From ignorance and ignoring to demonization: Gender identities through the lens of institutions that shape linguistic norms

The paper explores the distortion of fundamental postulates regarding the gender category in linguistics by some of the key representatives of scientific, educational, and cultural institutions in Serbia, during the recent public debate on gender-sensitive language. The debate emerged after May 20, 2021, when the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia adopted the Gender Equality Law, which introduced the mandatory use of gender-sensitive language in administration, education, and media. The Committee for the Standardisation of the Serbian Language strongly opposed this law by misrepresenting knowledge about language and gender. To identify the link between the distortion of knowledge and the socio-political consequences of creating epistemic injustice, this paper combines linguistic methods (critical discourse analysis) with ignorance studies. The research findings are related to: a) the concealment and distortion of facts (from general linguistics and the history of the Serbian language); b) ignorance of new knowledge and issues (standardization of gender-related vocabulary; addressing problems in syntax and punctuation); c) the gradation of hurtful language used to spread hate speech and convey prejudices about gender identities.