A Very Hygge Week

Hej alle! Last week was chill. The highlights were spending time with my friends and family(my parents visited me). It’s Christmas season in Denmark, so that means the Christmas beer is on sale everywhere, there’s a Christmas market on every corner, and I’ve seen signs in front of restaurants for “glogg.”

My friend Claire showed me her favorite ice cream place, Nicecream. All the ice cream is vegan! Nothing says Christmas like pumpkin ice cream! This place was surprisingly busy for a winter day.

My parents visited last week. We walked around Roskilde and Copenhagen and I got to see Denmark through new eyes. We went to the National Gallery of Denmark and saw the Denmark’s Golden Age exhibit.

Last week, I did a group presentation for Gender and Sexuality in Scandinavia on gender neutral pronouns in Denmark and Sweden. Sweden has the gender neutral pronoun, hen, to describe someone whose gender is unknown or someone who identifies as neither or both male and female. There has been recent debate in Denmark about the use of pronouns in universities as described in the articles below. Denmark is not as progressive about gender-neutral pronouns as Sweden is. I’ve heard from a couple of people that even the queer scene in Denmark is divided between the cisgender queers and the non-binary/trans folks. The debate on pronouns popped up in the show I’ve been watching called The Bridge/ Broen/Bron. Here’s a screenshot from the scene:

I found these fascinating sources on pronouns:
Min, Roselyne. “University of Copenhagen encourages lecturers to contribute to inclusive education environment.” CPH Post Online, September 11, 2019. 
http://cphpost.dk/news/university-of-copenhagen-encourages-lecturers-to-contribute-to-inclusive-education-environment.html

Rogers, Adam. “Actually, Gender-Neutral Pronouns Can Change a Culture.” Wired, August 15, 2019. 
https://www.wired.com/story/actually-gender-neutral-pronouns-can-change-a-culture/
– This one is my favorite article. Rogers argues that the evolving language of gender shapes how a society perceives gender.

“Sweden adds gender-neutral pronoun to dictionary.” The Guardian, March 24, 2015. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/mar/24/sweden-adds-gender-neutral-pronoun-to-dictionary

Enjoy!