Strong, Independent Women Who Know Their Worth and Shrug at the Very Idea of Discrimination. The Black Protest in the Context of Changing Ideals of Femininity in Poland

Abstract

This article is a critical analysis of the rhetoric of successful mass mobilization against the proposed total ban on abortion in Poland, focusing on the Black Protest initiated in social media in September 2016 and resulting in the All-Poland’s Women Strike which took place on the October 3rd, 2016. I argue with the dominant feminist narrative of the Black Protest, which conceptualizes it as a radical transformation of public debate and civil society in Poland as well as a clear manifestation of changing identities and attitudes towards the political among the so-called “ordinary women“. Instead of a story of change, I propose a narrative of continuity, arguing that 2016 women’s mobilization was successful and mobilized so many different women because it was rooted in well-known neoliberal discourse and traditional social genotypes of femininity, such as the Polish Mother and the indispensable family life manager