personal pronouns - Using “she” with gender-neutral nouns


The song “Frozen” from Madonna’s Ray of Light (1998) contains the lyrics:



Love is a bird, she needs to fly,
Let all the hurt inside of you die.



Does she refer to bird or love? And why is it she there? As far as I know, love and bird both are gender-neutral.



Answer



Since the phrase is "Love is a bird", the author is equating the two. "She" would refer to both.


As to why it's she as opposed to he or it, that's just a stylistic choice for the song. Using "it" would be common in everyday speech, but probably not as poetic. Using "he" would be an odd choice, since "he" is not normally used to refer to either abstract concepts or genderless objects.


This question might offer some insight as to circumstances in which you might use "she" for an object.


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