This is a few random thoughts on the progression of women’s rights and following that gay rights to see if it makes any sense of this trans furore. Uranus Pluto aspects appear to play a significant part, either stirring up rebellion in advance of legislation or being at the centre of the action.
Pluto is about power and control – Uranus fights for freedom and tolerance.
In England, the Married Women’s Property Act of 1882 was a giant step forward since before then women were regarded as their husband’s subordinate, could not own property in their own right and had no legal identity. The Act was made law in England as Pluto just dipped a toe into Gemini having been square Uranus during the years of political lobbying.
Emmeline Pankhurst founded the Women’s Suffragette movement in 1903 which advocated direct action and civil disobedience as the Uranus in Sagittarius opposition Pluto in Gemini was in place.
She was born 15 July 1858 9.30 pm Manchester and was a matriarchal Sun Cancer trine a courageously and vengefully determined Mars in Scorpio. Her Virgo Moon opposed Neptune and was trine Uranus; and she had an unyielding Saturn square Pluto. It’s not as descriptive a chart as I might have expected though her get-it-together 5th Harmonic is powerfully talented and ruthless. And her leaving-a-legacy 17H is inspirational, healing and uber-ambitious.
Really it was World War 1 and astrologically speaking tr Pluto through Cancer (1914 to 1938) which made the difference to women getting the vote. Pluto transformed the family, domestic life and women’s lives putting them more on a par with men. Gradually most countries in dribs and drabs started to give women the vote – with France being a laggard, waiting till 1944 (typical).
The sexual revolution of the 1960s with the free-ing of women’s sexuality came in the midst of the febrile Uranus Pluto conjunction in Virgo. It had been spurred into existence by the earlier writings of anthropologist Margaret Mead (a Sun Uranus opposition Pluto) and sex researcher Alfred Kinsey. Oddly enough both their research was heavily questioned in later years but they managed to nonetheless to shift the zeitgeist.
The Sexual Offences Act in England in 1967, a surprisingly liberal piece of legislation decriminalising male homosexuality came with Uranus Pluto conjunction still in place.
The Stonewall Riots in 1969 New York which were a spontaneous and violent expression of protest against the USA’s attitudes towards gay rights, established a cohesive LGBT community for the first time. It broke out as Uranus just over the conjunction to Pluto put a toe into Libra, opening up a new view of relationship.
The Stonewall charity in the UK which campaigns for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights and has been a vocal, some would argue divisive force in the trans debate was founded 24 May 1989 with the Uranus, Neptune, Saturn triple conjunction in Capricorn in place.
Bev Jackson, a co-founder of the Gay Liberation Front, said: “They [Stonewall] have chosen to prioritise trans people and have almost abandoned their original mission: protecting people who are same-sex attracted. “Almost 10,000 people have signed our petition – asking for calm, respectful discussion. Stonewall has stonewalled us every time.”
Academics have also accused Stonewall of censoring debate on gender identity and suppressing academic freedom. Many feminists believe hard-won rights for women should remain ring-fenced for those born into that gender, pitting former allies against each other in the battle for rights.
Which astrologically speaking takes us back to Uranus Neptune. See previous post on JK Rowling June 8 2020 below.
Mermaids, another UK charity, for parents of transgender children, was also set up in 1995 under the Uranus Neptune conjunction in Capricorn. It has been criticised for advocating that puberty blockers can be given to 12 year olds who say they are trans gender and that such hormones are reversible which scientists dispute. And there has also been disquiet about their view that any child who declares they are trans must be treated as such without examining any possible underlying issues, such as frequently undiagnosed autism, depression or sexual abuse.
The transgender debate was undoubtedly spurred on by the Uranus Pluto square of 2012 to 2016, but the undercurrent of vehement hostility to any other viewpoint is almost certainly rooted in Uranus Neptune. It tends to adhere to opinions with an almost fanatical zeal even in the face of incontrovertible evidence that they are wrong or at least open to interpretation. Those who were born with that chart marker – the Generation Zers, 1995 to 2003, are the non-binary advocates.
The trans war as a cultural phenomenon is puzzling and will no doubt at some point give way to more moderate and inclusive debate which allows for other viewpoints.
Any thoughts welcome – as long as they don’t rant and rave, in which case they’ll disappear.
Add on: Uranus Neptune like all astro-combinations has a positive and negative side. In the past it has been associated with religious art and enlightened civilizations. It can be inspirational with high ideals and soaring vision. What it can lack is common sense. With no Earth grounding and no limits, it can rise to magnificent achievements; or it can foster irrational fanatical thinking, so extreme that it misleads. Uranus can be uncompromising in its forceful push for change and breaking with the past.
Heresy is part of the rebellious Uranus story, but so is fanatical repression: the Spanish Inquisition was set up under a Uranus Neptune. In 1989 with Uranus Neptune together in Capricorn fervent beliefs leading to fanaticism were clear in the Iranian Ayatollah Khomeini’s fatwa (death threat) against Salman Rushdie. It was still in place in 1993 and 1994 when two extremist cults hit the headlines: the David Koresh fundamentalist cult at Waco in Texas was besieged by the FBI, and deaths ensued; and there were multiple suicides and murders among Solar Temple cult members in Switzerland and Canada, who believed they would be reincarnated on Sirius.
Pluses and minuses – just depends how it plays out.
Mike as a member of Womans Place UK, we first wish to retain our hard earned rights as the female sex. Already we are called cis and non men. Women did not ask for our whole definition of women to be changed to give a group further rights they already have the same as gay, lesbian straight, men and women. What do they want from women, please tell me? Women are a group with different lives but certain issues in common. I could ask why as a straight women I should even be concerned with trans rights anymore than another group, yet it is demanded of me, because I was born female and the legally definition of that transgender wants to change. I don’t buy that. Men like yourself appear to change nothing as part of the new ideology, maybe that should tell you why for women the issues are far more serious. What do you know about being a born women? Do you not find it strange that women accepted trans rights for years? Well the last ten years our rights have been threatened by trans ideology. I think women are just as important as trans people. This is a nightmare to women. Nothing to do with being a bored hate trans group. Most of us are still working raising kids, etc. Hardly need to entertain ourselves with an anti man group. In fact I am a very conventional woman with a husband and two sons. Do I hate them? Let me tell you I love my family.
It is fascinating readers here tonight, I will be back in a few days to offer some thoughts.
https://mirandayardley.com/en/jonathan-yaniv-this-is-the-product-of-transgender-ideology/
Marjorie, we all need to understand how the terms ‘sex’ and ‘gender’ are being confused and conflated. ‘Sex’ means your immutable sexed body as created at conception; ‘gender’ however, is being used as the feeling of being masculine or feminine. Hence men with full beards, penises, testicles, in heterosexual marriages but feeling themselves to be a bit womany today (see Pippa/Pips Bunce) are being lauded as fully validated women and, indeed lesbians, when they feel like it. This has destroyed the notion socially and legally of the term ‘woman’ and is destroying the Sex Equality Act as to single sexed spaces. I can write a lot more on this and give quotes and examples, as I am a freelance journalist who has been writing about this since 2015, but it is linked to trans-humanism, Post Modernism – where material reality does not exist but is created in your mind, and Queer Theory – a men’s sexual rights activism. A lot of trans gender males (80%) are heterosexual, have no desire to get rid of their male genitalia and are turned on by the thought of themselves as sexy ladies. See Ray Blanchard’s research.
Thank you Marjorie for offering us an astrological signature to this issue. It is very helpful. I work with women in community and refuge settings. Many women are unable to get the support they need for a host of reasons relating to funding etc. In day – refuges (not residential) transwomen often use the service but usually they require services that are more specialist and so this group can feel that they are not being treated properly in cis settings. Still they are not turned away for being trans. Much of the work we do in these settings is group work. It’s very hard doing group work with trans and cis women in the same space as transwomen do tend to require extra support and reassurance which undermines group work. I believe and co-workers feel that Transwomen need their own services.
As a woman of a certain age I too am watching with deep concern how children wearing the “wrong” color clothes are being deemed to be transgender. And how any teen in love with someone of the same sex is also now being seen as transgender. As though to be gay or lesbian is shameful or an indication they are in the wrong body.
The rush to medically “create” more transmen so this group is on par numerically with transwomen is worrying too. Perhaps when either Pisces leaves Neptune and/or Uranus leaves Taurus things will settle. Transwomen and transmen need to speak truth to power and that means powerful heterosexual men. Because thats what is being avoided. Abusing women who have already been subordinated and abused is to pick on easy targets not the real ones.
https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2020/01/the-billionaires-behind-the-lgbt-movement
Agreed, Anita. But there are far more ‘transmen’ now than transwomen. Mostly younger adolescent girls who are either Autistic, lesbian or have been in traumatic situations i.e. sexual abuse as children. I’m reminded of my own adolescence when we all, in my school, started to make ourselves sick in order to be thinner. The generation after started to cut themselves. this is about the role of women in society and why young women want an ‘out’. The conflation of ‘sex’ with ‘gender’ (inner feeling about whether you are feminine, masculine, a man or a woman) has driven a horse and cart through sex-based rights for women. Most transwomen (80%) keep their male genitalia. I can only imagine the horror of being a sexually/violently abused woman at the hands of a man, going to what you thought was a safe space, and having these male fetishists (see Blanchard for autogynephilia) in there with you. It is a human rights abuse.
Like this, Anita..https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2020/01/the-billionaires-behind-the-lgbt-movement.
Also who can forget the dead rat nailed to the door of the Vancouver Women’s Rape Crisis Centre, which was defunded by male transactivists.
Mike, you sound like the hordes on twitter. I come here for astrology.
Fair Play Women, Woman’s Place UK, LGB Alliance – they’re all doing great work and it’s important to have
supports for women and girls. There is no fear mongering except in the eyes of people manipulating present
day changes for their own benefit with the intent to absolutely ignore safety and rights of girls and women.
ie. See the neptune aspect mentioned in the post above.
I hesitate to add more fuel to the fire and I do come from a very binary generation. But I’ve always been fascinated by the difference between the sexes, physically as well as psychologically.
It may be that sexual inclination is more fluid than we used to think, but gender? I’m not so sure.
Starting with the moment of conception – there is a distinct chromosome difference. Then 16 weeks after conception, the male chromosomes trigger testosterone in the mother which floods the womb and promotes the development of secondary sexual characteristics. A neurologist (Ganz, I think) who was studying this phase found that the testosterone at the same time damped down the emotional (right) side of the brain and promoted the mathematical linguistic left side in the male foetus. In female foetuses there was a more even development of both sides of the brain. Which is why you get more male geniuses (single minded). If for any reason there was an overdose of testosterone in the womb from stress or malfunction then the result could be a mathematical genius who was deficient in relating skills.
Obstetric staff will remark though I’ve never seen it written other than anecdotally that boy babies are more upset at being separated from their mothers than female babies which I’ve always put down to the need to have mother (and often in later life wives/girlfriends) process and ‘hold’ feelings for them.
I’m no physiological expert but I think testosterone then creates more muscle bulk in males, with quite a difference in the development of suspensory muscles etc. That clearly has a knock on effect for the athletic world.
None of the above is integrated in any way into psychoanalytic thinking which has always insisted on treating the genders as if they were both male.
As a gay man I know sexual orientation is a spectrum and I know that many people are fluid encompassing a broader range, kinda like some singers who have broader vocal ranges than other singers.
Gender is another spectrum. Some people wake up to something in themselves and come out as the other gender. Some children are naturally the other gender. Some people flow between genders.
I believe that we enter ever more fully into the Aquarian Age we will evolve out of binary thinking: white/black, good/bad, male/female, this/that; toward spectrum thinking.
Mike. No they don’t. They quote peer reviewed,verifiable and reliable published stedied IE shown over a a number of repeatable studies. The woman who runs it is a phd vet so she should know about mammalian sex classes. . P. S. What’s a gender identity? Is it the 75+ quoted on facebook? Including gender fluid, bigender, agender iE no gender at all so you presumably disappear in a puff of smoke shadow gender, ami gender(gender changes upon which friends you are with) or Jupiter gender-yes it’s a thing, identified as very large and gassy.
Fair Play’s page on trans suicide rate cherry-picked two older UK studies to critique. Why haven’t they updated that page to include the Trevor Project summary of the YRBS data (largest data set yet)? Fair Play’s page, “Half of all transgender prisoners are sex offenders or dangerous category A inmates” is disputed in this article: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-42221629
Why is this even on their site? What does suspect data regarding prison rape have to do with trans men playing female sports? Worried about the locker room? This page is there to incite fear.
I do believe there is merit to whether transgendered males should be allowed to compete in female athletics, but based on credible science. Fair Play should stick to their original point and avoid emotional “science”.
Mike, correct me if I’m wrong here, but you appear to be comparing peer reviewed studies to survey findings from a campaign group. Suicide is tragic and nobody wants to make anyone suffer to that level of despair, the problem with the survey is validity – for example, how many of the respondents are biologically young males, who already have a higher than average rate of suicide? How many respondents are on the autistic spectrum? Many, many other things to consider.
As for the article, how many women have to suffer abuse before it’s a legitimate issue? What number would satisfy you? If Self ID legal changes had have taken effect, the statistics here would be rather different. Canada might be a better country for study
Your last sentence seems to accuse a women’s campaign organisation of being too emotional for proper science, I hope you appreciate the tone deafness and poor choice of words there. Women being “fearful”, “hysterical” and “imagining things” – we have a long history of being gas-lighted and can spot red flags
Fair Play re-interprets studies, then declares the original invalid. Fair Play presents itself as expert, but lacks the credentials to be expert. There is much research available regarding suicide within this group…no need for Fair Play to select these two particular studies. As BBC indicates, Fair Play went out of their way to avoid essential data, yet arrived at their “Half of all transgender prisoners are sex offenders or dangerous category A inmates”. Yes, I am accusing Fair Play of pushing the emotional buttons. You might want to ask them why they sensationalized information, intending to arouse negative emotions by soliciting fear. Again, what does their “Science and Statistics” page offer to the discussion of whether transgendered males are on an even playing field for competing with female athletes? Fair Play seems to be a conservative, semi-veiled anti-trans organization out to discredit and deny transgendered males, but through the guise of women’s safety and security.
Mike – the Metropolitan Police are recording crimes according to how people self-identify. The word ‘female’ is now colonised by any male believing that he feels female or womany inside. You are talking about sport. This is about the whole denial of the female sex in language and law. Cross-dressing has long been known as a co-factor in sexual offending. If you want me to give examples, I can. I will write a whole blog. This is gaslighting and lying to the whole female sex on a massive scale. More – this is gaslighting to society that sexed bodies, and bodies themselves, don’t exist apart from how we ourselves view them. This is Neptunian delusion.
Thank you Marjorie for giving us a place to discuss this in a wider perspective. I think it’s interesting to read other comments here and I will try not to rant.
The most notable part for me of JK utterances was when she said that if she was a teenage girl today she might was to change gender. She’s not the first person to say it publicly but nobody else has such a reach that my own thoughts and fears ..as well as many others has been put into the public sphere. Middle aged lesbians such as myself thought it would be much easier for young gender non conforming women today… but something has gone very wrong. The trans community has taken these girls (and I’m afraid I do call them girls if they are under 18) under their wing but the responsibility should be much wider. How has it become possible to take drugs to stop puberty when you are not old enough to drive or drink alcohol? The other place that has taken such women under their wing is unfortunately the sex industry.
The sexual revolution of the ’60s was concurrent with the introduction of oral (anti-) contraceptives. The discussion of transgender tends to be male-to-female centric, rippling the waters for the feminists and those fearful of bathrooms; female-to-male has a pass. It’s unfortunate that some individuals expect and celebrate cookie-cutter sameness, while themselves harbor a trove of unique fantasies.
Thanks for this analysis. It’s succinct and sharp.
Due to virus lockdown, some kids are stopping their transitions or plans to do so as they’re away from peer pressure and teachers pressing them (their words) and realizing they’re not trans. It’s breathtaking fluctuations day to day on this however.
Social media platforms are silencing women speaking up for girls and womens rights and safety in sports and elsewhere.
I read but stay out of the fighting fray. Too old, too tired, this is deeply concerning for girls and women so i’m reading only mostly.
I’ll be glad when it settles.
Marjorie, I’m curious as to why Uranus/Neptune would be fanatical – I would have thought Uranus/Pluto. Neptune with unrealistic/religious fervour and Uranus wanting to kick away the traces to have equality for all?
Have added piece at the end on Uranus Neptune. It does seem counter-intuitive but Neptune is an odd planet when it gets its trident sunk into delusional beliefs.
Agreed, Tara. I’ve been following this debate for a few years. I am a lesbian and our communities have been decimated. Many younger lesbians are being told they are ‘transphobic’ for not including men who identify as women in their dating pool. Humans cannot change sex. Also the category ‘woman’ isn’t a failed/broken/castrated man, as Greer rightly points out. What does identifying or living as a woman even mean, if you take away biology? We are our own sex class. The willful, arbitrary re-classification of words to mean anything that anyone in power says, is chilling. Stonewall lost the plot in 2015 when Gay marriage was achieved. They had all this money, funding streams and structure and no-where to go. Ruth Hunt, then CEO of Stonewall, is on record as saying she does not believe that transwomen are women (Julie Bindel interviewed her). She sold out to the trans lobby and then got out. Now we have the ridiculous spectacle of a woman, Maria MacLachlan, who was assaulted by three men at Speaker’s Corner, being asked to refer to her attacker in court as ‘she’, and being penalised when she did not comply. We have the ridiculous notion of a ‘female penis’ and men who are in prison for rape and sexual assault being put into women’s prisons as they suddenly have an epiphany that they are, really a woman. Then we are shocked when they go on to sexually assault women prisoners. 40% of transwomen in jail are in there for sexual offences (see Fairplay for Women website). Stonewall is doing no favours to gay men and lesbians, the group it was originally set up to support, as it does not recognise sex classes or same-sex attraction.
“‘ Many feminists believe hard-won rights for women should remain ring-fenced for those born into that gender, pitting former allies against each other in the battle for rights.”
I can’t even begin about logical fallasy between this type of thinking. I mean, if you are a feminist and believe there still is a male priviledge bias in the society, why would you not more than welcome people who can act as “material evidence” (a marketing term, but very useful in selling ideas) of the said bias? There are countless trans women who’ve experienced lives as men and then women. They can attest, for instance, to how simply having a gender specific name makes you less desirable as a professional. On the other hand, trans men (and it’s strange how trans men seem to be much less of an issue to certain type of “feminists”), who tell they’ve gained professionally.
Also, what do people arguing this think “rights” are? A piece of bread that will erode if divided? Obviously this is not the case. Countries which first acknowledged basic trans rights – Denmark and Sweden to begin with – also frequently top any surveys on gender equality (Finland is bit of an outlier, as the country where Universal Sufrage on National level was introduced as early as 1906, very much thanks to women always having worked as hard as men in an agrarian society, but also to fight “Russification, but still only making same sex unions equal to marriage starting from March 2017). As someone who has studies International Feminist Movements quite extensively if not methodically, it also seems an extremely dangerous line of thinking, given what happened with ERA in The US in the 1970’s, as depictes by “Mrs. America”. As now with trans rights, there were feminists then wanting to exclude Lesbian Rights from their programs, fearing to upset “more conservative” feminists. Turns out, Conservatives were not ready to buy their line of equal pay for equal job guaranteed by law, or abortion rights, with or without Lesbian Rights. So, it might be healthy to remember people who most want not give any rights to people still not having them, guarantees, may not care much about your rights either, and try to chose allies among those who are willing to go further.
Sorry Solaia, I’m not sure I follow you? There are clear fault lines along the issues of freedom of identity V’s the rights of women and children, but you assert that this is a logical fallacy. You qualify this by highlighting a side issue concerning the possible benefits of having people with experience of two gender identities (and I would like to see some peer reviewed studies on this as I can’t imagine how Sociologists would agree on how it would be valid and representative) – why would a male have to transition to female for the experience to be more valid and the argument stronger? Why wouldn’t we just listen to what women have been saying? I think the vast majority of people support adults wanting to live however they want to live, but the rights of children and women cannot be collateral damage.
Trans rights are evolving. The contemporary issue is whether male-to-female individuals should be allowed in female sports. Several groups, such as Fair Play for Women, are founded on that issue. Most of these groups use anecdotal evidence and aberrant statistics not related to science or sports to further their point with fear mongering. This enhances the notion that transgendered males are not acceptable in many other situations other than athletics.