ABSTRACT
This chapter provides two main aims. Firstly, it is an attempt to understand the grounds on which fur possesses 'resonances' with Polish concerns about power and difference. Secondly, it seeks to open up discussions about 'luxury' as a point of convergence for material culture, politics, kinship and relatedness. Influential studies of clothing practices are often notable for their insights into intimate affective and tactile engagements with clothes. Some fur businesses appeared to take extra measures to protect stock and personnel. The pervasiveness of 'noisiness' as an insult levelled at anti-fur protestors in these accounts is intriguing because 'silence' is a dominant theme in accounts of what it is like to live outside of the mainstream in Poland. The chapter describes the relationship between gender, silence and marginality as a prerequisite area for comprehending the grounds on which anti-fur activism was seen by some to challenge certain notions of 'Polishness'. It unpacks the financial and somatic meanings of eschewing animal products.
