Gender pronoun transposition

{{Short description|LGBTQ linguistic phenomenon of switching pronouns}}

Gender pronoun transposition or pronoun switching is the substitution of a gendered personal pronoun for another gendered form, especially in the LGBTQ community. When used by gay and queer men, this would entail using the pronoun she instead of he, also known as she-ing.{{Cite web |last=Allan |first=Chris |date=2024-02-07 |title=Polari - The Secret Gay Language |url=https://yourdandi.co.uk/polari-the-secret-gay-language/#:~:text=While%20Polari%20may%20have%20faded,male%20names,%20Paul%20became%20Pauline. |access-date=2025-03-09 |website=Your D+I |language=en-GB}}{{cite book |last1=Baker |first1=Paul |title=Fabulosa!: The Story of Polari, Britain's Secret Gay Language |date=2019 |publisher=Reaktion Books |location=London |isbn=978-1-78914-168-9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vxWbDwAAQBAJ |language=en |pages=92–4}}{{Cite web |last=Skubich |first=Daz |date=2019-08-26 |title=Book Review: Fabulosa! The Story of Polari, Britain’s Secret Gay Language by Paul Baker |url=https://thequeerness.com/2019/08/26/book-review-fabulosa-the-story-of-polari-britains-secret-gay-language-by-paul-baker/#:~:text=Baker%20discusses%20how%20camp%20culture,attempting%20to%20invalidate%20their%20identities. |access-date=2025-03-09 |website=The Queerness |language=en}} Some lesbians and queer women use he/him pronouns in a similar fashion.{{Cite web |title=URLF Project: He/Him Lesbians |url=https://scalar.usc.edu/works/urlf-project/hehim-lesbians |access-date=2025-03-09 |website=URLF Project: PromotingQueerLiteracy |language=en}}{{Cite web |title=He/Him Lesbian - What is It? What Does It Mean? |url=https://taimi.com/wiki/hehim-lesbian-what-is-it-what-does-it-mean/ |access-date=2025-03-09 |website=Taimi |language=en-US}}

Often used in the British slang Polari, as well as other forms of LGBTQ language around the world, she-ing has been evidenced across the centuries, both as a way to disguise the subject of one's discussions in public and as a form of endearment.{{Cite web |last= |first= |date=2022-01-13 |title=Learn These Shady Polari Phrases, You Cackling Alice! |url=https://hornet.com/stories/polari-phrases-sex-shade-useful/ |access-date=2025-03-09 |website=Hornet |language=en}}{{Cite web |last=Baker |first=Paul |date=2019-08-22 |title=The Feints and Jabs of Polari, Britain’s Gay Slang |url=https://lithub.com/the-feints-and-jabs-of-polari-britains-gay-slang/ |access-date=2025-03-09 |website=Literary Hub |language=en-US |quote=In the Polari speaker's world, gender was linguistically reversed—he was she and (less commonly) she became he. This practice of feminizing through language, referred to by artist and Sister of Perpetual Indulgence (Manchester branch) Jez Dolan, is referred to as 'she-ing'. She-ing is one of the aspects of Polari that has survived into more recent decades, and the practice was so pervasive at a particular bar on Canal Street in Manchester's Gay Village that a 'She-box' was installed a few years ago, akin to a 'Swear-box', where patrons would have to put in a few coins if they she'd someone, with the proceeds being donated to charity.}}{{Cite journal |last=Motschenbacher |first=Heiko |title=Review of Fabulosa! The story of Polari, Britain's secret gay language, by Paul Baker |journal=Language |volume=96 |issue=4 |year=2020 |pp=938-940 |via=Project MUSE |doi=10.1353/lan.2020.0067 |quote=In the domain of personal reference, Polari speakers often draw on inverted appellation practices (for example, ‘she-ing’—the use of female pronouns to refer to male social actors), objectifying use of the pronoun it, endearment terms, metaphorical uses of kinship terms, and camp names.}} It is often associated with camp and drag culture.{{Cite journal |last=Chakrabarty |first=Urna |date=2020 |title=Colour me lavender: queering écriture féminine |url=https://lsr.edu.in/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Ijtihad-20.pdf |journal=Ijtihad |volume=7 |pages=34}} She-ing has also been noted in Israel, Russia, Peru, the Philippines, Brazil, and South Africa.For more on usage in Brazil:{{pb}}{{Cite journal |last=Maciel |first=Suely Claudia Lobato |last2=Kailer |first2=Dircel Aparecida |date=2024-08-23 |title=O uso do pronome feminino enquanto marca identitária de um grupo gay de Belém do Pará |url=https://periodicos.ufes.br/contextoslinguisticos/article/view/43704 |journal=Revista (Con)Textos Linguísticos |language=pt |volume=18 |issue=39 |pages=131–145 |doi=10.47456/rctl.v18i39.43704 |issn=1982-291X}}{{pb}}{{Cite journal |last=Moura |first=Renan Gomes de |last2=Nascimento |first2=Rejane Prevot |date=2020-05-01 |title=O estigma da feminilidade nas organizações: um estudo a partir da visão de sujeitos gays |url=https://periodicosibepes.org.br/index.php/recadm/article/view/2854 |journal=Revista Eletrônica de Ciência Administrativa |language=pt |volume=19 |issue=2 |pages=203–226 |doi=10.21529/RECADM.2020009 |issn=1677-7387}}{{pb}}{{Cite journal |last=Veiga |first=Luís Fernando da |last2=Romanini |first2=Moises |date=2019-08-12 |title=Armário de vidro: (re)conhecendo as políticas públicas e os direitos sexuais da população LGBT |url=https://periodicos.pucpr.br/psicologiaargumento/article/view/25566/23577 |journal=Psicologia Argumento |volume=35 |issue=89 |doi=10.7213/psicol.argum.35.89.AO03 |issn=1980-5942}} Objects can also be referred to as she.{{Cite web |title=Lavender Language, The Queer Way to Speak |url=https://www.out.com/out-exclusives/2016/8/17/lavender-linguistics-queer-way-speak |access-date=2025-03-09 |website=www.out.com |language=en |quote=Polari was rife with 'she-ing', an academic term that refers to the linguistic practice of feminizing people and things. She-ing appears almost universally and across centuries in gay language, from Peru to the Philippines to South Africa (where gay slang is called Gayle), to Israel (called oxtchit, derived from an Arabic word meaning 'my sister'), to Soviet-era Russia [in the gay slang goluboy].}}