Talk:Toyen

Gender Identity
Please do not attempt to change the pronouns without understanding how the Czech language works, or indeed what language the artist spoke with! Toyen referred to herself in masculine form as a painter because there is no neutral form in Czech. It is either 'female painter' or 'male painter'. Many women artist did this so the critics and visitor could not identify + automatically label them based on their sex. Same goes for her name. Every name + surname in Czech is gendered, and it is thus impossible to use your given name without giving away your sex. To correct way to refer to Toyen in English is she/her. There is no proof Toyen spoke any Russian, she was Czech.

^ In response to above: We can't know Toyen's gender, but we do know they spoke of themself in the masculine case. Even if masculine and feminine are the only two options in Czech, the choice of masculine over feminine suggests Toyen would not want to be addressed in the feminine. A case could be made for gender neutral language, but many editors of this page disagree 'the correct way to refer to Toyen is she/her'. Lewishhh (talk) 15:19, 29 January 2020 (UTC)

- They might disagree on Wikipedia not in the academia. There is not a single peer-reviewed article which would refer to Toyen in male gender. It is not because of any phobias, on the other hand, the artist is very often reassessed and reexamined, with the same conclusion - there are no proofs to conclude she was indeed transsexual/transgender. She was still referred to as Marie/Manka by her friends and colleagues. Plus, during her time in France, there are no record she spoke of herself in male gender in French. — Preceding unsigned comment added by BarboraK42 (talk • contribs) 15:22, 29 January 2020 (UTC)

It said in the original article that Toyen used Russian's masculine gender to refer to himself. That means that the correct way to refer to Toyen in English would be to use he/him/his pronouns. It's incredibly transphobic to edit the page back to she/her/hers pronouns after I made this correction. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 146.151.43.156 (talk) 17:59, 26 April 2015 (UTC)

I went ahead and changed the pronouns, in addition to specifying that he was born female but used male pronouns. Hopefully it       stays.CVance1 (talk) 16:02, 9 June 2017 (UTC)

Lack of headings, jumbled biography, inconsistent pronoun usage, etc.
I'm not totally sure what is up with this (and I have never actually edited anything on Wikipedia before), but I noticed that the biography is currently a jumbled mess, much of which looks to be copied and pasted from a translation website with no formatting whatsoever. There is also inconsistency about which pronouns are being used, etc. I'm still trying to learn how to be a helpful contributor on Wikipedia, but I thought it might be worth tagging for now so that other editors can help. 2001:1438:1016:1B6D:C070:BF2B:AE30:9674 (talk) 15:06, 5 July 2017 (UTC)


 * Your tagging was appropriate, thanks. I have reverted the article to the version prior to this edit, which is where the unsourced jumbled-up prose etc appeared. - Sitush (talk) 11:42, 9 August 2017 (UTC)

Transphobia in Toyen's page
There are no records of Toyen referring to herself as he/him. She used male nouns because every noun in the Czech language is gendered, and can be either male or female but not neutral. Toyen never gave up her name and was still referred to as 'Manka' (aka Mary) by her friends and colleagues. She used the name Toyen professionally, not in her personal life.

I'm certainly not the only person who has mentioned this. Toyen used he/him pronouns. Changed his name. So, if he did this while alive, who are we to decide wether to change it or not in a Wikipedia article? If Toyen chose not to use his Dead Name, why should it be written here? If someone needs to do research on this artist, they won't need Toyen's birth name for anything because he didn't use it. So why leave it here? And why keep denying the fact that he didn't identify as a woman by saying that he "dressed as a man and preferred male pronouns"? It's just nonsense. Worst part? Tags below say "LGBT artist" when Wikipedia is being terribly transphobic. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Putripunki (talk • contribs) 13:06, 4 March 2019 (UTC)

Does anyone have any sources citing Toyen's preference for male pronouns? Every (English) article that I have read about Toyen-- even from the most well-established publications-- uses female pronouns in reference to them, which I find incredibly odd JointCompound (talk) 15:38, 25 April 2020 (UTC)

Edit: odd was the wrong word-- it's baffling, given the only people who referred to Toyen using female pronouns were their male contemporaries

The page should without a doubt be using he/him pronouns, but I'd like to have something to cite for the paper I'm writing JointCompound (talk) 15:44, 25 April 2020 (UTC)

whoops-- never mind! I found the source. Is there any way to delete my previous comments? JointCompound (talk) 15:46, 25 April 2020 (UTC)

Toyen's Nationality
Presenting Toyen's nationality as Austro-Hungarian is a incorrect. The austro-hungarian empire does not exist since October 28, 1918. Toyen came to Paris with a Czechoslovak passport, since she lived in the Czech part of Czechoslovakia before — Preceding unsigned comment added by 78.120.240.24 (talk) 12:27, 21 September 2023 (UTC)


 * Perhaps it should say both, as when Toyen was born it was Austria-Hungary and then became Czechoslovakia when they were 16. Lewishhh (talk) 13:24, 21 September 2023 (UTC)