My thoughts have already been summarized after my previous reply, so I'll point you towards them instead of rehashing it again. (I can do that if someone calls what I'm doing here a cop-out, I just don't see the need to have several posts say the same things over and over).
MBergman said:
What did follow the whole debacle was a mob of uptight, self-righteous and self-appointed guardians of equality that treated the word as holy and would downright harass you or accuse you of being sexist if you neglected to use it. As if general useage of it will solve all sexist problems. With that said there's been ridicolous over reactions from the other side as well, people have thrown major fits just because their kids were being taught the word. (though some daycares apparently forced the kids to use it, which I don't agree with)
The whole thing just blew waaaaay out of proportion, but that's Sweden in a nut shell. Find an issue that's actually really trivial and then just devote all your energy to that instead of focusing on real problems, in an effort to seem like you really care about some issue (sexism in this case). Because if there's something a Swede is really scared of it's seeming like he or she is not politically correct.
As someone mentioned, there's several other languages that already have gender neutral pronouns, if they would have just said something like "Here's this nifty new word, use it if you want to!" and not tried stuffing it down peoples' throats, things would have just gone smoother. And less annoying. Just to emphasize though: I'm not opposed to this word, I think people just treat it as something it's not.
Larcenist said:
It is not the word in itself that is stirring up all the anger in most people in Sweden, had it only been a word for someone to use should they feel it appropriate in the context then it would be fine. The thing is that most people that use "hen" are either political profiles or extreme feminists (the latter which are the ones who made the word synonymous with angry rant topic).
We are no longer at the point where you can utilize the word if you want, we are at the point where you are a misygonist piece of s**t should you use him/her rather than "hen" when speaking to someone who's even remotely feministic.
These two, as I said, sum up my opinions nicely. While I realize I'm working off anecdotes here (what else can you expect? We're influenced by our experiences after all), I've been faced with these situations often, which is probably why I come off as someone vehemently opposed to the idea when this is not the case. I agree with your "let's go find your friends" example, and I don't mind it whatsoever.
And yes, slippery slope arguments are dangerous, which is why I said I don't like using it, but again, considering how ridiculous the entire situation with our crossing signs became, I get a bad taste in my mouth whenever I read something about this topic.
As a final note, judging your colleague by just one comment might be a bad idea, but he sounds like a jackass, regardless of gender or sexual orientation. I dressed up in girl's clothes a couple of times when I was a kid too. I grew up with three sisters and my mother, as my dad was often absent for work. Most kids do this, it doesn't mean shit for their sexuality.
