The Aëthnic Union was a British radical feminist organisation founded in London around 1911 by the lawyer and writer Thomas Baty, who also used the name Irene Clyde. It opposed binary divisions between masculine and feminine social roles and was associated with pacifism, egalitarianism and gender neutrality. Its members included Eva Gore-Booth, Esther Roper, Jessey Wade and Dorothy Cornish. The Union held meetings and discussion groups, and has been described by T. Maait Pepperell as a forerunner of ideas later published in the feminist journal Urania.
 Information about the Union | |
| Formation | 1911 |
|---|---|
| Founder | Thomas Baty (also known as Irene Clyde) |
| Dissolved | c. 1916 |
| Purpose | Promoting radical feminism, pacifism, egalitarianism, and gender neutrality |
| Location |
|
| Methods | Bi-monthly meetings, publishing articles, and organising discussions |
Key people | |
History
editIn 1908, Baty, who has been described in scholarship as a transgender figure, began corresponding with the London Society for Women's Suffrage.[1][2] Baty founded the Aëthnic Union in London in 1911.[a] The name "Aëthnic" was taken from the Greek "ethnos", meaning a race of people.[2]
The Union's members included Gore-Booth, a poet and suffragist, together with Roper, Wade and Cornish. Their work in women's suffrage, animal welfare and education overlapped with the Union's interests. Maait Pepperell describes the Union as a forum for discussion of non-binary gender and social relationships, and as a precursor to some of the ideas later expressed in Urania.[1]
The Union rejected the division of humanity into masculine and feminine ideals and argued that people should not be confined by prescribed gender roles. In material preserved by the London School of Economics, the Union stated: "Society has split perfection into two, and imposes on the individual spirit conformity to one of two warped ideals: the stern masculine and the trivial feminine."[3]
In a 1912 advertorial for the organisation in The Freewoman, Baty wrote:[4]
As things are, that insistent differentiation drags in its weary trail at every turn. In the dress they wear, in the games they play, in the occupations they follow, in their very food and drink, it is constantly borne in upon people that they must assimilate themselvs to one or the other imperfect type. They are never permitted to be themselves. They are forced to strangle their own free development. From that soul-murder the Union would liberate them.
Members of the Union published articles and organised discussions. According to Maait Pepperell, internal disagreements over class and political strategy limited the Union's influence.[1]
The Union met on the last Thursday of January, March, May, July, September and November. Sources describe it as active for about three years. By 1916, Baty had moved to Japan, and the group's work had shifted towards the production of Urania, which carried many of its ideas about gender.[1]
See also
editNotes
editReferences
edit- 1 2 3 4 5 Maait Pepperell, T. (September 2022). A Monastery of Their Own: Imagining a Utopia from the Aëthnic Union to Urania (PDF) (Master's thesis). University of Essex. Retrieved 4 July 2024.
- 1 2 3 "Thomas Baty and Gender". LGBT+ Language and Archives. 14 June 2020. Retrieved 18 January 2025.
- 1 2 "'Society has split perfection into two': the Aëthnic Union, Urania and LSE". LSE History. London School of Economics. 13 November 2023. Archived from the original on 7 October 2024. Retrieved 18 January 2025.
- ↑ Baty, Thomas (22 February 1912). "The Aëthnic Union". The Freewoman. 4 (14): 278–279 – via Brown University Library.
Further reading
edit- Baty, Thomas (22 February 1912). "The Aëthnic Union". The Freewoman. 4 (14): 278–279 – via Brown University Library.
- Imperitura, Lorenzo (September 2024). The Forgotten Queer Utopia (Master's thesis). UiT The Arctic University of Norway.