The RESIST Project Report. Effects of, and Resistances to 'Anti-Gender' Mobilisations Across Europe: A Report on Poland

Description

Abstract (English)

Poland's transforming socio-cultural landscape has witnessed across the years an intensified political focus on issues of gender and sexuality, which have become a battleground for a diverse spectrum of views and group interests. There has been notable persistence of conservative, and indeed hostile, stances towards gender and
sexual equalities. To understand the effects and impacts of ‘anti-gender’ politics in everyday life of people in Poland, we organised four focus groups (FG) and 12 individual interviews. Recruitment of participants (33 in total) followed clustered sampling principles and snowballing methodology of reaching out to potential participants.
There are several different ways in which ‘anti-gender’ politics impacts the everyday lives of people in Poland. Common experiences are those of bullying and intimidation, and of systemic, institutional discrimination. Social media is a platform where much of the hateful language and attitudes are experienced. Public institutions fail to
adequately address the issues of gender and sexual diversity. Oftentimes, officers and administrators lack language and knowledge to address individual cases; nor can they implement policies and regulations as these are largely non-existent.
The resulting effects include burnouts and depletions among participants, who highlight the high emotional costs of dealing with a discriminatory and hateful atmosphere on a daily basis. There are clear negative impacts on the mental health and general well-being of minoritised communities in Poland, the predominant target of the
‘anti-gender’ politics in Poland. Other observed effects are fearful self-censorship, where people actively hide information about themselves to avoid self-exposure to potential discriminatory attitudes. There were also more grave instances of harm to bodies
and property reported. However, it was also noted that ‘anti-gender’ politics have produced some ‘ricochet effects’ such as greater social mobilisation for the queer-feminist causes, and that social attitudes are positively changing towards greater
acceptance and support for minoritised groups. People multiply marginalised and minoritised due to their intersectional positionalities are usually more adversely
affected. Their gendered and sexual identities are oftentimes forced into secondary positions of consideration, when people are being put in a position of forced choices between multiple problems they face or are committed to changing.
Our participants navigate the impacts of ‘anti-gender’ on their lives in different ways: by shielding or withdrawing, or conversely, re-mobilising. A strong ethos of community support, mutual care and solidarity practices was also clearly pronounced as a common way of coping with the pressures of ‘anti-gender’ politics. 

Keywords: 'Anti-gender' politics in Poland; queer-feminist mobilisations; mental health; hope and persistence; activism

Series information (English)

Part of the: Deliverables of the RESIST Project (EU Project ID: 101060749). Output ID: “D2.1: Report on the effects and everyday resistances to anti-gender mobilisations”.