Discoursive Self-Legitimation of Gals for Gals as the Movement’s Collective Identity-Forming Factor
Abstract
The article delves analytically into the political thought of the Polish pro-choice movement Gals for Gals which arose to oppose to the submitted draft act which was to have imposed a total ban on abortion and acted in 2016-2018. It aims to determine how Gals for Gals explained and justified their occurrence and political activity, how the strategies of this discoursive self-legitimation changed over time, and to what extent the collective identity-forming process depended on the external incentives understood as the stages of two legislative processes. In employing the written sources analysis, relational content analysis, and the typology of discoursive legitimation strategies, the research discovers that the movement made identityforming attempts directly after the mass mobilization and over the first anniversary of foundation rather than subjected the attempts to the legislative processes. The Gals’ identity constantly drew upon mostly authorization, rationalization, and remotely narrativization. Authorization dominated at the beginning, but then this strategy gave place to rationalization. Initially, the Gals focused on linking the movement to celebrities and human rights, and then consequently preserved the links to gain social support and appreciation. Rationalization armed activists with arguments against the current political situation and the planned legislation. Moralization did not enter the discourse, which reveals the absence of aspirations to build an enduring movement.
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