“Feminine Virtues” and “Untamable Masculinity”

Let's start this essay with a question for the readers: Which century is the following quote from?

Considering the poetic imagery and the very simplified image of gender, you would probably be surprised to discover that this quote is taken from a 2019 guidebook for young men. In fact, it comes from a series published by the Polish publishing house Rubikon, which also produces the teaching materials for the subject Wychowanie do życia w rodzinie (Education for Family Life). Sex education as a school subject has always been a battleground for political and ideological disputes. As a way to provide young people with the knowledge and food for thought they need to make informed decisions about their own bodies, it clearly plays an important role. Historically, however, the main purpose of sex education has been to reduce the number of sexually transmitted diseases and to support young people in successfully starting families. In this way, it has also been a way for the state to implement its own interests: In the case of Poland, which disappeared from the map as a sovereign state for 123 years, the policy of stimulating demographic growth as a guarantee for the preservation of the nation took on particular importance. This essay will take you on a journey through the teaching guides and advice literature of the last 200 years and sheds light on the entanglement of sexual education and political agendas.

Research into so-called ‘sexology’ (Polish płciownictwo, from płeć sex) began on Polish soil during the  Polish-Lithuanian partition

Partitions of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth

also:

Partitions of Poland, Partitions of Poland-Lithuania, Polish Partitions

In the course of three partitions in 1772, 1793 and 1795, the aristocratic Republic of Poland-Lithuania was divided between the Russian Empire, Prussia and the Habsburg Monarchy and disappeared from the political map of Europe as a sovereign state until 1918. . The focus was on marital sex life, into which men and women usually entered completely unprepared.2 Already at the beginning of the 19th century, there were texts written in Polish on the subject of marital hygiene that were declared to be guides and were primarily aimed at young men and women from the wealthier classes. It was mainly male authors (mostly clergymen or doctors) who explained the roles of the sexes and ascribed certain virtues to them. Ignacy Czerwiński, for example, wrote in his 1817 guidebook that power belonged in the hands of men, while women should be educated to be obedient.3 He also stated that sexuality should be used exclusively for procreation, although all guidebooks made concessions in favor of male sexuality: Sexual abstinence, for example, was considered particularly harmful for young men,4 which, while not excusing infidelity, legitimized it to a certain extent and promoted the idea of a fundamentally high male libido. On the other hand, there was the idea that female sexuality was more relationship-oriented. Female desire was therefore only condoned in the context of childbearing, a double standard that the emerging feminist and women's rights movement fought against.

Poland's independence in 1918 also ushered in a new era of discourse on sexuality. In the first decades of the 20th century, moral norms were liberalized, leading to a clear opening of the discourse on human sexuality, which gradually began to be discussed in terms outside of its purely reproductive purpose. Demands for equal rights and a freeing up of the structures and roles within couple relationships also led to discussions of the possibility to plan pregnancies – a topic that became particularly central in advice books of the interwar period against the backdrop of demographic developments.8 Unlike the rest of Europe, Poland experienced rapid population growth – from 27 million to 34 million during the interwar period.9 At the same time, the young republic had to contend with the massive social consequences of partition, war casualties, and the destruction of infrastructure. In addition, unemployment and disease were a major issue in the interwar period, which was exacerbated by the economic crisis at the end of the 1920s. This uncertain post-war atmosphere fostered an idealized image of a resilient national body centered on the Polish Christian family. While Catholic magazines primarily called for abstinence, progressive guides described bans on sex or marriage as inhumane and called on men in particular not to leave the responsibility of contraception to women, especially as abortions – although exempt from punishment under certain circumstances from 1932 – led to social ostracization: The Catholic Church opposed abortions on moral grounds; at the same time, however, it used the issue for smear campaigns against Jewish doctors and midwives, accusing them of making themselves wealthy by performing illegal abortions.

This sentence, written by Tadeusz Boy-Żeleński Tadeusz Boy-Żeleński Tadeusz Boy-Żeleński (1864–1941) was a polish poet and literary critic, known in the interwar period primarily for his advocacy of conscious family planning and female emancipation. , shows that there was a growing awareness of the superior position of men and the inequalities associated with gender and power. Boy-Żeleński knew how issues of social insecurity, unwanted pregnancy and marginalization were intertwined. He and Irena Krzywicka Irena Krzywicka Irena Krzywicka (1899-1994) was a polish feminist and activist, translator and author. Popularized contraceptive methods and the concept of conscious motherhood. coined the term “conscious motherhood” and set up advice centers in major cities, among other initiatives.

Parallel to the social movements, there was of course always a strong ecclesiastical point of view. This dualism continued to have an effect after the Second World War. After the end of the Stalinist period in 1948 – an era in which the subject of sexuality had been treated as a taboo – two opposing systems were established11: while clergymen passed on Catholic teachings, especially in marriage counseling and marriage preparation courses, the state took the first steps towards systematic sex education from 1957 onwards. This was preceded by an important change in the law: in 1956, the Polish abortion law was liberalized, allowing abortion to be performed for social reasons, which in effect made the procedure possible on demand. In the early stages, the teaching materials produced for schools portrayed fulfilled sexuality as part of a person’s quality of life, but, from the 1970s, returned to an emphasis on parenthood and closely linked sexuality with emotional attachment and (heterosexual) partnership (homosexuality was considered deviant in the People's Republic).12 A systematic concept for sex education was not created until 1973. The subject was called Preparatory Lessons for Life in the Socialist Family. As the title suggests, individual sexuality was subordinated to a higher goal, namely the establishment of a family as the core element of the nation. This strong and unbroken narrative probably also came about due to political concerns about a population downturn.13 However, it is safe to assume that many young Poles were receiving some of their sex education from more interesting sources outside of the classroom: Gynecologist Michalina Wisłocka's Michalina Wisłocka's Michalina Wisłocka (1921–2005) was a Polish gynecologist and sexologist. In 1957, she co-founded the Polish Society for Family Development. work, Sztuka Kochania (The Art of Loving), became a bestseller in 1978 – and not without reason. After all, the book not only offered a richly illustrated guide to a wide variety of sex positions, but also provided information on the psychosocial aspects of lovemaking.

However, the subject did not become a compulsory part of the curriculum until 1987. Topics such as masturbation were only hesitantly integrated into the curriculum from 1985 onwards and dealt with under a chapter entitled “Substitute forms of sexual life”. From the mid-1980s, however, the language and content became increasingly explicit, which led to a real scandal: the textbook Preparation for Family Life written by Wiesław Sokoluk, Dagmara Andziak and Maria Trawińska was removed from the curriculum after just two months because it contained sketches of sexual positions and addressed the aspect of gaining pleasure.14 In the 1990s, pupils experienced a potpourri of methodologies and ideologies in the classroom, which was also due to social contradictions at the time: while the authors of Modern Sex Education (1996) – written by Poland's leading sexologist Zbigniew Lew-Starowicz Zbigniew Lew-Starowicz Zbigniew Lew-Starowicz (1943–2024) was a polish doctor and psychotherapist, chairman of the Polish Society for Sexology , among others – were verbally abused in the street for destroying the Polish family,15 the school subject Knowledge about Sexual Life focused only on the health and physical aspects. Today, the dominant textbooks and guidebooks for young people still convey a very one-sided image of sexuality that plays into the hands of conservative politics.

Since the end of the 1990s, it is mainly the book series Wędrując ku dorosłości (in English: The Migration into Adulthood) that has been intended to educate pupils from the 4th grade onwards. Current Polish sexuality education corresponds to abstinence-based sex education,16 which has been preparing pupils to “make decisions in life and take responsibility for their role in the family”17 since 1999. Under the national conservative PiS party PiS party Prawo i sprawiedliwość (Law and Justice). National or clerical conservative party. , which governed the country from 2005 to 2007 and from 2015 to 2023, a traditional image of roles and families became popular again and sexual preferences beyond heterosexuality were seen as an undesirable deviation from the norm. It is only in chapter 6 of the fourth-grade edition that the biological differences between the sexes are described; here, the necessity of gender-specific behavior is explained as something innate and emphasized through exercises in which students have to assign “typical” behaviors, clothing, interests and appearance.18 The chapter on procreation (“The Passing on of Life”) is directly linked to a reminder of the “serious roles of life: motherhood and fatherhood”, which are the prerequisites for a so-called “complete family” consisting of “man, woman and child”. This textbook series thus clearly defines who belongs to Polish society and excludes both single parents and the LGBTQ community. What is also missing is a depiction of the process of procreation itself, sexual intercourse. The links between the Catholic view and the official school materials become very clear here: religious sexual counselling uses de-sexualization and concealment of sexuality as the main strategies of their so-called negative sex education.19 Typical approaches include diverting attention away from the subject of sexual activity and emphasizing possible health risks, which is also reflected in the books. This negative education is aimed at physical control, which leads to social control. In Poland, there is a large countermovement to such restrictive and binary views, and non-governmental organizations such as Ponton Ponton Grupa Ponton is an association of trainers who work together with the Polish Foundation for Women and Family Planning. Founded in 2002 in Warsaw, they offer training for young people and provide information via publications and social media. also offer additional training in schools. In 2021, a law introduced by the then Minister of Education, Przemysław Czarnek Przemysław Czarnek Przemysław Czarnek: (born 1977) is an polish PiS politician, 2020-2023 Minister of Education and Science. , was intended to put a stop to these extracurricular events, but it was subsequently rejected. In the same year, Czarnek also caused an uproar with the statement that “female virtues” are particularly important for conveying values in a society.20

The examples from the textbooks, guides and advice literature portray women as society’s moral authority, but at the same time as passive and in need of care, while men are ascribed the decision-making power. Sex education has always been, and remains, a compass for a society's acceptance of a pluralistic, feminist world view. Under Donald Tusk's cabinet, far-reaching changes were announced in April 2024: beginning in the 2025/26 school year, Education for Family Life will be replaced by the subject Health Education, which will also cover mental health, drug prevention and sex education. The current Minister of Education, Beata Nowacka Beata Nowacka Beata Nowacka: (born 1975) is the polish Minister of Education since 2023, women's rights activist and founder of the left-liberal Twój Ruch party. , promises a holistic approach.21  The question of whether the subject will become compulsory has not yet been resolved. The content of the curriculum is now eagerly awaited.

English translation: William Connor