Recommendation: Sweden to abolish gender?

Two older but still fascinating articles:

Someone recommends…

Sweden tries to banish gender
A news article

This is the first time I’ve ever heard of such a public, nation-wide discussion of gender. I don’t think I agree with everything they’re trying to do, but -damn- it’s inspiring that they’re taking gender equality so seriously.

Ricky recommends…

New Swedish gender-neutral pronoun
Another news article

I read this and thought of everyone here. The Swedes have introduced a gender-neutral pronoun to their language so people no longer have to use ‘han’ (he) and ‘hon’ (she).

» Recommend something. «


Posted by on March 5th, 2014 at 08:00 am

Category: articles, recommendations 2 comments »

2 Responses to “Recommendation: Sweden to abolish gender?”

  1. Danielle
    March 6th, 2014 at 7:32 am |

    Pretty cool, eh? I do wish we could decide on a gender-neutral option for English. There are at least a half-dozen now, and none really seems to be the front-runner. Nothing is really standard. I tend to default to “singular they”, but it still feels awkward to my little grammar-loving heart.

    [Reply]
  2. René
    March 6th, 2014 at 9:49 pm |

    The introduction of the new pronoun to the language is beautiful, as is the variety in advertising representation and encouragement of children to recognise and value all family types.

    But of course, someone has to go too far and make it disgusting:

    “One Swedish school got rid of its toy cars because boys “gender-coded” them and ascribed the cars higher status than other toys. Another preschool removed “free playtime” from its schedule because, as a pedagogue at the school put it, when children play freely “stereotypical gender patterns are born and cemented. In free play there is hierarchy, exclusion, and the seed to bullying.” 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.”

    If you really want to transcend gender, let people just be people. The way they want to be.

    [Reply]

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