why are Polish people so obsessed with Marie Curie being Polish? (aka the Beetlejuice scandal)

[sloanpp]

watched beetlejuice in a polish cinema and the audience literally gasped at the scene

[csmodrom]

so when a polish girl marries a french guy shes french, but when i do it then apparently i'm gay 🙄

[rachell]

Maria named the element she discovered Polonium to honour her Polish identity. Is it really any wonder that Poles are rightfully pissed off????

[roadrollerdio]

As an Indian, I am pleased to say we learnt she was Polish in our school! I cannot imagine how outraged we would be if the English claimed our mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan because he spent his major working years there. His heart was always back home. Also the number of people who pronounce his name wrong... -_-

[yann]

Some people want to talk about famous woman's achievements to look feminist, but then only call her by her husband's name and erase her nationality in favour of his nationality. How curious.

[evelynafton]

Shoutout to my Hungarian physics teacher who was conviced Pierre Curie was Polish too

[arachnidlupus]

Let's not forget Marie Curie's music contributions-"All I Want For Christmas Is You" is a masterpiece.

[danielbaggins]

Pierre Curie was polish, because he married a polish woman.

[pootoobaby]

I might or might not have shouted "SHE WAS POLISH SHE MARRIED A FRENCHMAN" in the theater. I didn't even realize until it came out my mouth lol 😅 I'm glad it's being talked about and my female history nerd self feels vindicated after making a fool of myself in a US theater 🤣

[ihaveaname]

as a non polish person I 100% respect you guys being obsessed. it's what she would have wanted

[Adelina-]

I'm painfully reminded of how the Polish mathematicians who broke the enigma cypher never get mentioned in any films about Bletchley Park. Not like that was a useful contribution, da?

[mariiap]

In Ukraine, when we learn about her at school, we learn her name as Marie Sklodowska-Curie. And every time she comes up, I pronounce her name exactly like that in English, and usually get a lot of questions from foreigners. I don’t mind explaining. As someone from a culture that has been oppressed for centuries, I can completely understand why Polish people are pissed. I am pissed when every Ukrainian artist, writer, scientist is called russian.

[danam.]

Names are important and so is heritage! My grandma is indigenous Okinawan (Uchinaanchu), and she remembers how horrible it was being a civilian there during WWII and the horrible things that the Japanese did. When I was really little, she told me, "Never let anyone call you Japanese. You are Okinawan." I feel tremendous pride in my heritage, and I can only imagine how that would be amplified by growing up there like Marie did in Poland.

[helenahsson]

I don't get the argument that "she can't be Polish, Poland didn't exist back then".
Well, Finland belonged to Sweden for about 500 years but that doesn't make Finnish people at that time Swedish. They were still Finns.

[gnilda]

Caroline Zebro, the famed Scottish youtuber

[FLASHZENTAURI]

That really hit home. I’m Bosnian but was born and raised in Switzerland. Growing up, I had a Bosnian accent and was 'othered' by some Swiss people—some even tried to convert me to Christianity, though I was raised Muslim (I’m not religious anymore). Now, as an adult, those same people call me 'Swiss' because of my success and loss of accent. I tell them I’m proud to be Swiss but also proud of my Bosnian roots. When they insist I’m 100% Swiss, I remind them I can never be, and I honor my family’s survival of the Srebrenica massacre.

[PaweMateuszBytner]

-How do they call a famous Pole in the West?
-A French.

[oywiththepoodlesalready]

I completely understand and relate to the anger from Poles in this situation. It’s so frustrating when the only representation the world has of you is a gross stereotype, and then when you do have a positive figure from your country/culture, that figure is ignored or represented inaccurately. I’m Colombian, and I can tell you how much relief I felt when Encanto came out. For once, we were not represented as savage criminals, cartels, or only briefly mentioned in reference to coffee or cocaine. Yet, still, media cannot seem to understand it is spelt Colombia and not “Columbia, ” but at least Encanto was some improvement. So, no, this is not an overreaction. The Poles deserve accurate representation. We will not tolerate the erasure of Maria Skłodowska-Curie’s *Polish* identity.

[MarissaGallerani]

I literally got into an argument with my 8th grade French teacher who insisted that Marie Curie was French. Despite the super Italian name, I’m half Polish and have family who still lives in Wroclaw. Needless to say, I won the argument.

[jarhead]

I honestly didn’t even know Marie Skłodowska-Curie was Polish until she came up in conversation with me and my Polish partner recently, and I was confused at hearing her name hyphenated because I’d literally never heard it any way other than “Marie Crurie” before— it is a failure of education! Thank you for making this video with more information, I like trying to learn as much as I can about my partner’s culture, and it’s really important we don’t let it be forgotten. Hopefully it will help other people become more informed too! :)