A new bakery in Warsaw is selling waffles in the shape of male and female genitalia, in what its owners say is an attempt to challenge taboos. The move has, however, drawn a backlash, with one nationalist leader warning that “the worst sewage from the Western world is pouring into Poland”.
The business, called Dickery, opened on Saturday just off Saviour Square (Plac Zbawiciela), a fashionable location at the heart of the capital. Another bakery of the same name and run by the same owners had already opened in the city of Wrocław in April.
The establishments offer the choice of either a penis-shaped “Hero” waffle or a vagina-shaped “Shero”. Each can be ordered with a variety of different toppings.
After the opening of their bakery in Wrocław sparked criticism, Dickery said that this had simply “confirmed our belief that the decision we made not to make ‘socially acceptable’ waffles is correct”.
Poland has a “culture that doesn’t talk much about sexuality and doesn’t allow us to be fully ourselves”, said the owners, Ruslana and Krystian, aged 19 and 22. “Our goal is to make the shape of our products evoke thoughts of joy, equality and acceptance.”
In an interview with local news outlet TuWrocław, the couple admitted that part of the thinking behind their products is marketing: “it’s fun [for customers] to take pictures with them”.
But they also want people to “stop pretending that certain things don’t exist” and for “bodies and sexuality to become something normal”.
When the new branch opened in Warsaw, it launched a social media contest in which participants could win books on sex education and intimacy.
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The Warsaw opening quickly sparked an online backlash, in particular after the bakery shared an image showing two young children being given its genitalia-shaped products.
“It is sad that the worst sewage of the Western world has already poured into Poland, destroying the hearts, minds and bodies of children,” wrote Krzysztof Bosak, one of the leaders of the far-right Confederation (Konfederacja) party, who serves as an MP and finished fourth in the 2020 presidential election.
“On the other hand, it shows that we have entered the decisive stage of…the battle for Poland,” he added. “And fighting for a good cause is a joy.”
Smutno, że najgorszy ściek świata zachodniego wlał się już do Polski, niszczy serca, umysły i ciała dzieci i młodzieży. Z drugiej strony to pokazuje, że weszliśmy w decydujący etap walki, „Bitwy o Polskę” jak pisał w latach 90. @JanMJackowski. A walczyć w dobrej sprawie to radość https://t.co/UwrkpyKJxH
— Krzysztof Bosak 🇵🇱 (@krzysztofbosak) July 4, 2022
A local politician from Poland’s ruling national-conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party, Anna Mrowińska, tweeted in response to the image of the children that the issue should be dealt with by prosecutors.
Likewise, a leading nationalist figure, Ziemowit Przebitkowski, who until March this year served as head of the far-right All-Polish Youth (Młodżież Wszechpolska), called for police to investigate as well as for people to protest against the bakeries.
Agresywna seksualizacja! W warszawskiej cukierni dzieci dostały… wypieki w kształcie narządów płciowych! https://t.co/3cNL7cIMSR
— wPolityce.pl (@wPolityce_pl) July 5, 2022
Main image credit: dickery.warszawa/Instagram
Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.
