Gender in the French language being framed with numerous syntactic agreements, its hypergrammatical inscription is at the core of power relations in France when dealing with the language of the Republic. Consequently, to implement gender awareness in France, a nation-state made monolingual, scientists and activists are faced with challenges relying on the instrumentation of binary thinking to impose authoritative views of gender, as if the unity of its people depended on a standardized use of communication. Attempts have been made through history since the French Revolution (1789) to deconstruct male domination rooted in the syntax but language reforms are still resented as dangerous, especially because the system with endless rules has long lived. Indeed, a specific epistemology in the articulation of gender and language research in France, including power relations within feminist circles, has restricted the view of both reformed usage and more systemic revolutions (from the 1970s on). Yet, even if language policies are sometimes still drowned in theoretical loopholes and confusing terms, adding trouble to occasional outbursts of rage in the mass media, creativity is at work for the French language. Indeed, once the obstacles are identified, there are ways to defy gender norms and observe parallel forms promoting diversity within the French-speaking world and beyond it, through the understanding of other views of gender in languages offering more flexible systems or more explicit third spaces.