Boys Dressed Up as Girls, or the Creation Myth of the Polish Anti-Gender Crusade

Abstract

This paper recollects the beginning of the Polish anti-gender crusade, started in 2013 with the story about boys pressed to wear dresses in one of the kindergartens/in a kindergarten. It presents various approaches to the phenomenon of public debate on gender, and various interpretations, on both the local and global levels, including Judith Butler’s theory of a reaction of the Vatican to the Fourth World Conference in Beijing in 1995. It focuses on the analysis of a primary [faked] story and its significance and puts it in the context of redefining masculinity patterns. It also points out how the traditional definition of masculinity is mixed with heteronormativity, and how both of them seem to be dangerous to the opponents of gender education.

English translation: Anna Moroz-Darska

Modernisation of the journal's operations and translation into the English language of articles published in Ars Educandi in 2012-2017 were financed with funds from the Ministry of Science and Higher Education as a part of the task Science Promotion Activity (pl. DUN).

The task ‘The implementation of the editorial module on the platform of Uniwersyteckie Czasopisma Naukowe – a system facilitating the editing and management of the academic journal Ars Educandi‘ was financed as a part of contract 661/P-DUN/2018 of 12.06.2018 from funds of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education designated for the promotion of science.

The task ‘The creation of a modern online version of the academic journal Ars Educandi through the implementation of the publication module on the platform of Uniwersyteckie Czasopisma Naukowe and the handling of international indexing databases’ was financed as a part of contract 661/P-DUN/2018 of 12.06.2018 from funds of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education designated for the promotion of science.

The task ‘Preparation of the English language version of the last 6 annual issues (2012-2017) of the academic journal Ars Educandi and their publication online’ was financed as a part of contract 661/P-DUN/2018 of 12.06.2018 from funds of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education designated for the promotion of science.