Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Polish Gay and Lesbian Magazines

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Transnational Homosexuals in Communist Poland

Part of the book series: Global Queer Politics ((GQP))

Abstract

This chapter describes in detail the production of two most successful gay and lesbian magazines published in communist Poland, Biuletyn/Etap and Filo. First, drawing on the theories of alternative media, Szulc examines the role of the media for social movements and points to the importance of transnational network of gay and lesbian magazines for shaping homosexual identities and politics in the West. Next, he presents the publishing underground in Poland under communism. Finally, relying on his interviews with the makers of Biuletyn/Etap and Filo (Kisiel, Pilch and Selerowicz), Szulc discusses the history, production and general content of the Polish magazines.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
eBook
USD 19.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 29.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 139.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Bibliography

  • Atton, C. (2002). Alternative media. London: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Atton, C. (2011). Zines. In J. D. H. Downing (Ed.), Encyclopedia of social movement media (pp. 565–567). Los Angeles, CA: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Atton, C. (2015). Introduction: Problems and positions in alternative and community media. In C. Atton (Ed.), The Routledge companion to alternative and community media (pp. 1–18). London: Rutledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bailey, O. G., Cammaerts, B., & Carpentier, N. (2008). Understanding alternative media. Maidenhead: Open University Press and McGraw Hill.

    Google Scholar 

  • Baim, T. (2012a). All the news that’s not fit to print. In T. Baim (Ed.), Gay press, gay power: The growth of LGBT community newspapers in America (pp. 15–77). Chicago: Prairie Avenue Productions and Windy City Media Group.

    Google Scholar 

  • Baim, T. (2012b). Gay news: In the beginning. In T. Baim (Ed.), Gay press, gay power: The growth of LGBT community newspapers in America (pp. 79–140). Chicago: Prairie Avenue Productions and Windy City Media Group.

    Google Scholar 

  • Baim, T. (2012c). The future of queer newspapers. In T. Baim (Ed.), Gay press, gay power: The growth of LGBT community newspapers in America (pp. 438–447). Chicago: Prairie Avenue Productions and Windy City Media Group.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bates, J. M. (2004). From state monopoly to a free market of ideas? Censorship in Poland, 1976–1989. In M. Díaz-Sacke (Ed.), Censorship & cultural regulation in the modern age (pp. 141–167). Amsterdam: Rodopi.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bereś, W. (1990). Drugi obieg: Historia, sława, zmierzch. Kultura, 11(518), 100–107.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bielska, K. (2013). Trzeci obieg wydawniczy w PRL oraz drugi obieg w latach 70. i 80. Pedagogia Ojcostwa, 6(1), 194–201.

    Google Scholar 

  • Biskupski, M. B. (2000). The history of Poland. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Churchill, D. S. (2008). Transnationalism and homophile political culture in the postwar decades. GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies, 15(1), 31–66.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Couldry, N., & Curran, J. (2003). The paradox of media power. In N. Couldry & J. Curran (Eds.), Contesting media power: Alternative media in a networked world (pp. 3–15). Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield.

    Google Scholar 

  • Davies, N. (1981[1991]). God’s playground: A history of Poland. Volume II: 1795 to the present. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Deleuze, G., & Guattari, F. (1987). A thousand plateaus. Capitalism and schizophrenia. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Doty, A. (1993). Making things perfectly queer: Interpreting mass culture. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Downing, J. D. H. (1984). Radical media: The political experience of alternative communication. Boston, MA: South End.

    Google Scholar 

  • Downing, J. D. H. (2001). Radical media: Rebellious communication and social movements. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Downing, J. D. H. (2015). Conceptualising social movement media: A fresh metaphor? In C. Atton (Ed.), The Routledge companion to alternative and community media (pp. 100–110). London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Duyvendak, J. W., & Duyves, M. (1993). Gai Pied after ten years. Journal of Homosexuality, 25(1–2), 205–213.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dyer, R. (1984). Gays and film. New York: Zoetrope.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dyer, R. (1986). Judy Garland and gay men. In R. Dyer (Ed.), Heavenly bodies: Film stars and society (pp. 141–194). London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Feuer, J. (1989). Reading Dynasty: Television and reception theory. South Atlantic Quarterly, 88(2), 443–459.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fiedotow, A. (2012). Początki ruchu gejowskiego w Polsce (1981–1990). In P. Barański, A. Czajkowska, A. Fiedotow & A. Wochna-Tymińska (Eds.), Kłopoty z seksem w PRL: Rodzenie nie całkiem po ludzku, aborcja, choroby, odmienności (pp. 241–258). Warszawa: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fitzgerald, T. (1980). Gay self-help groups in Sweden and Finland. International Review of Modern Sociology, 10(2), 191–200.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fraser, N. (1992). Rethinking the public sphere – A contribution to the critique of actually existing democracy. In C. Calhoun (Ed.), Habermas and the public sphere (pp. 109–142). Cambridge, MA: MIT.

    Google Scholar 

  • Głowacki, B. (2010). Prasa trzeciego obiegu w okresie przełomu. Kultura-Media-Teologia, 3, 33–43.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goban-Klas, T. (1990). Making media policy in Poland. Journal of Communication, 40(1), 50–54.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gross, L. (1998). Minorities, majorities and the media. In T. Liebes & J. Curran (Eds.), Media, ritual and identity (pp. 87–102). London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gross, L. (2001). Up from invisibility: Lesbians, gay men, and the media in America. New York: Columbia University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gross, L., & Woods, J. D. (1999). Introduction: Being gay in American media and society. In L. Gross & J. D. Woods (Eds.), The Columbia reader on lesbians and gay men in media, society, and politics (pp. 3–22). New York: Columbia University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hall, S. (1990). Cultural identity and diaspora. In J. Rutherford (Ed.), Identity: community, culture and distance (pp. 222–237). London: Lawrence & Wishart.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hekma, G. (2015). Sodomy, effeminacy, identity: Mobilizations for same-sexual loves and practices before the Second World War. In D. Paternotte & M. Tremblay (Eds.), The Ashgate research companion to lesbian and gay activism (pp. 1–29). Farnham: Ashgate.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hospers, H., & Blom, C. (1998). HIV prevention activities for gay men in the Netherlands 1983–93. In T. Sandfort (Ed.), The Dutch response to HIV: Pragmatism and consensus (pp. 40–60). London: UCL Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Huebner, K. (2010). The whole world revolves around it: Sex education and sex reform in First Republic Czech print media. Aspasia, 4, 25–48.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jablonski, O. (2002). The birth of a French homosexual press in the 1950s. Journal of Homosexuality, 41(3–4), 233–248.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jackson, J. (2015). The homophile movement. In D. Paternotte & M. Tremblay (Eds.), The Ashgate research companion to lesbian and gay activism (pp. 31–44). Farnham: Ashgate.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jakubowicz, K. (1991). Musical chairs? The three public spheres in Poland. In P. Dahlgren & C. Sparks (Eds.), Communication and citizenship: Journalism and the public sphere (pp. 153–173). London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jastrzębski, M., & Krysiak, E. (1993). Avoiding censorship: The “second circulation” of books in Poland. Journal of Reading, 36(6), 470–473.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kennedy, H. (1999). The ideal gay man: The story of Der Kreis. Binghamton, NY: The Haworth Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Marhoefer, L. (2015a). Sex and the Weimar Republic: German homosexual emancipation and the rise of the Nazis. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Marhoefer, L. (2015b). “The book was a revelation, I recognized myself in it”: Lesbian sexuality, censorship, and the queer press in Weimar-era Germany. Journal of Women’s History, 27(2), 62–86.

    Google Scholar 

  • McNair, B. (1991). Glasnost, perestroika and the Soviet media. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mielczarek, T. (2011). Kultura i polityka: Kultura, życie umysłowe, media 1944–1989. In K. Persak & P. Machcewicz (Eds.), PRL od grudnia 70 do czerwca 89 (pp. 259–300). Warszawa: Bellona.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mowlabocus, S. (2010). Gaydar culture: Gay men, technology and embodiment in the digital age. Farnham: Ashgate.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mrok, M. (1999). Ruch gejowski w Polsce od 1989 (PRL) oraz ruch gejowski w III Rzeczpospolitej po 1989 do 1999. Gdańsk: G-Eye Team.

    Google Scholar 

  • Oosterhuis, H. (1992). Homosexual emancipation in Germany before 1933. Journal of Homosexuality, 22(1–2), 1–28.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Osa, M. (1997). Creating Solidarity: The religious foundations of the Polish Social Movement. East European Politics and Societies, 11(2), 339–365.

    Google Scholar 

  • O’Sullivan, T., Dutton, B., & Rayner, P. (1994). Studying the media: An introduction. London: Arnold.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pokorna-Ignatowicz, K. (2012). From the communist doctrine of media to free media. The concept of a new information order in the Round Table Agreements. In K. Pokorna-Ignatowicz (Ed.), The Polish media system 1989–2011 (pp. 11–21). Kraków: Krakow Society for Education: AFM Publishing House.

    Google Scholar 

  • Power, L. (1995). No bath but plenty of bubbles: An oral history of the Gay Liberation Front 1970–1973. London: Cassell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rehberg, P. (2016). “Männer wie Du und Ich”: Gay magazines from the national to the transnational. German History, 34(3), 468–485.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Remmer, A. (1989). A note on post-publication censorship in Poland 1980–1987. Soviet Studies, XLI(3), 415–425.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Robinson, L. (2007). Gay men and the left in post-war Britain: How the personal got political. Manchester: Manchester University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rosqvist, H. B. (2012). A special kind of married man: Notions of marriage and married men in the Swedish gay press, 1954–1986. Journal of Historical Sociology, 25(1), 106–125.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Russo, V. (1987). The celluloid closet: Homosexuality in the movies. New York: Harper and Row.

    Google Scholar 

  • Scott, D. T. (2011). Queer media studies in the age of the e-invisibility. International Journal of Communication, 5, 95–100.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sender, K. (2001). Gay readers, consumers, and a dominant gay habitus: 25 years of the Advocate magazine. Journal of Communication, 51(1), 73–99.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sender, K. (2004). Business, not politics: The making of the gay market. New York: Columbia University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sibalis, M. (2005). Gay liberation comes to France: The Front Homosexuel d’Action Révolutionnaire (FHAR). In I. Coller, H. Davies, & J. Kalman (Eds.), French history and civilization: Papers from the George Rudé Seminar (pp. 265–276). Retrieved July 29, 2016, from http://www.h-france.net/rude/2005conference/rudecomplete.pdf.

  • Sibalis, M. (2009). The spirit of May ‘68 and the origins of the gay liberation movement in France. In L. J. Frazier & D. Cohen (Eds.), Gender and sexuality in 1968: Transformative politics in the cultural imagination (pp. 235–253). New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Silverstone, R. (1999). Why study the media? London: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Soares, M. (1998). The purloined Ladder: Its place in lesbian history. Journal of Homosexuality, 34(3–4), 27–49.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sowiński, P. (2011). Zakazana książka. Uczestnicy drugiego obiegu 1977–1989. Warszawa: ISP PAN.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stålström, O., & Nieminen, J. (2000). Seta: Finnish gay and lesbian movement’s fight for sexual and human rights. In I. Lottes & O. Kontula (Eds.), New views on sexual health. The case of Finland (pp. 119–139). Helsinki: Population Research Institute.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stanley, J. (2010). Sex and solidarity, 1980–1990. Canadian Slavonic Papers: Revue Canadienne des Slavistes, 52(1-2), 131–151.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Steakley, J. D. (1975). The homosexual emancipation movement in Germany. New York: Arno.

    Google Scholar 

  • Streitmatter, R. (1995). Unspeakable: The rise of the gay and lesbian press in America. Boston: Faber and Faber.

    Google Scholar 

  • Streitmatter, R. (2000[2005]). Gay and lesbian press. In G. E. Haggerty (Ed.), Gay histories and cultures (pp. 565–567). New York: Garland Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Szulc, L. (2012). From queer to gay to Queer.pl: The names we dare to speak in Poland. Lambda Nordica, 17(4), 65–98.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tyler, P. (1972). Screening the sexes: Homosexuality in the movies. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.

    Google Scholar 

  • Weeks, J. (2015). Gay liberation and its legacies. In D. Paternotte & M. Tremblay (Eds.), The Ashgate research companion to lesbian and gay activism (pp. 45–57). Farnham: Ashgate.

    Google Scholar 

  • Whisnant, C. J. (2012). Male homosexuality in West Germany: Between persecution and freedom, 1945–69. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Whisnant, C. J. (2016). Queer identities and politics in Germany: A history 1880–1945. New York: Harrington Park Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • White, T. (2012). Drama, power and politics: One magazine, Mattachine Review and The Ladder in the era of homophile activism. In T. Baim (Ed.), Gay press, gay power: The growth of LGBT community newspapers in America (pp. 141–151). Chicago: Prairie Avenue Productions and Windy City Media Group.

    Google Scholar 

  • Więch, A. S. (2005). Różowy odcień PRL-u: Zarys badań nad mniejszościami seksualnymi w Polsce Ludowej. In K. Slany, B. Kowalska & M. Śmietana (Eds.), Homoseksualizm: Perspektywa interdyscyplinarna (pp. 257–264). Kraków: Nomos.

    Google Scholar 

  • Williams, R. (1980). Problems in materialism and culture: Selected essays. London: Verso.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. London School of Economics and Political Science, London, UK

    Lukasz Szulc

Authors
  1. Lukasz Szulc
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2018 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Szulc, L. (2018). Polish Gay and Lesbian Magazines. In: Transnational Homosexuals in Communist Poland. Global Queer Politics. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-58901-5_5

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation