Entre a língua e o embate

Abstract

In recent years, so-called "gender-neutral language" has become a point of discursive contention in the public sphere, especially in cyberspace. Far from being restricted to a strictly linguistic issue, this debate mobilizes political, ideological, and symbolic disputes related to the inclusion, visibility, and recognition of subjects who do not identify with the gender binary. From the perspective of materialist Discourse Analysis, this article aims to analyze statements about gender-inclusive language through a discursive analysis of discursive sequences (DS) extracted from episode "#29: Neutral Language – Interview with Sérgio Freire" (2024), broadcast by the podcast Calma, Gente Horrível. The corpus is taken as a digital discursive materiality marked by orality and circulation in cyberspace, highlighting a subject who occupies an institutional place of authority to speak about language. Methodologically, the study relies on the selection and interpretation of DS, considered as significant materialities traversed by historical and ideological conditions of production. The results indicate that gender-inclusive language functions as a space for taking a stand, in which linguistic choices produce political effects frequently erased by discourses that present themselves as technical or neutral. Furthermore, the very term "neutral language" is problematized, highlighting its constitutive contradiction, since language is understood as intrinsically political.