Uniting for Diversity
The latest issue of Zadra (3-4/2003) illustrates the diversity of the Polish feminist community and states that claims of having come up with the ultimate truth, no matter who comes up with them, are always a dangerous thing. Plus, that any social or political standpoint meets its opponents.
This rule has been captured by Dorota Majka-Rostek in Bisexuals Marginalised: “All is happening within a simple ethnocentric pattern: Us = Better, Them = Worse. “Genuine" women dislike “artificial" feminists; real feminists despise "false" ones who apply make-up and style their hair; "true" male homosexuals despise effeminate, exalted types, who ruin their reputation; lesbians dislike bisexuals, because...”. A reserved approach to any one-sided and authoritative judgments should be obvious. Articles published in Zadra constantly remind us of this.
The opening set of texts is devoted to Tadeusz Boy-Żeleński and Irena Krzywicka. Agata Żylińska in Emancipation according to Irena Krzywicka describes the writer’s views, concentrating on those concerning work, the so-called "friends' marriage" and homosexuality. Żylińska argues that neither Krzywicka's work nor the problems she tackled have gone out of date: “(...) my reading of her essays is rather polemic than affirmative; it inspires and revolts me; I blame her for not finding solutions which I seek myself."
Both Krzysztof Tomasik in Searching For a Male Feminist and Kazimiera Szczuka in Harder Living show how little has changed since the times of Boy–Żeleński - his Women’s Hell is still very up-to-date. Double moral standards still exist; the law remains unfriendly to women (the paragraphs kill, as Boy used to say). With his inquisitiveness and an uncompromising approach, Żeleński brought to public attention the fact that the law is often built on hypocrisy. Szczuka believes that "Boy's genius was that he turned away from perceiving reality ‘on a higher level’. There is only one basic level of perception and there's no reason for clothing it in symbolic meanings. Woman, sperm, birth, quick murder, decomposing corpse... That's the language of reality. Boy’s ‘Social realism’, which has brought many accusations of triviality, was in fact an approach deeply ethical and sensitive".
The problem of concealing and excluding is continued in Bisexuals marginalised by Dorota Majka-Rostek. Anna Gruszczyńska's essay, Nothing’s The Same, deals with the alienation of lesbian women and the necessity for recognizing their otherness. Another issue covered by Zadra is the problem of cultivating a perfect body and the “artificial feminity" promoted by fashion magazines. The problems here are those of normality, truth, and retaining one’s own personality during the neverending beauty contest. The fact that many cosmetic manipulations simply hurt is usually omitted in articles published by women's magazines. Zadra describes a street happening devoted to this problem: “In glossy magazines, women are depicted as those who must be subjected to numerous cosmetic manipulations in order to become 'normal' and 'natural'. This struggle to conform to the standard of beauty is a constant effort.”
Both cases - the public opinion's approach to sexual minorities and the beauty trends - show a strong tendency for unification and a desire to conform to a ready norm. Zadra counters these tendencies and demands a right to be different as well as respect for this difference.
The differences are visible everywhere. We can see diversity in the section entitled What’s On?. Izabela Zygmunt describes a discriminating media campaign of Radio 94; Błażej Warkocki interprets the events in a Toruń grammar school - the assaulted teacher became a victim of behaviours characteristic for homophobic groups (A Lesson of Humiliation); Iwona Stefańczyk exposes the discrimination of homosexuals by the Church (The “Just Discrimination”); Ewa Majewska acquaints the readers with the new legal project of medical ethics and points out that it is in fact against the patients’ interests (Watch Out for Traps).
Fortunately good things also happen in the fight for equal rights. Zadra happily informs about the Peace Nobel Prize for Shirin Ebadi and provides information about the laureate. Another article describes the new Polish Green Party, which has just been created - a party without barriers, which unites ecology activists, feminists and sexual minorities. Sławomira Walczewska believes this party offers a chance for a political change, but a chance which demands a lot of work: "In order for women to become the subject in politics again, we need to devise a new, different style of women’s political activism and a new style of politics itself”.
Bernadetta Darska
Translated by Marta Malina Moraczewska
Discussed journals: Zadra