The Nordic countries are often regarded as being at the forefront of issues regarding gender identity and equality.
For example, the Swedes are so gung-ho about gender issues that in April 2015 the Swedish Academy announced that they would be introducing a new gender-neutral pronoun – ‘hen’.
‘Hen’ can be used to refer to a transgender person, a group of people of mixed genders, a person who chooses not to identify with a gender, or when discussing someone whose gender is irrelevant.
Here’s an example:
“Aren’t your friends in town for the weekend? Invite ‘hen’ to the party too!”
In this example, the person who is inviting to the party doesn’t know the gender of the other person’s friend. Sure, I guess they could say ‘hon’ (she) or ‘han’ (he), but why use these two when you could just solve the problem with a shiny new gender-neutral pronoun and not risk assuming anything?)
If someone were to tell me that they want to be referred to as ‘hen’, then I think I would probably do so since Swedish society and the language have been so accommodating to the needs of this population – this is obviously something that means a lot to them and is at the core of Swedish values. I always try to make it a point to be as open-minded as possible when it comes to countries’ customs and values, and the fact that they’re telling me this in the first place means I’m speaking in Swedish which is awesome!))
How do you feel about the use of gender-neutral pronouns? Does your language have something similar? How was it received by society? Let me know below!
