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, a successful mass mobilization against the proposed total ban on abortion in Poland, has been recognized as a milestone for Polish women’s movement. Its success is interpreted as a result of clever usage of social media, thanks to which it could have been extremely inclusive and prevalent. In feminist debates it is also often emphasized that it mobilized women all over the world to fight for their rights, which has proved its transnational, global character.
However, it has not been analyzed, that its rhetoric (possible to be traced in slogans, images, discussions in social media, public debate) at the same time has evoked deep-rooted Polish nationalistic imagery, especially traditional model of Polish femininity: the Polish Mother.
What is more, the Black Protest is often perceived as a movement of „ordinary women“. Such a view introduces an ambiguous category of „ordinary women“, on one hand emphasizing inclusivity and diversity of the movement, but on the other – functioning as a tool to discipline feminist movement and a contemporary version of the Polish Mother, opposed to feminists.
The incorporation of such an imagery by the Black Protest’s rhetoric proves to be even more paradoxical when we emphasize that it was directly evoked by the plan of abortion ban, based on nationalistic idea of women’s bodies, reproductivity and sexuality as a nation’s properties.
In my paper I would like to analyze the residual traces of nationalistic imagery (and especially traditional ideals of Polish femininity) incorporated by the Black Protest’s rhetoric and its reception in feminist debate in Poland. Raising the question of its role in contemporary women’s mobilizations and feminist discourse in Poland, I will outline some risks that it brings and decide whether there is something in nationalistic imagery and traditional ideals of Polish femininity that is worth saving for the purposes of women’s movement.

Joanna Sieracka is a PhD candidate at the Institute of Cultural Studies, University of Wrocław, Poland. Since 2014 she has been an active member of The Laboratory of Contemporary Humanities. Her current research focuses on contemporary changes in Polish feminist movement and the issue of cultural specificity of postfeminism in Poland.

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