Swedish gender equality: in name only?
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It’s not just Sweden’s party princess who answers to the name Madeleine anymore.
The battle between the Swedish Tax Authority (Skatteverket) and individuals who want to choose unconventional (or as Skatteverket likes to call it, “inappropriate”) names continues to rage, but this time it might just slay one of Sweden’s sacred cows: gender equality.
The Swedish administrative court of appeals has granted a 28-year-old Sandviken transexual, the right to be called Immanuel, overturning a decision by the Swedish Tax Agency that the male moniker was unsuitable for a woman. Jan-Olov Ågren, a male cross-dresser from northern Sweden, won a similar victory in his bid to go by the name Madeleine last November.
Good for the court of appeals, and let’s hope the Supreme Administrative Court upholds the rulings if Skatteverket appeals the decisions, as it confirmed it plans to do. While Skatteverket’s decisions to prevent people from changing their names to things like Dark Night or naming their children after fruit at least make some sense, the Tax Authority’s reticence to embrace unusual names in these particular cases flies in the face of Sweden’s extremely explicit dedication to gender equality.
Gender also comes into the picture when it comes to what parents call their kids. Last year, Skatteverket told a couple in Stockholm that they may not keep the name Elvis for their five-month old daughter on the grounds “that Elvis is a first name of a masculine type and as such may, in light of standard practice, be considered clearly inappropriate as a first name for a woman.” Just last week, Sveriges Radio reported that Skatteverket also ruled against a mother in Jönköping who wanted to name her six-month-old daughter David, claiming it was an unsuitable name for a girl.
How can this even be an issue in a country that castrates heraldic lions in the name of gender equality?
April 13th, 2009 at 7:03 pm
But there has to be some common sense. Gender equality in terms of education, employment, empowerment, political or economic status is great. As per scientific analysis a female is a female and a male is a male. A name is meant to identify a person. There must be some sense to it.
April 16th, 2009 at 6:17 pm
A name is a name so why make it male or female, naming babies may be of concern. But adults should have the liberty to call themselves what they want, it is not their personnal number that they want to change.
April 18th, 2009 at 1:38 pm
We cannot change our personal number but as free individuals we can change our name and should be able to do so officially. A name is not just a name but it represents a kind of pyschological package. The name given to us at birth holds a lot of emotional force and our personal history. Due to the emotional past associations of names many people chose to change them as they decide to change their outlook on life. Pop stars change names, religious people often take a relgious name, people in groups such as men or womens group often take on a new name that is a badge of acceptance in a group. Is the skatteverket saying they must be the ones who control our name/psychological image of who we are and whom we wish to be? A name is never just a name!
May 8th, 2009 at 3:27 pm
The article’s author is soo…worried about the parents right to name their daughter “count dracula” or watever they want that he or she doesn’t mention the daughter’s rights. Doesn’t she have the right not to be bullied or ridicularized in school by fellow classmates?Doesn’t she have the right to grow up with as a normal swedish girl with a regular name?Those parents are extremelly selfish trying to discount in their children their anger towards government or society or watever…
May 8th, 2009 at 9:04 pm
Perhaps its just my American sensibilities, but the idea of a government deciding what a person calls themselves seems more than a little silly. I’ve had family members change their names to honor other relatives. I’ve gone to school with such characters as Sputnik Television Radio (First, Middle, and Last Name). I grew up with a whole host of very odd family names, Wuten, Wiley, Shellburn. And to make it stranger, most of these names were interchangeable regardless of gender. How is it ever the government’s business as to what I call myself or what others call me? It sounds an awful lot like a certain state bureaucracy is making work for themselves rather than attending to what they were designed to do in the first place.
May 10th, 2009 at 9:23 am
I don’t see this as an aspect of gender equality. Why don’t they allow a child to be named Devil? Because of the high bullying potential. Why don’t they allow a female child to be named Elvis? Because of the high bullying potential. Feminine and masculine forms of names have existed throughout history and there’s no use denying this exists in a society. You want to make a stand against it? Change your own name. Don’t use your child as a tool just to make a statement.
June 22nd, 2009 at 11:35 pm
How about UK names, weird and wonderful some are, no-one has the right to tell anyone what a name should or should not be. Sir Bob Geldolf’s daughter is named “Peaches” – The name “Leslie or Lesley” is pronounced the same, whether a male name or female. I have a friend who changed his name by deed poll to “Tommy Well Sorted” – (from Tommy Ross) – he just liked it! I have a female friend named “Charlie” and this is not short for Charlotte, it is her given name.
To quote Bill Shakespear, “What’s in a name? A rose by any other name would smell as sweet” True.
Is Sweden a “Big Brother” country? What next? I always thought it quite a liberal country, where citizen’s rights are respected. Really, telling people what name they can or can’t have!
September 14th, 2009 at 6:43 pm
I can understand basing this on the PC-ness of the name or if the name is particularly controversial. But based on gender? I am a girl with what has traditionally been a boy’s name, and apart from being accidentally enrolled in the boy’s half of a co-ed summer camp, I’ve never had an issue with it.