Gender pronoun transposition or pronoun switching is the substitution of a gendered personal pronoun for another gendered form, especially in the LGBTQ community. When used by gay and queer men, this would entail using the pronoun she instead of he, also known as she-ing.[1][2][3] Some lesbians and queer women use he/him pronouns in a similar fashion.[4][5]
Often used in the British slang Polari, as well as other forms of LGBTQ language around the world, she-ing has been evidenced across the centuries, both as a way to disguise the subject of one's discussions in public and as a form of endearment.[6][7][8] It is often associated with camp and drag culture.[9] She-ing has also been noted in Israel, Russia, Peru, the Philippines, Brazil, and South Africa.[10][11][7] Objects can also be referred to as she.[11][7]
^ abcBaker, Paul (2019-08-22). "The Feints and Jabs of Polari, Britain's Gay Slang". Literary Hub. Retrieved 2025-03-09. In the Polari speaker's world, gender was linguistically reversed—he was she and (less commonly) she became he. This practice of feminizing through language, referred to by artist and Sister of Perpetual Indulgence (Manchester branch) Jez Dolan, is referred to as 'she-ing'. She-ing is one of the aspects of Polari that has survived into more recent decades, and the practice was so pervasive at a particular bar on Canal Street in Manchester's Gay Village that a 'She-box' was installed a few years ago, akin to a 'Swear-box', where patrons would have to put in a few coins if they she'd someone, with the proceeds being donated to charity.
^Motschenbacher, Heiko (2020). "Review of Fabulosa! The story of Polari, Britain's secret gay language, by Paul Baker". Language. 96 (4): 938–940. doi:10.1353/lan.2020.0067 – via Project MUSE. In the domain of personal reference, Polari speakers often draw on inverted appellation practices (for example, 'she-ing'—the use of female pronouns to refer to male social actors), objectifying use of the pronoun it, endearment terms, metaphorical uses of kinship terms, and camp names.
^ ab"Lavender Language, The Queer Way to Speak". www.out.com. Retrieved 2025-03-09. Polari was rife with 'she-ing', an academic term that refers to the linguistic practice of feminizing people and things. She-ing appears almost universally and across centuries in gay language, from Peru to the Philippines to South Africa (where gay slang is called Gayle), to Israel (called oxtchit, derived from an Arabic word meaning 'my sister'), to Soviet-era Russia [in the gay slang goluboy].
