a recurring choice in her designs. She even developed and registered her own tartans, such as the MacAndreas tartan created for her 1993 Anglomania collection. In this collection, Westwood combined elegant, classically cut suits with mini-kilts. She has already mixed more than 12 different tartans in some of these creations. She took an element of British tradition and modernized it, using it on extravagantly cut clothing and accessories, but also infusing it with pop colors.

  

Throughout her career, Vivienne Westwood has constantly drawn inspiration from history, successfully integrating her inspirations into the contemporary era. In an interview, she stated, “Exploring the past is entering the future.” This creative thinking has enabled her to make her mark on fashion history and become a leading figure in her field.