Czy onanista to też Polak? Debata o masturbacji 1993-1994

In 1993, Mariusz Szczygieł published in Gazeta Wyborcza an article entitled Polish Onanism, discussing the issue of masturbation in Poland, including a detailed description of The Onanist Manifesto, a book by Artur Krasicki who in a satiric fashion argues for masturbation. Szczygieł's article archived a lot of attention. Readers expressed their dissatisfaction by returning the issue of paper and sending letters to the editor. Articles harshly criticizing both Szczygieł and Krasicki were published in Gazeta Wyborcza and elsewhere. Kinga Wiśniewska-Roszkowska and Wanda Półtawska, highly influential Catholic authors and medical doctors, employing the discourses of medicine, psychology, science and religion, argued that masturbation was unhealthy and constituted a threat to the Polish nation. This paper analyses texts by Szczygieł and Krasicki as well as reactions to them and places them in the context of the debate over cultural and sexual citizenship, very vivid in the early 1990s, just after the downfall of real socialism in Poland. It argues that the heated reactions to the texts presenting masturbation as healthy and normal were not only due to the fact that masturbation is perceived as an improper topic for a daily newspaper, but also because Szczygieł and Krasicki, by promoting non-hetero, non-reproductive sex, destabilized the heteronormative concept of citizenship (the Catholic authors implied that only those married with children or those who are on their way to achieving this status could be considered Poles). From today's perspective, one might argue that Szczygieł and Krasicki together with many others dedicated to the struggle over sexual and reproductive rights contributed to at least partial redefinition of cultural citizenship in Poland.