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Elizabeth Kiley

Intermediate Composition

Madeleine Wattenberg

24 May 2018

Comparative Genre Analysis

Since the dawn of time humans have been searching for a higher power to believe in.

Historically, many have turned to organized religious institutions to guide them to

enlightenment. However, recently more and more Americans are practicing ideologies

categorized as spiritual versus sacred. These include but are not limited to astrology, Tarot card

reading, and palmistry, crafts overtly deemed pseudosciences. Why would a large population of

individuals turn to a debunked practice to find meaning in life? Three texts discuss this

phenomenon with varying approaches. The first, a podcast titled Stuff Mom Never Told You

holds a conversation on the topic between cohosts focusing specifically on millennial women’s

newfound obsession with horoscopes. Next, an article from the popular lifestyle and fashion blog

Man Repeller examines individual stories of women who engage in spirituality-centered

activities or mindsets on a daily basis in an article titled “The Rise of New Age Spirituality in a

Skeptical World”. Finally, A statistical report by the PEW Research Center breaks down the

upturn in spirituality by demographics to analyze who specifically is adopting the trend. From an

audio conversation to an interview piece to a data-driven report, these three sources operate in

distinct genres, take different approaches to the same topic, and are driven by different goals

based on what they hope the reader will comprehend.

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The podcast Stuff Mom Never Told You, abbreviated as SMNTY, released an episode earlier

this year titled “Why Are Millennial Women So Into Horoscopes?” in which Bridget Todd, activist

and writer for The Atlantic, and Emilie Aries, founder and CEO of the company Bossed Up, frame

the resurgence of spiritual practices, specifically horoscopes, as a feminist, self-reflective coping

mechanism for women of Generation X. The language used in this text is informal as it is a

recorded, mostly unedited conversation between peers and friends, with the women frequently

using incomplete or run-on sentences and interrupting one another. The transcript is full of many

affirmations of one another’s points with exclamations of “yeah!”, “I love that!”, and “right!”

giving the episode an enthusiastic tone of feminine support. This echoes Bridget and Emilie’s

claims that spiritual practices such as zodiac readings are areas that women turn to when searching

for guidance outside of a patriarchal institution. After quoting an article for Refinery29 by Amelia

Hess in which the author asserts that organized religion has failed women who are now yearning

to see images of themselves within their belief structures, cohost Emilie comments, “So no shit,

like, organized religion has not traditionally been all that great for women. Of course we're looking

for alternatives” (Aries, 7:50). This tone projects an avid rejection of the masculine accompanied

with a passionate curse word and is followed by the celebration of feminine power with the

embrace of a female author’s take on the subject and the unashamed use of the qualifier “like”

which is typically associated with women speakers.

In addition, Bridget and Emilie discuss horoscopes as tool American women are using to

deal with the turbulent political environment surrounding them. As the first generation of

American women at risk of having less rights than the generation that came before, the SMNTY

cohosts admit finding solace in spirituality as a practice identified with a powerful divine feminine

energy. When revealing her own relationship to spirituality, Bridget, a woman of color, divulges,
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“I definitely found myself yearning for some sort of meaningful spiritual grounding in the wake

of a Trump presidency. You know, when things were really, really heating up on the racial justice

fronts. Those were the times where I most felt comforted by my own horoscopes and astrology

and really thinking about the spirituality that, you know, links us all together. Like, what does it

all mean?” (Aries, 14:37). Bridget reveals she used spirituality as a way to cope and to rediscover

the humanity in others, a faith she lost in the 2016 election. She uses “you know” frequently to

include Emilie as well as the podcast listeners in the conversation, reinforcing the connectivity she

hopes to find and foster. Bridget asks the question “Like, what does it all mean?” not expecting an

answer, but instead as a way to express that she is choosing to still believe there is meaning in life,

despite the political events that have occurred that she views as lacking reason and goodness, and

that she is searching for this in a spiritual manner.

Finally, this episode of SMNTY categorizes spirituality, specifically horoscopes, as a method of

self-reflection. The cohosts call out that the practice of reading one’s zodiac is not supported by science as

having any validity to it, and, yet, this does not impact the usefulness of the craft. Emilie states, “And I

think that's what is so powerful about this entire industry is that it's an opportunity for self reflection and

introspection that is beneficial regardless of how you're getting it. And maybe astrology is a whole bunch

of bullshit. That's fine, like, we're not asking you to believe in astrology, but if it creates a space for you to

be mindful about yourself and your choices and it gives you a framework to sort of plug your life into, you

know, is it bad? Is it– can it be bad? I don't know” (Aries, 10:51). Emilie directly addresses the critics of

astrology without specifically naming them, simply using the pronoun “you”. She confidently defends the

benefits of spirituality but lessens in conviction as she progresses, ending with a question and a statement

of uncertainty. This excerpt of proclamation followed by self doubt parallels the encouragement of self-

reflection Emilie initially claims that spirituality produces. As Emilie is a person who has admitted to using

horoscopes, her display of introspection and questioning actually reinforces her assertion that astrology is

beneficial in its use for self-reflection.

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Moving forward, the article “The Rise of New Age Spirituality in a Skeptical World” by

Rachel Siemens and featured in Man Repeller contends that this newfound sense of spirituality is

a the result of a profound search for truth of a generation wise beyond their years. The article

expresses this through a compilation of short essays by six American women who identify

themselves as spiritual. One woman quoted in the article, Alexandra, a graphic designer in her late

twenties, recognizes the faulty nature of spiritual predictions and eloquently explains that she in

fact uses these practices for other purposes. She states, “I practice meditation and self-reflection.

While I’m not sure how much trust I have in horoscopes, tarot or past-life regression, I’ve practiced

them before and believe they provide an avenue for a deeper understanding of the self” (Siemens).

Alexandra’s use of precise word choices such as “regression” and “avenue” compounded with

perfect grammar give her account an air of sageness, leading the reader to believe that her spiritual,

yet reasonable belief system has guided her to a state of emotional maturity. This polished essay

style of individual accounts is seen throughout the six women’s testimonies featured in Siemens’s

article, tying a common thread of wisdom throughout them all.

In addition, spirituality is depicted as undeniably true to the women who practice it, despite

a lack of empirical evidence. Cassondra, a millennial woman working in a creative field, confesses

that spirituality entangled in daily corporeal life is inherently complicated. She explains, “I believe

in the astrological patterns, the weather patterns, the daily grind/work-life balance patterns, the

higher consciousness and the other scientific dimensions I haven’t explored yet. To believe in all

of this at once is overwhelming, and maybe silly? Maybe one larger contradiction? But for me, for

now, it feels right. It feels honest” (Siemens). Cassondra uses a lengthy list in her account to

express just how flooded daily life is with a barrage of both mundane thoughts with those of higher
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thinking. However, she still feels that her spiritual beliefs work in tandem with her routine thinking

patterns to guide her in living a truthful life.

Finally, the Pew Research Center relates the rise in spirituality in Americans with statistical

information in the text titled “More Americans Now Say They’re Spiritual But Not Religious”.

The article is clearly meant to relay facts in as neutral of a tone as possible. However, it describes

the spirituality movement as undeniable, stating, “About a quarter of U.S. adults (27%) now say

they think of themselves as spiritual but not religious, up 8 percentage points in five years,

according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted between April 25 and June 4 of this year”

(Lipka). The use of numerical figures in parentheses following claims in addition to the mentioning

of a specific study and dates is meant to validate the research and conclusion the Pew Research

Center has come to and is now disseminating to the world. The article is littered with graphs to

visually depict research as well as to give the text an air of scientific merit at a glance. In addition,

The Pew Research breaks down the uprise in astrology, horoscopes, palmistry, and the like by

demographics. This in turn characterizes the trend as more universal than simply a trend happening

within millennial women. The text states, "This growth has been broad-based: It has occurred

among men and women; whites, blacks and Hispanics; people of many different ages and

education levels; and among Republicans and Democrats” (Lipka). This much broader scope on

the shift in mentality relays to the reader that this is not just a trend but, potentially, an entire

movement. To support this stance, the article uses dry, to-the-point sentences and short, cohesive

three to five sentence paragraphs. This lack of embellishment gives the reader the sense that the

text is credible and neutral, whether it truly is or not.

The Stuff Mom Never Told You podcast, Man Repeller article, and Pew Research Center

text all discuss the renewed American sense of spirituality but through different techniques of
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examination and with different end results for the reader. Emilie and Bridget from SMNTY

attribute the craze for the psychic services industry to newly empowered women who use it to

manage their inner selves and the chaotic world around them. The six accounts featured in the Man

Repeller piece discuss the adopting of spirituality by millennial women as an accumulation of

wisdom and part of the on-going process of self-actualization. Lastly, the Pew Research Center

looks at the up-spike in spirituality over religion as a clearly apparent cultural movement that spans

much broader categories, beyond just the millennial women drivers of the increase. These three

texts differ vastly and yet all still possess merit and introduce new facets of the issue. Most

importantly they all guide the reader toward to ask themselves a cornerstone question of life:

“What do I believe in?”

Works Cited
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Aries, Emilie, and Bridget Todd. “Why Are Millennial Women So Into Horoscopes?” Stuff Mom

Never Told You, How Stuff Works, 7 Feb. 2018.

Lipka, Michael, and Claire Gecewicz. “More Americans Now Say They're Spiritual but Not

Religious.” Pew Research Center, Pew Research Center, 6 Sept. 2017,

www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/09/06/more-americans-now-say-theyre-spiritual-

but-not-religious/.

Siemens, Rachel. “The Rise of New Age Spirituality in a Skeptical World.” Man Repeller, Man

Repeller, 2 May 2018, www.manrepeller.com/2018/05/the-rise-of-new-age-spirituality-

in-a-skeptical-world.html.