All your Friends are Hens. Sweden goes gender-neutral.

[Gail]

As a sometimes writer, I have often wished for a gender neutral pronoun. Political correctness being the pain that it is, editors want you to be as gender inclusive as possible. Therefore you can't use he and him when you mean to include all the she's and her's. The current options are to speak in the plural, since they and them are gender neutral; use the pronoun one or you; write with the passive voice, which is just as annoying to editors as ignoring the feminine pronouns; or constantly and awkwardly repeat him or her, he or she.

LD

Ditto for me!

[doug yowell]

Ditto for me!

I have an uncle Gail so I guess that would work well for you!

[TreeOfLife]

Some Scriptural Background from One Who is in God's Sweden

Just a quick note: Hens are not gender neutral.

Doug is correct! Hens are female. Cocks are male. Having been brought up in Sweden using the Swedish language, my impression is clearly that when the Swedish words for 'hen,' 'hens,' or 'hen house' are being used in reference to people, then the intended association is a bunch of females chattering about nothing. If men are participating in such nonsense and in such chatter, then the intended implication is that the men so doing are behaving like females.

Now, I find it honorable for a woman to behave like a woman. I do not find it honorable for a woman to behave like a man. Likewise, I find it honorable for a man to behave like a man, whereas I do not find it honorable for a man to act like a female.

Indeed, may I ask you females among us this question: Why is it that sometimes I get the feeling that some among you women are wishing to hide the fact that you are a woman? Don't you find honor in being that which the Creator has created you for being? Or is it that you are trying to act like a man, and not feeling too successful in so doing, are you trying to hide you lack of success behind gender neutral words??? Or is the problem rather this, that most all of the "men" among us are grown up to act like women, even to the point that there is hardly a man left to appreciate a woman for being a woman? That is, are you women feeling that most all the male looking creatures around you are behaving like hens in the hen house?

Well, that's for my introduction...

As for the original Hebrew Scriptures, in Biblical Hebrew, and for the Hebrew language generally, I've learnt this: In Hebrew grammar, if there is a group of people consisting of all women, then that group must be referenced using the feminine gender. However, if there is even one male in a group of a thousand females, then the group is to be referenced using the male gender.

Interestingly, I've also learnt that many things in today's Hebrew world and language are using words to the effect that many groups, the male looking creatures included, are no better than a hen house...

To name just one example: The common Hebrew word for 'family' these days is 'mishpacha.' That's a feminine word. If you analyse the roots of that word it means something to the effect of 'the hatchlings of a female slave.' For instance, such as would be Abram's offspring through Hagar, Sarah's Egyptian slave. In contradistinction, there exists another word for 'family.' But that word is never used in common modern language in reference to a family. That Hebrew word is 'aleph,' the full word for the first letter of the alphabet. That Hebrew word is also used in reference to 'one' as well as to 'a thousand.' More importantly, it is also used in reference to God, as in "God is One." The God family is to be referenced using the male gender.

Perhaps the implication of the above said is that there exist today no truly godly families. All of our families are behaving like animals, like hen houses, or, if you will, all our families have accepted for themselves characteristics such as are simply referenced in the Book of Revelation by the term 'the Mark of the Beast.'

Getting back to the beginning: Per Genesis 1:26-27, when God created "man in our image" He was referencing Himself in the plural. That is, He was referencing Himself, including His family (not excluding wife and children,) using the name 'Elohim,' which is a Hebrew word in the masculine plural gender. Obviously, His, or their, intention was to create in their image a family in their own likeness. Thus we find, per verse 27, that "male and female created He them." That is, the image that He, they, created in their image was nothing less than that which constitutes the very basis for every single true biological family that have ever had offspring or children of their own.

Furthermore, the Hebrew word for 'male,' that is being used in verse 27, means 'memory' or 'remember.' Thus, a most important characteristic of a true male being, is memory, the ability to connect the present back to its origin, the ability to reason from cause to effect. Logic. The Hebrew is using distinct words for that which is mere chatter, and for that which is sensible talk with important content needed for effective communication.

I am hoping these words of mine will be helpful for someone to remember something of importance re how it all began. Something re the realities behind the Swedish usage of words like 'hen,' 'hens,' and 'hen house.' Indeed, I find all too many people, not only in Sweden, behaving, in talk as well as in action, as hens in a hen house - with no true male present...

I believe it is time for men to be men, and not to submit themselves to feminine rule. Remember Adam's sin: "And unto Adam he said: 'Because thou has hearkened to the voice of thy wife..." Genesis 3:17.

I pity all those poor women looking for even one true male, that is, to the extent that all the "men" amongst us are behaving like hens in a hen house. What is a truly honorable woman to do in such a sad situation? If she is a responsible woman, shouldn't she be honored for doing the best she can, even when attempting the impossible, to be a man when there isn't a man around to be found?

What do you think?

[Woody]

Me - beings Swiss n Swedish

I remain steadfastly neutral on this topic.

[LynnDel]

This "hen" idea is built on the English language. Do they have similar suggestions for gender-neutral pronouns for the Swedish language and the foreign languages recognized in Sweden? I am tempted to believe the word "hen" was chosen by a woman. What man would come up with "hen" as gender-encompassing pronoun? The idea sounds like an article from The Onion due to its ridiculosity -- though a gender neutral pronoun would be useful in some instances, as I previously stated.

LD

[Overaged]

This "hen" idea is built on the English language. Do they have similar suggestions for gender-neutral pronouns for the Swedish language and the foreign languages recognized in Sweden? I am tempted to believe the word "hen" was chosen by a woman. What man would come up with "hen" as gender-encompassing pronoun? The idea sounds like an article from The Onion due to its ridiculosity -- though a gender neutral pronoun would be useful in some instances, as I previously stated.

LD

Well; "ridiculosity" is a great new word for me too! lol. Thanks! lol

[LynnDel]

Thanks, OA, I love playing with words...

LD