Sociological Studies on Men and Masculinities in Poland: Areas, Perspectives and Theories

The review of the sociological research on men and masculinities in Poland, its’ development and the evaluation are the main aims of the article. In the article the author presents description of development in western and polish studies on men and masculinities, and focuses on differences between them and the consequence for polish academy. The areas of research and theories applied in polish sociological studies on men and masculinities are also described.

Homosexuality – Homophobia – Nationalism – Masculinity: Theoretical Relocations

The article is an attempt to theorizing a connection between nationalism and homophobia in the context of the Polish modern nationalistic political environment. In the first part of the article I explain specifics of nationalistic homophobia. In the second part I define character of Polish nationalistic masculinities. Finally, I present the my interpretation of Młodzież Wszechpolska’s homophobic texts.

Masculinity and Myth: Therapeutic Readings

The article presents an overview of the selected psychoanalitical concepts which concern the problem of masculinity with reference to the mythical model. The author presents and comments on the position of Gunnar Karlsson, Donald Moss, Jean Shinody Bolen, David Tacey and Polish psychotherapists – Karol Furmaniak and Wojciech Eichelberger. The overview of the aforementioned theories indicates that there is need for revindication of the myths which form the cultural models of masculinity. The change should uncover the normativity and oppressiveness of these models.

Hysteria Virilis? Polish History and Hysteria the Great War

The article’s aim is critical analysis of the Great War’s cultural memory in Poland and its production’s mechanism that emerged during the war and just after the conflict was over. Masculinist, heroic, brave – always heterosexist – and picturesque vision of the war that dominated, both, official and collective war memory, described by Maria Janion as “the uhlan western”, is a critical point of departure for introduction another version of the Great War memory in Poland. This one, contrary to the official one, is rather antiheroic and traumatic, and might be read as a kind of counternarrative that goes against the official ways of the Great War’s conceptualisations. The article wishes also to discuss the role and mechanism of the “war rumour” that has been identified by Marc Bloch in his study Réflexions d’un historien sur les fausses nouvelles de la guerre by means of applying it to selected life narratives from the Eastern front – in particular memoirs and diaries written by male participants of the Great War. The French historian was particularly interested in how lying affects the psychology of war witnesses, how the witnesses constructed stories about the war events in which they participated or observed, as well as how rumours contribute to the birth of mass psychosis and hysteria. An in-depth scrutiny of several texts written in Polish during the war will also facilitate an identification of another, i.e. gendered, racial, and class aspect of the “false news” which Bloch ignored: namely its role in the creation of male hysteria. One could risk a claim that the relationship between war rumours and male hysteria is a major feature of the war narratives that are to be favoured by this article. The narratives, one should note, which have been erased from the official memory of the Great War and substituted by a heterosexist, masculinist tale about brave and rational soldiers and – here’s another lie – about irrational and hysterical women, civilians, and Jews.

Emancipationists and Their Emancipator

The article discusses Maciej Duda’s book Emancypanci i emancypatorzy. Mężczyźni wspierający emancypację Polek w drugiej połowie XIX i na początku XX wieku (The men that supported the emancipation of Polish women in the second half of the 19th and at the beginning of the 20th centuries). In the introduction I point the issues that can be problematic for a researcher examining history of men who supported pro-feminist movements (difficulties with naming, resistance of feminists, number of publicists). Next I discuss the composition and methodology used by the author and main areas of the research. I also draw some critical comments. At the end I ascertain that the book is really valuable because it completes the gap in Polish research of the history of feminism.

These Boys from the Golden Age. Remarks on Benjamin B. Roberts’ Sex and Drugs before Rock ’n’ Roll: Youth Culture and Masculinity during Holland’s Golden Age

This article deals with the book Sex and Drugs before Rock ’n’ Roll. Youth Culture and Masculinity during Holland’s Golden Age by Benjamin B. Roberts (Amsterdam University Press 2012), a detailed study of one generation of young Dutchmen who reached their adulthood ca. 1620-1630. The author analyzes their lifestyles and expressions of masculinity, concentrating on phenomena such as grooming, clothing, alcohol consumption, violent behavior, sexual life, tobacco smoking and other types of recreation and leisure. Young men of that time rebelled and broke from the previous social norms and systems of values, e. g. by adopting various military codes of behavior. The book in question constitutes a fairly stereotypical vision of masculinity, leaving little space for individuals thinking and acting outside the box. Roberts’ study is nevertheless a pioneering one, and the author rightly chooses to present a consistent group portrait instead of a random sampling. The life of young men from the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth at the time would provide a useful point of comparison, but unfortunately has not yet been the subject of any detailed research.