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Feminism: Sex & gender discussions

Does Poland hate women?

16 replies

queenofthecapitalwasteland · 04/07/2011 10:52

I apologise if this has been posted already.

In addition to wanting compulsory cervical screenings there is now talk that they will ban abortions even in the case of rape

here

this quote truely terrifies me ?We express our conviction that Polish law, which protects the life of every human from the moment of conception, should not waive this rule for reasons of the disability of the unborn children, nor their conception due to a criminal act, nor the lack of love on the part of their parents,? they wrote.

?That?s why Poland, choosing full protection of life, will be the advocate of true progress in international human rights protection.? stated by a lawyer.

and here

OP posts:
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Bue · 04/07/2011 12:29

A hugely conservative version of Catholicism predominates in Poland. The church was an important voice of resistance and opposition during the Soviet era, but a lot of Poles will tell you that the church has now taken the place of the ruling regime.

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winnybella · 04/07/2011 12:42

The bill has no chance of passing. But yeah, there's lots of right-wing/ religious nuts in government sadly. Btw under communism abortion was widely available, it's after its fall that the Church got too much power and so influenced the lawmakers.

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Grevling · 04/07/2011 23:28

Won't pass as most women could travel to another country to have the procedure.

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sakura · 06/07/2011 02:53

Judging by the mass exodus of Polish women out of Poland to Western Europe, sounds like they already are.
Why would women stay somewhere like that if they had better options?
Speaking of which, I wonder what Iceland's immigration laws are like...

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sakura · 06/07/2011 02:55

I find the compulsory cervical screeing absolutely terrifying.

I don'T get screened, because I've looked at the statistics and found that, despite screening, women are still dying of cervical cancer so the margin for human error in the tests is too great. Men are not screened for testicular cancer or any other types of cancer because there is no obsession with controlling men.

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TheAtomicBum · 06/07/2011 14:31

I've always wondered why there's test for both cervical and breast cancer, but not testicular cancer. If there was a routine test for it, I'd go have one done.

As for the thread title, I've known a couple of Polish women and I've wondered myself what it is like there. I once worked with one in a night club. She out out handing out flyers with one of the other girls their, when a drunken man made a pass at her, and apparently tried to grope her in some way (I wasn't there, so I don't know the precise details). The other (british) girl slapped the man a made some insulting comments, and he went away without saying anything. The Polish woman, however, started saying that in her country she'd have been killed for standing up to a man like that.

It really made me wonder how much worse it is there, or if she came from a particularly bad area or what.

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winnybella · 06/07/2011 15:28

'The Polish woman, however, started saying that in her country she'd have been killed for standing up to a man like that.'

Hmm Perhaps she comes from an abusive family/had a string of abusive relationships, but no, women don't routinely get killed for telling a guy off for groping them.

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TheAtomicBum · 06/07/2011 15:48

I always wondered about it. It seemed like a strange thing to say. I thought, surely if it was as bad as that, it would be popular knowledge. But I've never asked anyone else about that.

I'm pretty sure she had had some sort of abusive past (there are some signs you can often see, she kind of shrank around a lot of men, and there was the strange anorexia like food obsession which she also said was normal in her country).

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slug · 06/07/2011 16:05

Poland is a very Catholic country. I rest my case.

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AwesomePan · 06/07/2011 16:17

well don't rest it too heavily slug - there are many catholic countries in the world who aren't proposing enforced medical pratices.

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MayCanary · 06/07/2011 16:37

In my experience (2 years living and working there) Polish women are very strong-minded. International Womens' Day is a huge thing with women celebrated in a way we don't see in the UK. And don't forget the fearsome Babcia (Grandmother) who often rules the roost (and tells you off for not putting enough layers on your newborn - at least we assume that is what she was going on about...).

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TheAtomicBum · 06/07/2011 17:05

So what this woman said was not true? I still feel sorry for her. Perhaps she used the "in my country" excuse because she didn't want to admit her own personal experience had given her this fear. It would make sense as I freely admit I know very little about Poland.

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TheAtomicBum · 06/07/2011 17:06

Just to show what I mean about the bizare anorexic things, she called my DP "hideously fat" because she had curves and was not flat and straight. Bare in mind my DP was a size 8.

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winnybella · 06/07/2011 22:24

Did she actually call your DP 'hideously fat'? Seriously? Anyway, seems like she has MH problems. On a whole, I find men in Poland rather nice and chivalrous (although I guess from a feminist pov it would be sexist). Tbh I had more bad experiences here in France. Polish women are rather emancipated. She must have had really bad experiences.

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kayah · 07/07/2011 00:29

The Polish woman, however, started saying that in her country she'd have been killed for standing up to a man like that.

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TheAtomicBum · 07/07/2011 08:37

Yes, she really did. Although DP could tell that, for whatever reason, this woman was obviously not in a good place mentally, so didn't take it that personally.

That answers that question. Thank you.

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