Urania (journal)

Urania
Front page of the May-August 1936 edition
Discipline
LanguageEnglish
Edited by
Publication details
History1916–1940
Publisher
Private (United Kingdom)
FrequencyBimonthly, later triannual
Standard abbreviations
ISO 4Urania

Urania was a privately circulated feminist journal published from 1916 to 1940. Its editors included Eva Gore-Booth, Esther Roper, Irene Clyde, Dorothy Cornish and Jessey Wade.[1] The journal was published bimonthly from 1916 to 1920 and later three times a year because of printing costs.[2] It opposed fixed gender categories and printed material on feminism, same-sex relationships, sex reform and gender variance.

Background

Several of the journal's editors were connected with the Aethnic Union, a radical feminist group formed in 1911.[3]

History

Urania argued against gender stereotypes and the gender binary.[4] Each issue carried the statement, "There are no 'men' or 'women' in Urania."[5] The phrase "sex is an accident" was also used in the journal.[6]

The journal was printed privately by D. R. Mitra at the Manoranjan Press in Bombay.[7] It was not sold publicly. A distributors' note at the end of each issue stated that "Urania is not published, nor offered to the public, but [...] can be had by friends."[8] Alison Oram states that the editors developed an informal network of readers and asked supporters to add their names to a register.[9]

Urania reported a circulation of about 250 and was distributed without charge.[2][10] It was held by university college libraries in Oxford, Cambridge and the United States, although some Oxford women's colleges banned it.[10]

Content

The journal printed material on feminist movements in different countries and collected reports on gender-affirming surgeries.[11][12]

Digitisation

The Women's Library at the London School of Economics digitised issues of Urania from 1919 to 1940 and made them available through the LSE Digital Library in 2023.[13]

See also

  • Das 3. Geschlecht – First transvestite magazine published in Weimar Germany from 1930 to 1932

References

  1. ↑ O'Connor, Sarah; Shepard, Christopher C., eds. (2009). Women, Social and Cultural Change in Twentieth Century Ireland: Dissenting Voices?. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. p. 173. ISBN 978-1-4438-0693-0.
  2. 1 2 Steele, Karen (2018). "Ireland and Sapphic Journalism between the Wars: A Case Study of Urania". In Clay, Catherine; DiCenzo, Maria; Green, Barbara; Hackney (eds.). Women's Periodicals and Print Culture in Britain, 1918-1939: The Interwar Period. The Edinburgh History of Women's Periodical Culture in Britain. Edinburgh University Press. pp. 388–402. doi:10.3366/edinburgh/9781474412537.001.0001. ISBN 978-1-4744-1254-4.
  3. ↑ Tiernan, Sonja (2011). "Challenging Presumptions of Heterosexuality: Eva Gore-Booth, A Biographical Case Study". Historical Reflections. 37 (2): 58–71. doi:10.3167/hrrh.2011.370205. JSTOR 41403720.
  4. ↑ Carey, Niamh. "The Politics of Urania". Glasgow Women's Library. Retrieved 28 June 2020.
  5. ↑ Hamer, Emily (2016). Britannia's Glory: A History of Twentieth Century Lesbians. London: Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 69. ISBN 978-1-4742-9280-1.
  6. ↑ "Talking Back". Historic England. Retrieved 28 June 2020.
  7. ↑ Smith, Judith Ann (2008). Genealogies of desire: "Uranianism", mysticism and science in Britain, 1889-1940 (M.A. thesis). University of British Columbia. doi:10.14288/1.0066742. Retrieved 2 May 2026.
  8. ↑ Succi, Giorgia (14 March 2017). "Urania: How to be a bad XXs feminist and a queer angel in the 20s". Glasgow Women's Library. Retrieved 28 June 2020.
  9. ↑ Oram, Alison (1 June 2001). "Feminism, Androgyny and Love between Women in Urania, 1916-1940". Media History. 7 (1): 57–70. doi:10.1080/1368800120048245. ISSN 1368-8804. PMID 21046841. S2CID 36188888.
  10. 1 2 White, Jenny (18 May 2021). "Jenny White reflects on the legacy of Urania". LSE Review of Books. Retrieved 13 November 2023.
  11. ↑ Steer, Emily (12 September 2016). "5 Questions with Olivia Plender". Elephant Magazine. Retrieved 30 June 2020.
  12. ↑ Tiernan, Sonja; McAuliffe, Mary, eds. (2009). Sapphists and Sexologists; Histories of Sexualities. Vol. 2. Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. p. 65. ISBN 978-1-4438-0838-5.
  13. ↑ "Urania". LSE Digital Library. Retrieved 13 November 2023.

Further reading

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