This article. This one. Right here.
The article proceeds from a very clear bias: “what is wrong with straight men such that they overwhelmingly reject astrology,” instead of “what is wrong with people who actually buy into this obvious BS.”
If you’re a straight man with a lot of female friends, you probably tolerate astrology (“It’s gotten to the point where I’m sharing Virgo memes in the group chat like ‘lol, me’, but I still don’t like it,” says Adam from Manchester). And if you don’t, you likely think it’s a load of shit (“If you try to bring up that shit with me, I’ll think you’re a mindless bimbo,” Tom, 25, London). There are obviously women and LGBTQ people who feel similarly, but why is this attitude so prevalent among straight men in particular? Is it because astrology is generally seen as a “women’s” interest?
What?
WHAT?
No. The reason why men reject astrology isn’t because it’s a “womans interest,” but because it’s BULLCRAP. It is long-debunked fact-free nonsense, based on essentially nothing but wishful thinking. I don’t care if astrology is girlie, or if homeopathy is for black folks, or faith healing for religious fundamentalists or ghost hunting is for transsexuals. The fact that these things are for “people other than me” isn’t what makes them not for me, but the fact that they are NONSENSE.
There are some good lines in the story from guys who were interviewed about their astrology-crazy exes. But there is also a line in there that, if I were a woman, I would find *terribly* insulting:
“Astrology is a natural, intuitive way of telling time, and women are more in tune with nature,” Randon continues. “Men, however, are builders who work with the material world. Unless you give a straight man evidence of astrology being real, they’re less likely to find it remotely interesting.”
Translation: women are friggen’ morons incapable of rational thought, doomed to glom onto any passing rubbish that claims to be”natural.”
And I’d love to see how someone uses astrology to tell time. Me, I look at a clock. They’re cheap, reliable and everywhere. But apparently this person thinks that astrological charts and chicken bones and burning incense and gazing into crystals will help you determine when it’s time to clock out and go home.
Entirely unsurprisingly, the author of the piece comes to the conclusion that since this is a patriarchy and how obviously cis-het men live live of ease and comfort they do not need to take solace in the easy answers of superstition. Ask any cis-het guy who has had to make decisions about which bills to pay that month and which to put off and hope don’t go into collections just how “patriachal” society is and just how nice it would be to have easy answers, how great it would be to be able to lay the blame for your problems on the stars, the planets, society, the patriarchy… anybody but yourself. But there are a whole lot of people – not just men, not just straight – who are more interested in reality than comforting but ultimately destructive delusions.
So… why *do* straight men hate astrology so much? Because *somebody* in this society has to face reality.
