Mid Sweden University

In recent years, the Swedish indefinite impersonal pronoun man has been replaced with en by feminist and norm-critical language users. This usage is an example of a burgeoning amount of Swedish feminist discursive work, and is in need of scrutiny and discussion. Through qualitative interviews with six users of the norm-critical pronoun en, the study seeks to understand its political potential and its limitations. The study concludes that the pronoun is used to advocate a more inclusive and gender neutral society, but that it also carries the potential to give its user a positive feminist identity. Furthermore, the study shows that pronouns also can work to exclude, and that users strategically adopt to this trait in their usage.