The lists of red flags to look for in men are endless, it seems as though every reply to any question will provoke the dreaded ‘drop him!!’ text from your friend once you tell them what he’s said. However, no matter how blinded you are by the rugby shirt or the number 6 when he says his height, the fact is that your friends may occasionally have a point… something as meaningless as an ‘oh you don’t really believe in that stuff do you’ when asked what their star sign is can actually reveal far bigger issues at hand.
Astrology has always been considered a very female dominated interest, so we have to question why so many men today seem to enjoy belittling it, after all are they not the same people who spend weeks of their lives worshiping grown men kicking a ball around?
The fact is, that the current association with astrology and women, particularly teenage girls, sadly undermines what is actually an ancient spiritual practice, still used in the Middle East to (very accurately!) forecast earthly and human events based on the interpretations of stars, planets and asteroids.
The complexity of astrology has also been stripped back to make it more palatable and easier to understand, this simplification should be really helpful and a great way to get more people into it however it seems to have the reverse effect. Only knowing the basics and generalised aspects make it far easier to call it fake as the accuracy rapidly decreases along with the simplicity.
Also, marketing it towards teenage girls and women for some *unknown* reason (hint, its misogyny) makes it loose even more credibility. This age-old tale of teenage girls’ interests being constantly put down and seen as silly stems from decades of misogyny, just think of the portrayal of Taylor Swift and One Direction in the media, just because their fanbase was primarily teenage girls they became seen as cheesy, unserious artists when in reality both have won countless awards and are extremely talented.
So honestly, anyone who reinforces those ideas and refuses to hear you talk about your interests, whether that’s how mercury retrograde is making you disgustingly emotional (completely valid excuse to spend the day in bed btw) or if you too enjoy being drenched in beer watching England score an extremely rare goal (must admit to being a fake football fan during the euros), is simply not worth your time.