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Lysistrata: what do Polish women want?

A sense of self-determination, a belief in an individual’s ability to determine one’s fate, is a basic precondition of the proper functioning of human individuals. This foundation has just been taken away from the people. Most distressingly, however, it affects in particular the women in Poland. The ruling violates Polish women, and the rape has several dimensions.

First, the ruling affects their agency in the most important and most intimate matters related to their reproductive rights.

Secondly, it deprives them of the right to autonomously decide whether to continue or terminate a pathological pregnancy.

Thirdly, the ruling reduces the scope of their civic, moral, and existential agency. But, at the same time, it imposes upon them a duty to mobilize their thus reduced agency to give birth to the incurably sick child, to face its possible death, and possibly to devote themselves to its care.

Fourth, by exerting far-reaching and comprehensive pressure on women, the authorities create a situation of fear of sexual activity, which is a precondition for a normal life. Among the aims of the present government has been to increase the fertility rate in Poland, one of the lowest in Europe. The ruling of the court, while invoking the sanctity of life, will have the opposite effect, for it will positively discourage people from taking a decision to become pregnant.

And, as if all the above were not enough, the entrapped women are additionally humiliated: in return for obedient acquiescence, the authorities offer them appallingly insufficient financial assistance.

Instead of recognizing women as moral subjects, the authorities treat them as moral patients, entrapping them in a situation of helplessness. Their rebellion is an act of self-defence against this helplessness.

In their protest, they have resorted to something that may be called the “Lysistrata option.” The ancient Greek playwright Aristophanes was one of the first to publicly speculate about the political power of sex. In one of his comedies, Lysistrata, the Peloponnesian War was ended thanks to the heroine calling women from the warring cities out on a sex strike. What we see now in Poland is women who have rediscovered, on a practical level, the political power of gender. For a better part of the year 2020 the Polish government, instead of fighting the pandemic, joined forces with the Catholic Church to fight the “gender ideology.” They have overdone it.

The stand-off

All people are capable of heroism. An enforced act is not heroic. Heroism is an action against coercion. The authorities and the protesters speak different moral and political languages. The categories of their languages are incommensurable. The conflict was unavoidable, and is irresolvable. The radicalism of the authorities, who dictated the ruling to the Constitutional Tribunal, has generated a no less radical and unyielding attitude among the protesters. There is no sign that the authorities are willing to diffuse the stand-off. On the contrary, they intend to ruthlessly crack down on the spontaneous opposition.

Time lost

These days of ongoing protest, which have now engulfed the whole of Poland, vividly demonstrate that the time given to each community is one of the most precious social goods. It is precious because of being non-renewable. The sight of hundreds of thousands of people protesting against authoritarian rule makes one realize that all of us, young and old, could have been spending this time studying, working, creating works of art, having fun, resting, exploring the world, enjoying a free, full, and rich life, and in this way contributing to the material and cultural wealth of our community.

Instead, we devote our energies to the fight against a political power, which is nothing but a systematic waste of our time. Come to think of it, for so many years we have let our precious time be wasted by people like Kaczyński and his acolytes. We have let them waste way too much of our time.

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