Doing gender, doing nation! Marches, protests, and mass events as a space for reproducing gendered national roles in nationalistic organisations

Abstract

The article aims to analyse the physical practising of gender by women in Polish nationalist organisations to reflect on what vision of the nation is reproduced by these embodied gender practices. Using information obtained from interviews and observations, I seek an answer to how the physical gender practices correspond to the logic of the gendered presence of women as members of a national community (Anthias & Yuval-Davis, 1989). One of the main conclusions of the analysis is that the physical body and the gender practices involved in it are a significant stronghold of reproducing the roles that the nation imposes on women. This is related to justifying cultural differences by referring to the biological differences between genders. What is particularly interesting, however, is the fact that the body and its physical capabilities provide space for gender transgressions beyond established norms.