Kobiety na falach. Afera w mediach
Women on the Waves. Scandal in the Media

Summary/Abstract: The appearance of the Langenort, a ship offering abortions to women, on the Polish coast was regarded a sensation which made the news headlines for many days. The media presented the event in such a pretentious way that it was perceived as a dangerous conflict between pro-abortion Polish feminists and anti-abortion right-wing activists. Justyna Włodarczyk, who took part in the Women on the Waves project, observed that it is much easier to raise people’s interest by showing scenes of aggression than it is by having people calmly present their arguments. Journalists turned out to be very creative in their reports of how the women from the ship were chased by members of ‘Młodzież Wszchpolska’ (a right-wing youth organisation), events which did not, in fact, take place at all. It is true that there was an element of aggression: paint and eggs were thrown at the ship and its crew, but not to the extent presented in the media. It is interesting that the journalists, who initially did not favour the feminists, took their side in the end. “It turned out that feminists were not all that awful once one got to know them. And they were definitely more talkative than ‘Młodzież Wszechpolska’”. This led to a series of press releases which presented the “defenders of life” in an unfavourable light. The remark “It is a shame they did not give you an abortion”, made by Gertruda Szumska, MP from Liga Polskich Rodzin [the League of Polish Families] about Marzena Dobrowolska, lawyer and pro-choice activist, did not require any comments. Bishop Piotr Libera’s statement that the Langenort “is the symbol of the worst human features” was concluded with the words that “casting paint and eggs at people and calling them ‘Gestapo’ are not the best human features”. Another interesting fact is that in order to present a better image of the feminists in contrast to their “teenage opponents with shaved heads”, the former were depicted as very feminine. This was a real attempt to overrule the

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