Gender and EU membership in PolandIn the period before and immediately after Poland's accession to the European Union (01.05.2004), the media Polish countries were overflowing with “gender talk”. On the radio, one heard randomly placed jokes about "natural differences between the sexes" (in fact, a new station (FM 94) was created in 2002 with "real men" in mind). Almost every event on the evening news could be commented on with a "this is what women look like" or "men can't help being men." Magazines and newspapers provided an abundance of images featuring virile men and feminine women, as well as deviations from these norms (notably the drag queens of gay pride parades in Western Europe). The following is a reading of a selection of gender-focused cover stories published by three mainstream political weeklies – Polityka, Wprost and the Polish edition of Newsweek between spring 2003 and summer 2004. My focus is to suggest a link between the intensity of “gender discourse” in the media and Poland's accession to the EU. The three weeklies ask a number of more or less worrying questions concerning gender roles, sexuality and reproduction in Poland. Here is a representative sample of cover stories: “What does a man want today? To remain themselves, men increasingly assume femininity” (Newsweek, 04.21.02); “She works, he doesn’t. How the shock to the labor market destabilized the traditional Polish family” (Newsweek, 01.06.2003); “How to raise a child on the weekend. Working mothers are besieged by good advice” (Polityka, 02/07/2004); “Special protection for women. Who needs the government's gender equality agenda? » (Newsweek, 07.09.2004); “More freedom – but what about sex?” New research on the erotic life of Polish women” (Wpro...... middle of article ......n, the consolidation of traditional gender ideology is quite typical of societies in transition. WORKS CITED Fuszara, Malgorzata. “Nowy kontrakt plci” In: M. Fuszara (ed.), Kobiety w Polsce na przelomie wiekow. : G. Eley et al (eds), Becoming national Oxford, Oxford University Press: 1996. 259-284 Scott, Joan. “French Universalism in Crisis” Lecture given at the New School University, Dean's Forum, November 11, 2004. Davis, Nira. and Nation London, Sage, 1998. Polish political weeklies (2002-2004): Newsweek, Polityka, Wprost..