ABSTRACT

Poland’s right-wing politicians have a great deal to say about women and sexual minorities and though their pronouncements may appear simplistic, aberrant, or obsessive, they do deserve our attention. This is because of, fi rst, the political impact (in Poland the aberrant has a way of turning into reality, and needs to be confronted as such), and second these rhetorical excesses provide a case study in gendered nationalism of a sort rarely found in contemporary Europe (the Balkans being a possible exception). The discourse in question is obsessed with motherhood and fatherland, fl ags and fetuses; it is also marked by a profound anxiety about twin evils threatening to invade Poland from the West (with Holland and Germany the most likely sources), namely: homosexuality and abortion. It is a language fi lled with moral certainties, aversion toward “equality” and “tolerance,” and a deep commitment to what it calls “normality.” To offer one example, on June 18, 2005 a “Normality Parade” marched through Warsaw-the response to recent demonstrations in defense of gay and lesbian rights (“Equality Parades”). The event was a proud promotion of home-grown “natural” heterosexuality, threatened by minorities, which are perceived not only as aggressive and powerful, but also, crucially, as foreign. Among the slogans used were “Boy + girl = normal family,” as well as “Pedophiles and Pederasts are Euro-enthusiasts.”1