In many Western countries, cancel culture mostly antagonises proponents of common sense and traditional values. In Poland, not so much. Last Friday, November 25th, news site TVN24 announced that the appointment of the director of Warsaw’s Dramatic Theatre, Monika Strzępka, has been declared invalid by provincial Governor Konstanty Radziwiłł of the conservative PiS by reason of her “radical feminism” and support of the LGBT agenda.
In a statement, Radziwiłł accused Strzępka of a “complete departure from the tradition of this cultural institution” and of “promoting a repertoire with one ideological line.” Radziwiłł suggested that, under Strzępka, “the theatre would become ‘a place for minorities, for non-normative identities, for the queer’.” This became immediately apparent at Strzępka’s inauguration earlier this year. “The event inaugurating her term was a demonstrative presentation of her radical feminism by placing a ‘golden vagina’ sculpture in the foyer,” the PiS politician explained his decision.
The sculpture in question bears the title Wet Woman and was made by Iwona Demko, who promotes herself as a “vagina artist.” It was placed in the theatre on August 31st in celebration of Strzępka’s appointment. For Radziwiłł, the sculpture “demeans women” and “reduces femininity to a purely biological aspect that boils down to satisfying sexual needs,” adding that the “porn industry distorts the perception of women in a similar way.”
Strzępka had also openly commented on a variety of political issues, including stating her public support of the pro-abortion protests and LGBT activists. These acts led Radziwiłł to conclude that Strzępka had “not taken into account the expectations of the organiser of the hiring process, the city of Warsaw, as defined in the contest documents.”
But the mayor of Warsaw, Aldona Machnowska-Góra, a member of the oppositional Civic Platform of Donald Tusk, accused Radziwiłł of attempted censorship while calling his explanation “bizarre” and “unsurprising.” Machnowska-Góra announced her plan to launch an appeal against the dismissal. In doing so, however, she ignores the fact that already in September, a petition was launched calling for Strzępka’s dismissal. The petition obtained 23,914 signatures and argued that a “radically feminist institution does not serve the common good or quality.”
Strzępka herself responded with a statement on the theatre’s Facebook page: “Feminism, contrary to the fantasies of the governor, does not divide, but unites,” Strzępka wrote, continuing with
We will harness and reinforce the energy of social change created by women’s protests, climate movements, minority rights, human rights, and democracy. We will be working on this change—a change that will no longer be stopped by any supervisory resolution. The wave has picked up. I say this from a place of power in the Palace of Culture and Science. From here you can see the end of the old world—and, the already existing, new world emerging more and more clearly.”
With Strzępka’s dismissal, however, the emergence of the new world in Poland will have to wait a bit longer.
