“Sorry, I’m a Caprisun,”
Astrology is like marmite. You either love it or you hate it. Right?
There are countless hilarious memes mocking the thousands of people that believe in the weird and wonderful world of astrology. The timing and the place of the moon, sun and other entities are said to predict what kind of person you become, how successful you will be in life and even what you should eat for breakfast tomorrow.
The study of astrology is essentially the study of the relation of the stars to human life. The system was devised originally in the Middle East and Ancient Greece, transmitted to the modern world mainly through the Islamic world. It suggests that groups of people born around the same time share some fundamental characteristics; common ones include that Taureans are stubborn, Cancers are cry-babies and Leos are loud.
I will admit, the first time I heard about astrology, I was (to say the least) sceptical. However, to give it credit, I was told about it by my even more sceptical grandmother who introduced it to me as “a bunch of starry rubbish”. My mouldable young brain heard this and latched on, shutting down any possibility that this could hold any relevance to real life.
You might be thinking: Aha, here is a person who thinks star signs are just a bunch of bull, the same as me. I am a logical person. I am smart. Everyone else is stupid.
Sorry, hun. Astrology ain’t my problem. You are.
I first came to properly understand what was meant by a star sign when I got to university. My flatmate and a few other people I encountered really believed and engaged in the concept of a star sign. And I don’t mean planning their lives according to where Mars is in the sky.
They used astrology to really understand their own, and sometimes others’, personalities. It was a way to find their strengths and weaknesses articulated for them in ways they had never thought before. It was also a way to identify with other people who might find some really fundamental common ground. A way of belonging to a group of people; a group spread across the world, but united by one thing.
The thing with astrology is that you can believe or engage as much or as little as you want to. This is not me trying to persuade you to read a daily horoscope and buy some crystals. For me, reading about what my star sign means about me is incredibly fun. It doesn’t matter if it’s spot on and I feel completely attacked by some meme telling me I’m emotional and stubborn. Sometimes it’s so incredible off the mark that I have to show everyone I know.
Here’s my real problem: People instantly assuming that astrology is a load of bull just because of the group of people that believe in it.
I have experienced this all my life and I’m sure many other women can relate too. The people that follow star signs and the like are largely women or in the LGBTQ+ community. It is disgusting that just because a specific group of people likes something, it invalidates or is demeaning to that thing. And it does not stop at astrology.
It’s music, it’s art, it’s even just colours. I remember wildly avoiding the colour pink just because it was labelled “girly”. Why the hell is that a bad thing and how the hell did I, a girl, become convinced that it was?
Boy bands and other music artists are a great example. Growing up, just because I liked something, it somehow makes the artist less of an artist. Taylor Swift, for example. She was laughed out of many car journeys or Spotify sessions just because her audience was predominantly female. But when her newest albums came out and my dad was listening to them, I felt myself thinking “oh, thank god, she’s classed as good now.”
In response to the question “Is it good?” about a film or an album, I can’t comfortably just say “Yes!”. I find my response being “well, I liked it!”. I myself have been convinced that my opinion is wrong. What the hell?
I do not intend to point my finger at specific people here, because it has become a frame of mind for everyone. Women-bashing has run its course and left our society completely off-kilter.
This is something I am still re-teaching myself: My opinions are valid. Just because someone louder than me disagrees, does not make me any less of a person.
I’ll leave you with this: Next time you find yourself with a negative opinion of something, think about why. If you truly cannot stand that TV show, that internet trend or that song, that’s absolutely fine.
What is not fine is making anyone feel diminished because of their likes and dislikes. If it isn’t hurting anyone, can we just leave it alone? Live and let live. Is that really so hard?
