Abstract
This chapter focuses on the constructions around body as gendered and sexualised within recent migration of Poles to the United Kingdom (UK). Poles migrate, as it appears, from an environment in Poland characterised by more conservative views on gender and sexuality to a seemingly more liberal environment in the UK. This chapter uses the feminist perspective and examines the influence of this migration on discourses around body and its potential to liberate conservative discourses. It also utilizes intersectionality framework as lens to examine issues around body and analyses how specific social categories such as gender and sexuality, seen as ‘social processes’, simultaneously influence construction of these issues (Nash 2008). This chapter uses internet forum discussions as data. Different views on body were identified through the analysis and it was found that debates contained a mixture of nationalist, patriarchal, conservative and liberal attitudes. The nationalist discourse is dominant in Poland and this analysis showed that this discourse in a way “travelled” with migrants. However, counter-discourses were created in the process such as the liberal one, which gives women choice in relation to their lives and does not prescribe strict gender and sexual roles. This chapter showed how bodies are becoming ‘gendered’ and sexualised within migration space (Jackson & Scott 2001). The analysis demonstrated that gender and sexual ideologies and environments have a great impact on people’s views on body, particularly on women’s bodies. It also demonstrated that gender and sexual ideologies and practices are negotiated and reshaped as part of the migration process (McIlwaine et al. 2006; Datta et al. 2008), where different views on gender and sexuality as well of intersections of these with ethnicity come into play.
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- 1.
My PhD research project has focused more broadly on issues of gender and sexuality within Polish migration to the UK.
- 2.
For more discussion the physical appearance of bodies, Polish women’s and men’s sexualities and the perception of inter-ethnic relationships please refer to Siara (2009).
- 3.
From 1989 until 1993, from 1997 to 2001 and from 2005 to 2007.
- 4.
For more information on the internet usage by Poles in the UK please refer to Siara (2009).
- 5.
It is understood as sexual double standard embracing the issues surrounding ethnicities.
- 6.
Mohair [Polish – Moher] became a symbol of conservative thinking in Poland. The word originated in mohair hats worn by older Polish women who are church-goers and who are seen to have conservative views on gender and sexuality.
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Siara, B. (2014). Body as Gendered and Sexualised and Recent Migration of Poles to the United Kingdom. In: Tsolidis, G. (eds) Migration, Diaspora and Identity. International Perspectives on Migration, vol 6. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-7211-3_10
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