Środkowoeuropejskie Studia Polityczne, 2006, nr 1
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Item Homo-niewiadomo, stereotypy a rzeczywistość(Wydawnictwo Naukowe WNPiD UAM w Poznaniu, 2006) Żółtkowski, MarcinThe author arrives at an interesting conclusion. Why do gays actually need this famous right to adopt? What do the advocates get as they lie down in the ‘over my dead body’ gesture? The only outcome is a larger number of children in orphanages. More children will waste their lives (let us not forget that it is because of us heterosexuals). What about gays? Not to prevaricate one can say that instead of adopting children, they will get their own ones. This cannot be banned. Are we facing overwhelming hypocrisy then? When you refuse them the right to adopt, you are shouting „perverts, keep off children,” as you block the streets. Yet the world moves on walking along the sidewalk. Gays’ and lesbians’ children are born and are brought up by two fathers or mothers in turns, or at the same time. M³odzie¿ Wszechpolska (a nationalist, ultra-Catholic organization of Polish youth) is sleeping soundly having performed its duty, while a new generation is quietly growing up next door. Lonely children are crying in orphanages but M³odzie¿ Wszechpolska is enjoying an untroubled sleep. It has defended children against ‘perverts’and ‘fags’: those people from a different planet. They do not know any gay. Or at least, no gay who has come out...Item Przestrzenie egzystencji kobiet w poezji stanu wojennego(Wydawnictwo Naukowe WNPiD UAM w Poznaniu, 2006) Dąbrowska, DanutaAportion of Polish culture of the nineteen-eighties, which I will provisionally term the “solidarity culture,” remains neglected by researchers. The culture of this period is usually enclosed in the history of the Polish struggle against the communist system, which is almost exclusively treated in political and sociological terms. The main issue here is its influence on the generation and sustenance of the spirit of resistance, creation of communal conscience, filling the gaps in history, and defalsifying history. These certainly are significant aspects of the solidarity movement activity in the realm of culture, but far from being the only ones. The author is interested in a narrow section of the solidarity culture referring to a specific projection of existence, that is the poetry of martial law with certain indispensable references to former periods- in particular the culture of the workers’ strikes of 1980. The researcher is mainly concerned with women’s experience and roles recorded in the poetry of martial law with respect to oppositionItem Literatura kobiet w latach 1918-1939 z perspektywy feministycznej. Rekonesans(Wydawnictwo Naukowe WNPiD UAM w Poznaniu, 2006) Zawiszewska, AgataThe author attempts to present the most significant results of the research on literary and para-literary activity of women in the nineteen-twenties and -thirties, from the gender perspective. The subject of the study is provided by dictionary entries discussing the biographies and works of Polish feminine writers in the first half of the twentieth century, as well as the reception of so-called „women’s literature”, primarily in terms of reviews published in the literary, social and cultural press of that period. The main point of interest is the method of constructing intimate and artistic biographies of women, the manner applied by literary critics to the discussion of feminine art, the issue as to whether women’s literature created in 1918–1939 was aware of its manifold conditioning and whether this literature diagnosed the social situation of women in the first decades of the twentieth century.Item Andrea Dworkin – najbardziej znienawidzona feministka(Wydawnictwo Naukowe WNPiD UAM w Poznaniu, 2006) Klejdysz, NataliaOn April 9, 2005, Andrea Dworkin, one of the most controversial figures of the second wave of feminism, died in Washington. Her statements against violence and pornography had rather weak theoretical foundations. Her few attempts to provide a broader background or to give reasons for the discrimination against women are failures: they are superficial and chaotic. Yet Dworkin was not a theoretician of the feminist movement, but a practitioner, or even its creator. Her preoccupation with the struggle against pornography resulted from her own traumatic experience. Dworkin liked to provoke. She was not attractive, which she ostentatiously emphasized. She shocked with her language. However, besides excessive vulgarisms, her statements re- veal the profound passion with which she defended her views. Referring to the emo- tions of her readers and listeners, she did not conceal her own emotions, therefore her texts ooze with honesty and naturalness. Loathed by anti-feminists, rejected by the ma- jority of feminists, she contributed to the creation of the radical dimension of modern feminism.Item Maskulinizm, radykalna polityka i pożytek z wyobraźni: pragmatyzm a feminizm w ujęciu Richarda Rorty’ego(Wydawnictwo Naukowe WNPiD UAM w Poznaniu, 2006) Jurszo, RobertThe author devotes the present paper to Rorty’s statement that pragmatism offers a significantly better support for the feminist movement than any version of metaphysical philosophy. Thus the author is preoccupied with the issue of what tangible advantages feminists might obtain (according to Rorty), if they refer to the rhetoric created by American pragmatism in their disputes with their intellectual opponents and their attempts to alter social reality. However, not all feminists will find the pragmatism promoted by Rorty useful. For example, feminists operating within the framework of the Catholic Church would certainly not be able to use it. The gap between this type of spirituality and the proposals of American philosophers is too wide. What seems particularly valuable in Rorty’s version of feminism (and what constitutes an integral part of its neopragmatism) is a strong emphasis on the role of imagination opposed to analytical reason, and the superiority of the former.Item Kobieta trendy – czyli o maltretowaniu ciała(Wydawnictwo Naukowe WNPiD UAM w Poznaniu, 2006) Lewicka, KarolinaThe history of women is the history of the struggle to look attractive, starting with Egyptian wooden pillows that were to protect hairdos, through to Japanese tied-up feet or the lacing of French beauties’ stays, to silicon bags implanted under the skin of breasts. It is interesting that although the canon of beauty has changed, the mechanisms of the phenomenon has remained unchanged throughout the centuries and has been working like well-greased cogs of discipline, flexibility and pain. If one becomes convinced that the body one has is exactly how it should be, one can cut the Gordian knot of a modern Barbie. To understand this always leads to acceptance and, in this case, to the acceptance of one’s own body, and – consequently – of oneself. However, the body has been subjected to the dictates of modern consumption and patriarchal culture, whose sole purpose is a maximum control over the way women act and think.Item Status prawny kobiet w Polsce w świetle ustawodawstwa Unii Europejskiej(Wydawnictwo Naukowe WNPiD UAM w Poznaniu, 2006) Stankiewicz, WojciechThe issue of human rights and fundamental liberties in numerous realms of life – whether political and civic, or social and cultural – has been frequently emphasized when discussing the achievements of Western civilization. As a matter of principle, every citizen, regardless of gender, has the same rights, obligations and opportunities in every sphere. This equality implies an equal division of authority and power, that gives women the right to participate in the institutions and public fora that make decisions and issue opinions. This also refers to all other spheres and includes such matters as the right to non-discrimination at work, in business activity, and equal opportunities to obtain material independence. Polish society still does not take sufficient advantage of the opportunities provided by EU instruments. The participation of women in public authorities and public life, the equal status of men and women, equality of rights, or gender-related discrimination are still new ideas, which are both strange and incomprehensible for Polish society. Another problem is posed by harmful stereotypes and false images related to the position of men and women. Poland remains a country where women are responsible for bringing children up, caring for the elderly or the handicapped, household chores, and for material matters pertaining to the family.Item Pozycja kobiet na polskim rynku pracy. Uwarunkowania prawne i rzeczywistość(Wydawnictwo Naukowe WNPiD UAM w Poznaniu, 2006) Kałążna, KlaudiaPolish women are in a significantly less advantageous position than men with re- spect to employment, or professional promotion. They are also the majority among the unemployed, despite their increasingly better education. The unequal attitude to women is also expressed in terms of their salaries – on average women earn 17% less than men. The paper presents the statistical data on women’s unemployment, describes the legal conditions of women’s functioning on the labor market, and shows that, de- spite the formal ban on discrimination, it is present in more or less concealed forms. The paper describes the obstacles women face trying to find employment and in taking full advantage of their skills, e.g. the glass ceiling. The author familiarizes the notion of the glass ceiling and she also refers to the role of stereotypes and the atmosphere of one’s home in the future functioning on the labor market.Item Podmiot feministyczny w koncepcjach Luce Irigaray, Julii Kristevy oraz Donny Haraway(Wydawnictwo Naukowe WNPiD UAM w Poznaniu, 2006) Jaxa-Rożen, HannaPost-modernist debate focuses around the concept of the world and man presented by the philosophy described as the Enlightenment, Modernist or modern philosophy. At its culmination is the paradigm of knowledge developed by Kant and Descartes. The feminist theory of emancipation could not ignore the transformation reflected in every realm of cultural reality. The belief in a monolithic subject free from limitations has collapsed, as a result of events over the past few centuries and has left only the melancholy of uprooting. Feminism, particularly its second wave, has also joined the dispute on the shape of a new subjectivity. This discourse offers more than just a different outlook upon man, but also the reflection that points out to all the difficulties related to the discussion of the subject.Item Kobiety w migracjach przesiedleńczych w Peru (1980-2000)(Wydawnictwo Naukowe WNPiD UAM w Poznaniu, 2006) Śniadecka-Kotarska, MagdalenaThe shock of the lengthy military conflict in Peru changed the demographic, social and cultural outlook of that country. One of the basic elements of this process was uncontrolled mass migration from rural areas to towns, brought about by political violence. Displacement migrations were strongly feminized. Institutional structures that emerged in towns, via women’s self-assistance societies facilitated the migrants’ acclimatization in towns. However, they had to pay a price and to reject their memories of violence by denying the Indian identity of the state and their own. Therefore, these organizations were initially, a significant element of cultural mestization of female migrants. Now it transpires that the same organizations were used by the women and then the assimilated migrants, to exert pressure demanding that the position of women in Peru be changed. Former female migrants, who acquired experience and who, for many years negotiated that their status be acknowledged, had a significantly higher degree of social independence because of their struggle to survive in urban conditions. They were also financially independent and began to successfully demand that their macho environment treat them in a different manner.Item Zawód – żona polityka. Rola kobiet w kreowaniu wizerunku politycznego(Wydawnictwo Naukowe WNPiD UAM w Poznaniu, 2006) Prystacka, DagmaraThe most recent presidential election at the time of writing, the term of Aleksander Kwaoeniewski, everyday political life and the recent presidential campaign have demonstrated how important the role of a politician’s wife has become. That a wife may act as the president of a foundation, as an advisor, as a chair of an association, as an activist defending the rights of children and any related activity, is one of the elements of the image of the husband – a politician. When asked whether their decision to get married would have been different if they had known many years ago that their husband would become involved in politics, the answer is „No”.Women are satisfied living with a politician, although they generally admit that this requires sacrifice. When something important is happening, everything else has to be neglected. Then they have to be patient, persistent and wise, because only such an attitude can advantageously influence the political images of their husbands.Item Fallokracja czy waginocentryzm? Głos feministek we współczesnej debacie o płci, języku i kulturze(Wydawnictwo Naukowe WNPiD UAM w Poznaniu, 2006) Mrozik, AgnieszkaSince the very beginning, feminism has been surrounded by numerous legends, myths and not-quite-credible stories that generally stem from the miscomprehension of its ideas. It still continues to be presented in a caricatured and stereotypical manner. The media have a considerable share in creating such attitudes to feminism, as they construct the majority of their accounts of the feminist movement around the „interrelated activities of an antagonist and protagonist”. The search for the common nature of feminine experience faces numerous obstacles. These involve political and social ones (differences of race, class, religion, sexual orientation, etc.); the identity of the subjectwoman has not been agreed; the attempts to establish feminine language fail. It is increasingly questioned whether this manner of presenting feminism in the media is not becoming a new form of exclusion – a new form of Differentness.Item Pro choice i pro life – rozbieżne dyskursy. Przyczynek do problemu debaty i konstruowania obiektywności(Wydawnictwo Naukowe WNPiD UAM w Poznaniu, 2006) Paradowski, RyszardAbortion has been a tool of birth control since time immemorial. The problem of abortion is as old as time itself. What has always made abortion a problem is the dilemma a woman faces due to her ability to procreate on the one hand, and the ‘liberation’ of woman from this dilemma – whether by denying her the right to abortion, or by forcing her to have an abortion – on the other. However significant and dramatic, a woman’s dilemma is not the subject of the present considerations. The subject refers to selected arguments intended to liberate woman from this dilemma, and the arguments used to confirm women’s competence with reference to the problem under discussion. The purpose is to demonstrate the principal differences of these two, arguments, as well as a narrower argument that might combine the intentions of both parties of this centuries-old debate.