Alanna, 3; Psychology is Interesting

This year, I am taking AP Psychology and yes, most of the topics we talk about bore me to life, but this week we read this article from Sweden about a new pronoun they created called “Hen”. This is a mix between the Sweden pronouns “hon” (she) and “han” (he). This word was added to the Swedish dictionary in 2011 to promote gender neutrality. It can be used when the gender of a person is not known or when it is not desirable to specify them as either a "she" or "he". With this pronoun, Swedish gender-neutral activists hoped to banish gender specification. 

I have never been one to get involved in controversial issues but reading this article piqued my interest. I am in no way am I a critic of gender neutrality, I am just indifferent to the issue. This article stated, “What many gender-neutral activists are after is a society that entirely erases traditional gender roles and stereotypes at even the most mundane levels.” My question is, why is acceptance not your goal, but instead total erasement? I believe we could live in a much more peaceful world is everyone just accepted each other's opinions and moved on, but I know that can’t happen. They also mentioned changing the entire school systems, starting with preschools becoming gender-neutral. This meant putting a girl and a boy into school at the age of 5 and telling them they are the same. I understand girls and boys being equal but I do not understand how people can explain to a 5-year-old boy that the girl standing next to him is in no way different. Meili and I talked about it for almost an hour and a half over the phone and our conclusion came to yes, girl and boy are equal
and can equally be qualified for specific things but a girl can reproduce and give life, where a guy
cannot, therefore we were confused as to their way of thinking. 

To learn more and hopefully get a better understanding of their subject, I did some research. Most gender-neutral activists are not looking for everyone to refer to themselves as a “hen” but instead just the small things like gender-neutral bathrooms. Most say they feel trapped in a world where they are not accepted and are just looking for a way out. This contradicted what the article we read in Psychology wrote. After doing more research other than reading one article I understood their goal instead of thin slicing.