“Hey Guys , Once Upon a Time was Sexist Language ...”

Abstract

This article adopts a contrastive approach and focuses on sexist practices in language – in French and in English – affecting women. It investigates the extent to which these practices are embedded in both languages, along with the recommendations the communities speaking those languages make to encourage the use of a more inclusive language. It also centers on the use of non-sexist language by James Finn Garner in his politically correct bedtime stories and their translations, as a practical case study revealing the challenge that reformulating sexist language into non-sexist language poses, not only on an intralingual level, but also on an interlingual level.