Week 7 [18.01-24.01.16]: Pre-war Poland from the bedroom perspective.

Our idea vs reality 

We like to perceive II Polish Republic as a country of ladies and gentlemen, raised in accordance with a strict, religion-based 19^th century moral code, who would approach their romantic life in an idealistic way. Men would chase women for months, or even years before given her a long-awaited first kiss, and this would only be the very first step on a suitor’s way to a lady’s heart. Finally he’d propose and, providing he was a lucky one, soon the couple would pledge their life-long love and fidelity to each other. Most of us don’t even dare to think that the sexual life of most of the people at the time would begin long before they got married. Not to mention it was much more similar to common nowadays standards than to a chick-flick story. At a risk of sounding inappropriate I invite you to take a peek through a key-hole of a mid-war Polish bedroom. 

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Origins of a fairly liberal approach  

For years sex-related topics were simply considered to be a taboo. No self-respecting gentleman, nor lady would openly speak about this intimate part of a human’s life. At the dawn of the 19^th century as little as mentioning the word genitalia would result in an instant blush and an overwhelming feeling of awkwardness among most of the respectable companion. Yet as long as it was socially unacceptable to speak out loud about the topic, men would be told by their friends, fathers or even doctors  that  not only  should they have sex relatively often, but also that it was unhealthy not to engage in an intercourse every now and then. Even if not yet married. It was related to a popular view among physicians that – 1) masturbation was unhealthy, 2) men had to release “fluids that constantly accumulate in their bodies”. If we take a look at works of the pioneers of the Polish sexology, such as doctor Kurkiewicz we’ll see that it was not uncommon to “prescribe” a sexual intercourse to a patient as a remedy for different health-related problems. As long as it was completely acceptable for a man to have a –sometimes flourishing- sexual life before marriage, the society was not that easy on women, who were expected to remain virgins until they wed.

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The revolution begins

The aforementioned double-standards could not last forever though. The 20^th century was to bring what is now often called the first sexual revolution. In 1914 the world entered the Great War bringing instability, fear and pain to lives of the millions inhabiting the continent. Armies would march through numerous war theatres changing cities and villages flourishing with life into a war zone. Young soldiers, who often could not be sure if they would live to see another day wanted to live their life to the fullest when they still could, and by any chance most of them did not want not to not experience what many called the greatest pleasure of life. Women whose husbands could get killed anytime, about fate of whom they sometimes haven’t heard for months were also much more prone to various tempting adventures with men they might never see again. The war also forced on the society one huge change. Women who had to substitute for the soldiers by taking “men’s” jobs in industry and in the scientific field also enhanced their self-awareness and started to demand rights they deserved. This led to the empowerment of emancipation and feminist movements making some changes that couldn’t’ve been either stopped, nor reversed.  

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Let’s get more liberal!

Those changes haven’t omitted Poland. Quite on the contrary to be fair. After dismal years of war, people wanted to cherish their lives even more. Culture was taken by storm by the groups such as “Skamander” that focused on praising the beauty of life. Cabarets were created one after the other. Women were given voting rights starting with the first elections in the re-born Poland. Old, conservative order started to tumble bringing change to many aspects of life, including the sexual one. This combined with modern medicine, which started to equalize sexual needs and roles of men and women (it even started to suspect existence of female orgasm) got to minds of many, that now started to demand equal standards for both genders. Among the vanguard of liberal thinkers you could find such figures as Tadeusz Boy-Żeleński and Anna Krzywicka, who in popular, influential magazines often campaigned for the usage of contraception, liberal sexual habits and responsible motherhood as well as for gay rights. Since men found it hard to change their ways and live in abstinence until the day they marry, they stopped to demand virginity from their more and more self-conscious brides. Another important factor was growing popularity of professional contraception, namely condoms, advertised in Poland with a popular slogan “your heart’s more likely to break” (“prędzej ci serce pęknie”). Women did not have to worry an unexpected pregnancy anymore. The first discussed drafts of the new Polish code of civil laws accepted abortion and depenalised gay relationships. It may also come as a surprise to some of you –since it’s a topic of many heated debates today- but this was also the time when the sexual education started to be introduced into Polish schools. All that put together shaped minds of Polish people liberalizing their take on sex and making them sometimes even more tolerant towards pre-marital sex life, the usage of contraception and even gay rights than we are today.  

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1. Did this article change anyhow the way you look at the pre-war Poland?
2. Have you ever thought that Poles could’ve been so liberal in the 19 ‘20s and ‘30s?
3. Do you think we’re more liberal regarding sexual life than Polish people used to be, or quite on the contrary?  

Source: [Epoka hipokryzji. Seks i erotyka w przedwojennej Polsce; Kamil Janicki, ISBN: 97883240-3057-6]