I Am A Hen and I Am Proud!

Earlier this month, the online version of Sweden’s National Encyclopedia introduced a new pronoun hen as a “proposed gender-neutral personal pronoun instead of he [han in Swedish] or she [hon].” The addition of this pronoun is a landmark victory in the movement for gender-neutrality, which has been widely embraced in Sweden. The Slate.com article “Sweden’s New Gender Neutral Pronoun: Hen” by Natalie Rothchild says that even though Sweden is considered the most gender-equal country in the world, activists there are pushing for gender-neutrality in order to show sensitivity to those who do not identify with binary labels. One of the issues that activists are tackling is for parents to be able to choose any name for their child regardless of its current ties to gender. A Swedish toy catalog chose to disregard traditional gender labels and switched the toys that boys and girls are typically photographed with.  Several preschools have completely abandoned the use of gender pronouns and instead, children are referred to by their first names or as “buddies.” However, there are many who strongly oppose the changes being made in Sweden out of concern for the effects on children.

Elise Claeson, a former equality expert at the Swedish Confederation of Professions believes that gender-neutrality can be socially and psychologically damaging, stating that “young children can become confused by the suggestion that there is a third, ‘in-between’ gender at a time when their brains and bodies are developing. Adults should not interrupt children's discovery of their gender and sexuality.” Even Rothchild herself seems to oppose the changes. She writes, “Ironically, in the effort to free Swedish children from so-called normative behavior, gender-neutral proponents are also subjecting them to a whole set of new rules and new norms as certain forms of play become taboo, language becomes regulated, and children's interactions and attitudes are closely observed by teachers… And so every detail of children's interactions gets micromanaged by concerned adults, who end up problematizing minute aspects of children's lives, from how they form friendships to what games they play and what songs they sing.”

I think that Claeson and Rothchild are underestimating the level of awareness that children have about their own identities and gender. The issue of gender-neutrality is personal to me because I distinctly remember the confusion I felt as a child being forced to conform to the stereotypical “girl” gender role. Even though I was unable to articulate my opposition, I knew for sure that I hated wearing dresses and playing with Barbie dolls. Whenever I saw flowers in the park, I would stomp on them just because I knew that they were associated with being “girly.” Oddly enough, my favorite color was still pink. Eventually, my mother accepted my unconventional identity and started dressing me in the same clothing as my twin brother just to make me happy. Once I began elementary school it was a lot more difficult for me to understand what I should or should not like because of gender stereotypes. For all of kindergarten I remember wanting to play with the toy dinosaurs in our classroom so badly, but I never had the courage to do so out of fear for what others would think. I truly believe that had I known an “in-between” gender could exist, my childhood would have been a lot easier to cope with. If we teach future generations of children about the fluidity of gender, then perhaps they could be free of the fear and confusion that I once felt.

Me and my twin brother in identical outfits!

Read the article from Slate.com here