Rage as a strategy of weak resistance and creative power in women’s protests and digital activism in postsocialist Poland

Rage has become an increasingly prominent affective and political force in contemporary feminist movements. In postsocialist Poland—where feminist resistance has long been sidelined in both national politics and global feminist discourse—rage has emerged as a powerful collective expression that fuses dissent with care, solidarity, and political agency. This article examines how feminist rage has shaped women’s political subjectivity in Poland, particularly in response to the tightening of abortion laws and the broader erosion of democratic norms since 2016. Drawing on the frameworks of “weak resistance” (Ewa Majewska 2019) and “uneventful feminism” (Maria Mayerchyk and Olga Plakhotnik 2021), I analyze rage not only as a form of resistance but also as a creative and transformative affect. The theoretical discussion explores how rage reclaims traditionally feminine traits such as care and tenderness to produce new forms of feminist agency within “affective publics” (Zizi Papacharissi 2014). The article concludes with a case study of Polish women’s street and digital activism from 2016 to 2024, incorporating the author’s firsthand participation to offer a situated, reflexive perspective on the role of rage in contemporary postsocialist feminist struggle.