Gender neutral pronouns to describe people
Are there gender neutral pronouns in Spanish to describe people? Instead of él or ella?
4 Answers
There are no gender neutral pronouns (when referring to people) in Spanish but there are some gender neutral adjectives, such as "inteligente." There are also the gender neutral nouns ending "ista" such as "turista" and "bautista." The only way to tell if you are speaking of males or females is to consider the article "el/un" or "la/una."
No, there are not.
No.
To my knowledge no.
Now I am going to quote someone's diatribe on the subject, this may not have anything to do with the reason for your question, but I think it good reading in general on cultural biases:
https://www.quora.com/What-are-some-queer-gender-neutral-pronouns-in-the-Spanish-language
Andrew Iverson, works at University of the Fraser Valley
Answered Sep 24 2014
As a French and Spanish teacher of many years in politically "careful" Vancouver and Toronto, I have encountered this issue a lot among my students who are native speakers of English. Some are concerned about gender inclusivity (that is, overtly expressing the inclusion of women when referring to people in general) while others are more preoccupied with the need to express gender neutrality (that is, being able to refer to people without mentioning gender). I feel that the best solution, as suggested by Joseph, is to allow people to communicate to you how they would like to be referred to.
That said, this issue is an excellent example of how English speakers love to impose their world view/cultural grid on other cultures. With regards to Spanish, the battle for gender inclusivity is very real in places like Mexico and Spain, both countries in which I lived for a number of years. In Mexico for example, official government publications must refer to “los mexicanos y las mexicanas.” Many ordinary Mexicans, however, feel this is a pointless (and perhaps American-influenced) distraction from real issues that affect the lives of millions of women, such as domestic violence and female indigenous disempowerment. Furthermore, when someone says “los mexicanos” to you, you may hear “male Mexicans,” but the average Mexican simply hears “[all] Mexicans.”
Ironically, I have seen countless Canadians and Americans who carefully use all the right pronouns engage in heartless haggling with already downtrodden indigenous women in Mexico to knock a few pesos off the product they spent hours or days producing… and then honouring prices in mainstream (and far more expensive), “white-owned” shops in the cities. Clearly, people acting in this way subconsciously or perhaps consciously favour white privilege over true gender inclusiveness.
Gender neutrality is also not on the political agenda in Spanish-speaking countries to the same extent as it is in Anglo-Saxon countries. This may be because despite a reputation for Latin machismo, transgendered people were historically not as systematically discriminated against as in English-speaking cultures. Many Mexican indigenous groups, for example, venerated transgendered people. This difference may also be due to a natural respect many Spanish speakers have for the female members of their families—indeed “las tías, las abuelas y las mamás” set the family’s agenda and tend to rule the roost, and the worst form of swearing is to debase someone’s mother—a male taking on that identity may not be disempowered in the same way as has traditionally been the case in Anglo-Saxon contexts. This is not to negate or downplay the struggles for inclusion among women and transgendered individuals in Spanish-speaking societies. Nevertheless, the vast majority of people in Mexico would be utterly bewildered by your campaign against how their language is structured and how they should manage their social constructs.
Regardless of why gender inclusivity and neutrality in language is not as big an issue in Spanish-speaking countries, it is important that you understand that this is not your fight. To truly respect the cultures associated with Spanish and French would be to learn the languages the way they are spoken, written, and taught today and then to engage respectfully in an ongoing dialogue with native Spanish and French speakers and teachers about how to reconcile your Anglo-Saxon political convictions and worldview with the languages that are being shared with you. Only then will you begin to arrive at a cultural understanding of the issues and perceptions that characterize these languages. Embarking upon this conversation from the ignorance of a position of judgement and superiority will ultimately frustrate your progress and alienate you from the people with whom you are trying to communicate.
