Feminists have been pushing to dismantle the gender binary for well over a century—and this free journal from the early 20th century put that work into action.
From 1916 to 1940, Urania was privately distributed to an underground network of friends and supporters. The British publication was founded in part by lesbian suffragists Eva Gore-Booth and Esther Roper, as well as a trans lawyer and scholar who went by the name Irene Clyde.
Before Urania, they were members of the Aëthnic Union, a short-lived radical feminist group in London that aimed to disrupt the conformity of “the stern masculine and the trivial feminine.” And Urania kept the sentiment of gender abolishment throughout its pages. Each issue claimed that there were no men or women in Urania, and the phrase “Sex is an accident” was often used.
The journal was largely made up of newspaper clippings from around the world highlighting feminist struggles and instances of gender troubling. Urania also provided a contrast to Western ideals upheld by the British Empire by encouraging its readers to learn from feminist struggles around the world.
In challenging binary gender distinctions, Urania spoke to the needs of queer and trans communities and served as a queer archive of sorts. The journal often criticized heterosexual marriage and documented instances of taboo topics like cross-dressing, intersexuality and gender-reassignment surgeries.
Gore-Booth and Roper would pass in 1926 and 1938, respectively, and Urania would circulate less frequently during that time. Urania would ultimately cease publication in 1940 due to high production costs, but its challenging and progressive ideals resonate today—and live on through its archives.
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