Challenges in Netflix Arabic subtitling of English nonbinary gender expressions in 'Degrassi: Next Class' and 'One Day at a Time'

The paper addresses how English gender-neutral expressions are translated into Arabic, a highly gendered language, within Netflix subtitles for series featuring nonbinary characters. It situates the problem in growing media representation of nonbinary identities and the necessity of audiovisual translation for global audiences. The authors note two core challenges: linguistic (Arabic’s strict grammatical gender and agreement across parts of speech) and cultural (conservative attitudes and limited acceptance/understanding of transgender and nonbinary identities in many Arab contexts). As English allows gender-neutral terms and the singular they, Arabic lacks a widely accepted neutral gender system, rendering neutrality difficult. The study’s research question is: How are English gender-neutral expressions translated into the gendered Arabic language? The work underscores the importance of accurate, respectful subtitling for representation and potential influence on audience perceptions.

The review covers foundational distinctions between sex and gender (Oakley; Butler) and the spectrum of nonbinary identities (Richards et al.). It links gender to language use and social structures (Hall et al.; Hord; Zimman), noting that languages with grammatical gender can reinforce binary perceptions (Jakiela & Ozier; Sato & Athanasopoulos; Samuel et al.). It outlines grammatical gender, agreement, and how English has largely lost grammatical gender, while Arabic maintains extensive gender inflection across pronouns, verbs, adjectives, and nouns (Corbett; Melissaropoulou; Jones). Prior work shows machine translation and systems are often male-biased and struggle with gender-aware rendering (Elaraby et al.; Gaido et al.; Habash et al.). The review also situates queer identities within Arab cultures, countering the idea of queerness as foreign, while documenting widespread stigma and its harms (Needham; Amer; Al-Abbas & Haider; El-Sharif; Hayek et al.; Kaplan et al.; Khoury et al.; Farah et al.; Hudhayri; Georgis). Subtitling as a constrained mode is discussed, emphasizing spatial/temporal limits, reduction, and strategy choices (Díaz-Cintas; Abdelaal; Obeidat; Perego et al.; Rosa et al.; Sun), which can lead to omissions or misinterpretations affecting meaning.

The study adopts a qualitative analysis of Arabic subtitles for selected Netflix Original episodes featuring nonbinary characters. Data comprise: three episodes from Degrassi: Next Class season 4 (episode 6 #ILookLikeA; episode 9 #obsessed; episode 10 #KThxBye) and two episodes from One Day at a Time (S2E3 To Zir With Love; S3E2 Outside). English dialogue and Modern Standard Arabic subtitles were extracted from Netflix and aligned in Aegisub to facilitate comparison. Selection criteria prioritized scenes and episodes with explicit discussion or depiction of nonbinary identities, pronouns, and labels. The analysis assessed: (1) pronoun rendering (e.g., singular they, neopronouns), (2) grammatical gender agreement across verbs/adjectives/nouns, (3) choice and accuracy of LGBTQIA+ labels/terminology (e.g., trans, genderqueer, genderfluid, nonbinary), and (4) consistency across episodes and series. Where misgendering or inaccuracies occurred, the authors proposed alternative translations leveraging strategies like transposition, paraphrase, or community-used Arabic queer terminology. Netflix’s no-censorship policy was noted to reduce external alterations, focusing the evaluation on translator choices.

- Subtitlers frequently misgendered nonbinary characters through inconsistent and incorrect gender agreement (verbs, adjectives, nouns), even when pronouns were intended to be neutral. - Pronoun handling was inconsistent: English singular they was variously rendered as masculine plural (هم), dual forms (هما), or omitted, often without consistent agreement, causing semantic and grammatical mismatches. In Degrassi, translation oscillated between plural and dual forms for the same referent, and agreement often defaulted to feminine forms tied to perceived sex rather than stated gender. - Neopronouns (ze/zir) were omitted or transliterated inconsistently. In One Day at a Time, transliterations (“زي/زا”) were introduced but sentence-level agreement still misgendered or defaulted to feminine inflections. - Queer labels were mistranslated or calqued unnaturally: “trans” was rendered with a slur-like term (“متحولة”) and misgendered; “genderqueer” and “genderfluid” were calqued, framing queerness as foreign, instead of using community-accepted Arabic expressions (e.g., terms involving the borrowed “جيندر”). - “Nonbinary” was inaccurately rendered as “without a specific gender” and elsewhere implied as a fixed third gender, reinforcing misconceptions rather than a spectrum concept. - Subtitlers often used the feminine dual or feminine plural where masculine plural or neutral constructions would be grammatically correct or more inclusive, and failed to restructure sentences to avoid gendered inflections when needed. - One Day at a Time showed some effort (e.g., using هم for they; creative adaptation of ze/zir), but later episodes reverted to misgendering (feminine forms), highlighting inconsistency. - Overall, translators appeared to translate word-by-word, relying on perceived biological sex or defaults, rather than conveying intended gender identity; cultural/linguistic biases and insufficient knowledge of Arabic queer terminology drove many errors.

The findings directly address the research question by showing that English gender-neutral expressions are not systematically or consistently rendered in Arabic subtitles. The absence of a standard Arabic gender-neutral system, coupled with pervasive grammatical gender, demands careful strategy and sentence restructuring. Subtitlers often translated at the lexical level (pronouns in isolation) without ensuring sentence-level agreement or neutrality, leading to misgendering and semantic distortion. Cultural biases and limited familiarity with queer Arabic terminology exacerbated errors—e.g., using slur-adjacent terms for trans people, calques that foreignize queer identities, and interpretations that re-inscribe a gender binary or a simplistic “third gender.” Yet, workable options exist: consistent use of masculine plural هم for singular they (as used by some Arabic nonbinary speakers), adopting community-vetted Arabic terminology, and applying transposition/paraphrase to avoid gendered inflections. The inconsistent choices undermine representation and may shape audience perceptions negatively, especially in contexts where acceptance is fragile. The study underscores that faithful, respectful rendering requires both linguistic adaptation and cultural competence informed by queer Arabic speakers’ practices.

The study shows that Netflix Arabic subtitles for Degrassi: Next Class and One Day at a Time often fail to accurately render nonbinary gender expressions, primarily due to inconsistent pronoun choices, pervasive misgendering via grammatical agreement, and inappropriate or unnatural terminology. While some creative attempts (e.g., transliterating ze/zir; using هم) appeared, they were undercut by inconsistent application and sentence-level agreement failures. The authors argue that translators’ limited understanding and possible biases contribute to reverting to sex-based language. They recommend consulting language used by Arabic-speaking nonbinary communities, leveraging the borrowed term “جيندر,” adopting consistent strategies (e.g., هم), and restructuring sentences to minimize gendered inflections. Future research should extend to other platforms more prone to censorship, other audiovisual modes (e.g., dubbing), and empirical studies on the linguistic preferences of queer Arabs to inform inclusive standards.

- Scope limited to selected episodes from two Netflix series; findings may not generalize across platforms or broader content. - Focused on one AVT mode (subtitling); other modes like dubbing/voice-over not analyzed. - Generalized analytical approach; did not empirically survey preferences within diverse queer Arabic-speaking communities. - Qualitative assessment without quantitative measures of error rates; absence of controlled inter-rater reliability metrics.