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Exhibition Extended: From New York City to St. Augustine, Florida: The Downton Abbey Exhibition and Dressing Downton

Quiz: Who’s Your Downton Abbey Style Icon?

Discover which character shares your personal style and find out what it says about you!

The first-ever fully immersive Downton Abbey experience has arrived: The Exhibition opened in New York City on Nov. 18 and runs through April 2nd, 2018 before traveling throughout the US. Special Events can be signed up for at the exhibition’s site.

The Exhibition will connect fans with their favorite characters, costumes, locations and historic events of the era, as well as showcase never-before-seen footage.

From Mrs. Patmore’s hectic kitchen and the gossip-fuelled servants’ quarters to the family’s glamorous dining room and Lady Mary’s bedroom, fans will get the chance to walk through some of the series’ most recognizable and beloved sets. Visitors will even come up-close to over 50 of the show’s official costumes worn by their favorite actors including Michelle Dockery, Hugh Bonneville, and Maggie Smith.

Where is the exhibition located?
The exhibition is located at 218 West 57th Street between Broadway & 7th Avenue.

What is the best way to get to the exhibition?
The closest subway stops are Columbus Circle (1 train), 57th Street & 7th Ave (N, Q, R trains), 57th & 6th Ave (F train) and 53rd St & 5th Ave (E, M trains).

What are the hours of operation?
The exhibition is open every day from 10am – 8pm (last admission at 7pm). Occasional earlier closing times possible due to private events.

Will the exhibition be open every day?
See the following dates for changes to our regular operating hours. Last ticket sold one hour before closing.

Thursday, November 23 (Thanksgiving)
12pm – 8pm  (last ticket at 7pm)

Saturday, December 2 (Special Event)
10am – 6pm  (last ticket at 5pm)

Sunday, December 24 (Christmas Eve)
10am – 4pm  (last ticket at 3pm)

Monday, December 25 (Christmas Day)
12pm – 6pm  (last ticket at 5pm)

Sunday, December 31 (New Year’s Eve)
10am – 5pm  (last ticket at 4pm)

Monday, January 1 (New Year’s Day)
12pm – 8pm  (last ticket at 7pm)

How long does it take to go through the exhibition?
Most guests will spend between 60 and 90 minutes exploring the exhibition. Guests are welcome to stay for as long or as little as they would like during hours of operation.

What is the difference between the General Admission and the Daily VIP Ticket?
The Daily VIP ticket allows guests to visit the exhibition on the selected date of visit at any time during normal operating hours. The ticket also includes a complimentary multi-media guide which is not included with the general admission ticket.

Is Coat check available?
Complimentary coat check is available.

Is the exhibition appropriate for children? What is the age recommendation?
Downton Abbey fans of all ages are welcome. Parents and caregivers can make the best judgment about their children’s interest and ability to enjoy visiting. All children ages 4 and up need a ticket.

Do I have to choose a time to enter the exhibition?
Admission is timed-entry where your ticket is for a specific time slot and you may enter anywhere during the 30 minutes after the stated time. For example: a 10:00am ticket gives entry from 10:00am – 10:30am. Please arrive 15 minutes before your time slot.

What if I arrive after my time slot?
The box office will do their best to accommodate you into the next available time slot. Due to high demand that time slot might not be immediately and you may have to wait until later in the day.

Will cast members be at the exhibition?
No, cast members will not be at the exhibition but some of their show costumes will be.

Can I take photos inside the exhibition?
Yes. No video recording is allowed.

Can the exhibition accommodate guests who require special access?
The exhibition is fully accessible.

Can I take food or beverages into the exhibition?
Food and drink are not allowed in the exhibition.

Is there a restaurant at the exhibition?
There is no restaurant at the exhibition, but there are many located in the near vicinity.

Is there an exhibition shop?
Yes, there is a shop featuring Downton Abbey themed merchandise available for purchase.

Dressing Downton: Changing Fashion for Changing Times

Lightner Museum, Saint Augustine, Florida … until January 7, 2018

Dressing Downton, Changing Fashion for Changing Times is an exquisite exhibition of 36 costumes and accessories paired to perfection in engaging vignettes, immersed amongst Otto Lightner’s collection of turn of the century fine art and furniture. Many museum pieces in storage and others presently being restored will be on view for the first time as a part of the exhibition. Dressing Downton will be masterfully displayed in the Museum’s Grand Ballroom Gallery.

The series Downton Abbey explores the lives of its aristocratic inhabitants and their servants – together with the latest fashion trends. The exhibition presents a costume history of the period surrounding World War I, a period that changed the social fabric of Great Britain. A fine selection from the series’ wardrobe reflects on the changing times through fashion from 1912 to the mid-1920s.

November 24, 2017
Her Paris: Women Artists in the Age of Impressionism; How Women Embraced Their Artistic Aspirations Despite Societal Challenges

Image: Marie Bashkirtseff (Ukrainian, 1858-1884), In the Studio, 1881. Oil on canvas; 60-5/8 x 73-1/4 in. Dnipropetrovsk State Art Museum, Ukraine KH-4234. Photo: Dnipropetrovsk / Bridgeman Images; Courtesy American Federation of Arts

Her Paris: Women Artists in the Age of Impressionism features more than 80 remarkable paintings by 37 women artists, created in Paris from 1850 to 1900, a time of great social, cultural and artistic change. These women from across Europe and America migrated to this epicenter of art to further their careers. They range from well-known artists such as Berthe Morisot, Mary Cassatt and Rosa Bonheur, to painters who are lesser-known in the United States, including Anna Ancher and Paula Modersohn-Becker.

Berthe Moriset, French, 1841 – 1895, The Sisters, 1869; oil on canvas. Gift of Mrs. Charles S. Carstairs, National Gallery of Art

While Paris was known as a cosmopolitan city, Parisian society was still very restrictive for women. They were not allowed to attend the École des Beaux-Arts (School of Fine Arts) — the country’s most important art academy — until 1897, and it was not socially acceptable to frequent public spaces, such as cafes, to work on their art and mingle with their peers without a male companion. The exhibition traces how women embraced their artistic aspirations, despite societal challenges, and helped create an alternative system that included attending private academies, exhibiting independently and forming their own organizations. A fully illustrated exhibition catalog is available in The Shop at the Denver Art Museum and online. On view through Jan. 14, 2018, Her Paris is a special ticketed exhibition; advance ticket purchase is recommended.

10 FASCINATING FACTS ABOUT THE WOMEN ARTISTS IN HER PARIS

Images: Anna Ancher, no date, photo by Anna Knudstrup. The National Library of Denmark and Copenhagn University Library, The Royal Library. Berthe Morisot, Photo by Charles Reutlinger. Musée Marmottan Monet, Paris, France / Bridgeman Images. Cecilia Beaux painting, about 1919, unknown photographer. Cecilia Beaux papers, 1863-1968. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution

by Lauren Thompson

Learn more about the women behind the art of Her Paris: Women Artists in the Age of Impressionism, which is on view at the Denver Art Museum through January 14, 2018.

1. First woman to win France’s highest honor: In 1865, Rosa Bonheur became the first woman to be awarded the coveted Légion d’Honneur, the highest decoration in France. It took 30 years for another woman to be recognized; in 1894 Virginie Demont-Breton became the second woman to ever receive the distinction.

2. Fighting for rights: Mary Cassatt supported women’s suffrage in America. In 1915 she showed 18 works in an exhibition supporting the movement. The exhibition brought Mary in conflict with her sister-in-law who was anti-suffrage and who boycotted the exhibition along with much of Philadelphia’s high society. Mary responded by selling her work that would have otherwise passed on to that side of the family.

3. Women were excluded from certain schools: In 1881, the Union des Femmes Peintres et Sculpteurs (Union of Women Painters and Sculptors) was created to provide more opportunity for female artists to study in France, as they were not allowed to attend the École des Beaux-Arts (School of Fine Arts) until 1897.

Cecilia Beaux (American, 1855-1942), Ernesta (Child with Nurse), 1894. Oil on canvas. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Maria DeWitt Jesup Fund, Courtesy American Federation of Art

4. Why the Louvre was a go-to spot: Although custom prohibited most women artists from socializing at the cafés frequented by their male counterparts, they could find a certain degree of freedom at the Louvre, which offered a copyist program that encouraged their participation. One such example of the work done at the Louvre is Helene Schjerfbeck’s study of a Sandro Botticelli fresco, which you can view in the exhibition.

5. Predicting a ‘revolution’: Joseph Guichard, instructor of the Morisot sisters Berthe and Edma, warned the girls’ mother that “given your daughters’ natural gifts, it will not be petty drawing room talents that my instruction will achieve; they will become painters. Are you fully aware of what that means? It will be revolutionary.”

6. How to make war come alive on canvas: Lady Elizabeth Butler began painting wartime scenes after visiting Paris and viewing the work of famed military painter Edouard Detaille. To achieve remarkable historical accuracy in her paintings, such as Balaclava from 1876, she acquired soldiers’ equipment and uniforms, read firsthand accounts of war, and interviewed veterans.

7. Making a home in Taos: Mary Shepard Greene married Ernest Blumenschein, a founder of the Taos Society of Artists, whose work is well represented in the DAM’s western American art collection. After spending time in Paris and New York, they both moved permanently to Taos in 1919.

8. ‘The one true impressionist’: Berthe Morisot’s uninhibited and sketch-like brushwork prompted critics of the time to term her “the one true impressionist.”

Berthe Morisot, The Lesson in the Garden (La leçon dans le jardin), 1886. Oil paint on canvas; collection of Frederic C. Hamilton, bequeathed to the Denver Art Museum, on generous loan from Jane M. Hamilton. Photograph courtesy Denver Art Museum.

Influence of a master: For 10 years, Lilla Cabot Perry and her husband summered in Giverny in the house adjacent to Monet’s. Although Monet did not formally accept students, he and Perry developed a relationship characterized by mutual respect, and his influence can be seen in many of her paintings.

10. Animal lover and painter: Rosa Bonheur owned a menagerie of animals, including a lioness named Fathma. One of her most famous animal paintings, Ploughing in Nivernais, is on view in Her Paris.

Lauren Thompson is interpretive specialist for western American, European and American art, in the learning and engagement department at the Denver Art Museum. She recommends that visitors don’t miss the Her Voice iPad salon in Her Paris, where one can explore the personal stories, letters, and diaries of the women artists in the exhibition.

Read more on:

European and American art painting

November 24, 2017
Am I Wearing Out My Welcome? “Ad Astra Per Aspera”, To the Stars Through Difficulties

Image from page 274 of ‘Finland in the Nineteenth Century: by Finnish authors. Illustrated by Finnish artists. (Editor, L. Mechelin.) The British Library @ Flickr Commons; Wikipedia Commons

by Joan L. Cannon

Since finding my way to the networking possibilities with a few blogs and happened-upon websites, I’ve discovered not only how many kindred souls seem to be available through cyberspace and electronic technology, I’ve come to realize how lonely I’ve been of recent years. The sensation is a bit like having been through an illness that you didn’t recognize the severity of until you began to feel normal again.

The truth is that I have craved writerly contacts more than I would have thought possible. I’d hate for that to sound like someone with a terminal case of intellectual snobbery. If I’ve read something that rings bells in the ‘little gray cells,’ I have too few ears to catch the same reverberations if I point it out. If you can remember those first days of being in love when everything beautiful or awful struck you as requiring the reaction of the object of your affections, you know the sort of what I’m talking about.

The Internet has become the conduit to confidants I didn’t know I needed, and now I behave as though I couldn’t survive without them. Actually, I doubt if I could.

Read more ….

November 22, 2017
How To File a Complaint of Sexual Harassment: Correcting the Record With the OOC

(Editor’s Note: The information below is from the Office of Compliance — please do not consider that title an inappropriate joke — from its government site.)

How to File a Claim

In recent weeks there have been many media reports about the process for employees in the legislative branch to file claims with the Congressional Office of Compliance (OOC) under the Congressional Accountability Act of 1995 (CAA). Several of those reports contain incorrect information about that process. The questions and answers below address the most common misconceptions about the OOC; more detailed information is available here.

Q: I read that the CAA requires an employee alleging sexual harassment to seek “counseling” with the OOC. What does that mean?

A: “Counseling” is the name given to the OOC’s intake process. To file a claim of harassment (or any other violation of workplace rights under the 13 statutes incorporated by the CAA), you must request counseling within 180 days of the date of the alleged violation. Although the OOC counselor does not provide you with advice about the strength or merits of your case, upon receipt of the counseling request, she considers the information that you provide and gives you information on your workplace rights and the administrative procedures under the CAA.

Q: I read that I have to sign a nondisclosure agreement in order to initiate a claim with the OOC. Is that true?

A: No. The confidentiality aspect of counseling means that the OOC will not notify your employing office or anybody else that you have contacted the OOC. If you wish, you may permit the OOC to contact your employing office to seek an immediate solution to your concerns, but this is strictly up to you.

Q: I heard that I can’t even tell my family or friends that I have filed a claim with the OOC. Is this true?

A: No. The decision whether to tell someone that you have contacted the OOC is yours alone, and there is no restriction on whom you can tell.

Q: Do I have to attend intake counseling in person?

A: No. Neither the CAA nor the OOC’s procedural rules require your in-person attendance at counseling. You may participate in the counseling process over the telephone, or by similar means, and you may have someone else represent you in your absence. Your designated representative can be, but is not required to be, a lawyer.

Q: I heard that the intake counseling process takes 30 days. Is this true?

A: Not necessarily. The CAA provides that “[t]he period for counseling shall be 30 days unless the employee and the [OOC] agree to reduce the period.” Therefore, you can request to shorten the intake counseling period.

November 20, 2017
In States, the Estate Tax Nears Extinction: Countering Arguments That Eliminating the Estate Tax Was a Gift to the Wealthy
By Elaine S. Povich, Stateline, Pew Charitable Trusts

For years, the New Jersey Business & Industry Association advocated scrapping the estate tax, arguing it was driving wealthy New Jersey families to other states.

The group got nowhere. Defenders of the tax argued that the cash-strapped state needed every penny it could get and that it was fair to levy an extra tax on the estates of the rich.

Then late last year estate tax opponents finally succeeded: They packaged the eventual abolition of that tax with a bunch of other tax hikes, including a huge increase in the gasoline tax that brought New Jersey from the second-lowest gas tax in the nation to the eighth-highest. Under legislation Republican Gov. Chris Christie signed in 2016, the estate tax exemption rose from $675,000 to $2 million this year and will be eliminated in 2018.

New Jersey will retain its inheritance tax, which is assessed on individual bequests rather than on overall estates.

That’s been the pattern in many states that have scrapped the estate tax or increased the amount of the estate that is exempt: By eliminating the estate tax as part of a package that raises revenue from other sources or puts money into other priorities, such proposals have won the support of both Republicans and Democrats.

In 2001, every US state imposed either an estate or inheritance tax. But that year, the federal government eliminated its income tax credit for such payments — and the repeals began. By 2018, only 17 states will have an estate tax, an inheritance tax or both.

In recent years, Tennessee (2016), Georgia (2014), Indiana, North Carolina and Ohio (all in 2013) also have eliminated their estate or inheritance taxes.

Earlier this year, Minnesota increased its estate tax exemption from $1.8 million to $2.1 million, retroactive to Jan.1. The exemption increases to $2.4 million in 2018, $2.7 million in 2019, and $3 million in 2020.

Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton, who argued that the state couldn’t afford the loss in revenue, allowed the legislation to become law without his signature. He said that the compromise contained some things that he supported, including child care tax credits, property tax relief for farmers, and increased government aid to cities.

Maryland next year will raise its exemption from $3 million to $4 million, under a 2014 law. Maryland’s Senate president, Mike Miller, a Democrat, supported the legislation, though he said he was reluctant to do so. As a tradeoff, he urged the Legislature to raise the minimum wage. It did, and the wage went to $9.25 in 2017.

In DC, the exemption level doubled to $2 million at the start of 2017, and is set to go up to $5.5 million in 2018. The item, which was part of the city’s budget, was made possible by a surplus in revenue. To stave off critics, the council also put more money into school funding and paid leave.
November 18, 2017
About A Third Of Americans Unaware Of Obamacare Open Enrollment

By Phil Galewitz

While the Affordable Care Act’s fifth open enrollment season is off to a surprisingly good start, many uninsured people said they weren’t even aware of it, according to a survey released Friday.

Nearly a third of people overall — including a third of people without health insurance — said they had not heard anything about the sign-up period for individuals who buy health plans on their own, according to the survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF). (Kaiser Health News, is an editorially independent program of the foundation.)

Open enrollment started Nov. 1 and runs through Dec. 15 in most states. Advocates fear enrollment will decline this year because President Donald Trump has been repeatedly saying the health law is “dead”, and his administration severely cut funding for publicity and in-person assistance.

Nonetheless, nearly 1.5 million people have enrolled on the federal health insurance exchange healthcare.gov, which handles coverage in 39 states, federal officials reported Wednesday.

Several state health insurance exchanges have also said early sign-ups are running higher than last year. The Colorado insurance exchange on Thursday said it has enrolled more than 22,000 people in the first two weeks — a 33 percent jump from last year’s first weeks.

In the previous open-enrollment season, 12.2 million people nationwide selected individual market plans through the marketplaces. The number dropped off during the year because not everyone paid and some found coverage elsewhere.

Forty-five percent of all respondents to the KFF survey and 52 percent who said they were uninsured said they have heard less about open enrollment this year compared to previous years.

Insurers are trying to pick up some of the challenges of publicizing enrollment, and some of those ads are getting noticed.

The percentage of survey respondents who said they saw ads attempting to sell health insurance increased from 34 percent to 41 percent between the October and November KFF tracking polls. The share who say they saw ads that provided information about how to get health insurance under the ACA increased from 20 percent to 32 percent.

The poll found that nearly 8 in 10 Americans were aware the Affordable Care Act was still in effect. The survey of 1,201 adults, which was conducted Nov. 8-13, has a margin of error +/-3 percent.

This story was produced by Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent program of the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Despite ACA Cost Protections, Most Adolescents Skip Regular Checkups

November 17, 2017
Artifacts Meet Activists: Back to Houston For the 40th Anniversary of the 1977 IWY Conference

by Jo Freeman

(l -r ) Rep. Bella Abzug (D. NY); former First Ladies Rosalynn Carter, Betty Ford; First Daughter Lynda Bird Johnson Robb; Maya Angelou, Coretta Scott King and Judy Carter

Forty years ago over 20,000 people gathered in Houston, Texas to celebrate International Women’s Year (IWY) and identify goals for women for the next decade. The actual 40th anniversary dates for that historic conference are Nov. 18-21, 2017.

This was the first and only national women’s conference to be sponsored by the federal government. It was preceded by state conferences to elect official delegates who would vote on a national plan of action in Houston.

On November 6 and 7, 2017, a few hundred people gathered at the University of Houston to celebrate the 40th anniversary of that conference. It was not sponsored by the federal government, though some would argue that today’s federal government made it necessary. Organized primarily by UH professors Nancy Beck Young and Leandra Zarnow, the conference brought many of those who had attended the 1977 conference back to Houston. They were pinned with blue bows so today’s feminist activists could easily identify them.

Speakers discussed what happened in 1977, what didn’t happen, what should have happened, and what it all meant. The original impetus came from the United Nations, which declared 1975 to be International Women’s Year (IWY). President Ford created a commission for its observance early that year, chaired by Jill Ruckelshaus. Cong. Bella Abzug (D – NY) then sponsored a bill to hold a national conference, which Ford signed into law at the end of 1975. Congress appropriated five million dollars to fund the state and national conferences. By the time it was held on November 18-21, 1977 neither Ford nor Abzug was in office, both having lost their 1976 campaigns. President Jimmy Carter appointed Abzug to head the IWY Commission.

The 1977 conference was very political. The most controversial issues were abortion, sexual orientation, and the Equal Rights Amendment. While the 2017 anniversary conference was not political, the name most frequently mentioned was that of someone who was not even a delegate to the original conference: Phyllis Schlafley. Indeed, Bella Abzug ran a poor second in mentions and Ruckelshaus was barely mentioned.

November 16, 2017
FDA Warns About Illegal Use of Injectable Silicone for Body Contouring and Associated Health Risks

The US Food and Drug Administration today issued a safety communication to warn consumers and health care practitioners about the serious injuries and disfigurement that can result from using injectable silicone or products being falsely marketed as FDA-approved dermal fillers for the purpose of enhancing the size of their buttocks, breasts and other body parts.

“An important part of our public health mission is our obligation to warn consumers of unapproved products that are being marketed for medical uses that can cause serious harm. We have significant concerns with unsafe injectable silicone that’s being marketed for body contouring by unlicensed providers. We’ve seen serious adverse events result from products, which are sometimes industrial-grade silicone, being used for these unapproved medical purposes,” said FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, M.D. “The FDA has stepped in to take enforcement actions against unscrupulous actors who promote and provide these services, but we also want to make the public aware of the risks, which can include irreversible disfigurement and even death. While we’ll continue to go after those who provide these unlawful services, the FDA will have its greatest impact on educating Americans to avoid these unsafe practices.”

Editor’s Note: FDA has created a checklist for consumers with helpful information when considering an injectable dermal filler. See image at right and a pdf to download at: https://www.fda.gov/downloads/MedicalDevices/ProductsandMedicalProcedures/CosmeticDevices/WrinkleFillers/UCM584838.pdf; there’s also a link below in paragraph 8

Injectable silicone is different from the silicone contained within approved breast implants, because the breast implant shell keeps the silicone from migrating within the body. Injectable silicone is currently only approved by the FDA for a specific use inside the eye (intraocular ophthalmic use). When seeking to enlarge the size of their buttocks or breasts, or other large-scale body contouring procedures, some consumers are falsely told they are receiving an FDA-approved dermal filler, but are actually injected with silicone.

Consumers need to be aware that injectable silicone used for body contouring is not FDA-approved and can cause serious side effects that may be permanent or may even lead to death. Side effects can include ongoing pain and serious injuries, such as scarring, tissue death, and permanent disfigurement; if the silicone migrates beyond the injection site, it could cause an embolism (blockage of a blood vessel), stroke, infections and death. Serious complications may occur right away or could develop weeks, months, or years later.

Silicone injections for body contouring are often performed by unlicensed and non-medical practitioners in non-clinical settings such as residential homes or hotels. The FDA does not know the true extent of these injuries caused by these procedures because unlicensed practitioners do not report injuries incurred from their illegal practice and patients who are harmed may not know to alert the FDA.

“The FDA is alarmed by the increasing trend of injectable silicone being used for body contouring purposes,” said Melinda Plaisier, associate commissioner for regulatory affairs at the FDA. “The agency has investigated and prosecuted unlicensed providers administering these injections all over the country, including most recently in Miami. In addition to prosecuting the criminals who take advantage of consumers, the FDA is taking action to educate consumers in order to prevent the serious injuries resulting from these injections. With our communication today, we hope to raise public awareness about the short- and long-term risks of injecting silicone directly into the body, and encourage consumers to choose FDA-approved products and licensed providers when considering any type of cosmetic enhancement.”

The FDA has participated in a number of criminal enforcement actions in recent years that resulted in the arrest and sentencing of unlicensed practitioners who illegally used these unapproved injections on patients. Two Miami spa owners were arrested in February and recently sentenced to four and six years in prison for managing a spa that performed illegal silicone injections. Hundreds of clients received illegal buttock injections and many experienced irreversible injuries and symptoms as a result of the silicone migrating through their body.

The FDA encourages consumers who may have received injectable silicone to seek medical attention immediately if they experience problems such as intraocular ophthalmic use intraocular ophthalmic use, signs of a stroke (including sudden difficulty speaking, numbness or weakness in the face, arms, or legs, difficulty walking, face drooping, severe headache, dizziness, or confusion), as it may be a life-threatening situation. For those who are considering a body contouring procedure, talk with a health care provider about appropriate treatment options and the risks associated with the procedure. Consumers are encouraged to review the FDA’s Check Before You Inject checklist for helpful information on choosing FDA-approved products and licensed providers for cosmetic enhancement.

Those who have been offered or have received injectable silicone for body contouring from an unlicensed provider are encouraged to use the FDA website to Report Suspected Criminal Activity.

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November 14, 2017
Not My Parents’ Church: It’s Saturday Mass and I’m Wearing Slacks and Sneakers! No Hat! Not Even a Lace Square Pinned to My Head!

By Rose Madeline Mula

The church I attend these days isn’t the Roman Catholic Church of my parents — or even of my youth.No, despite my profound disgust with the pedophile priests horror and the Church’s anti-woman and anti-gay leaning, I haven’t converted to another religion. But if the 20-year-old me were to come back to visit me today, she would be sure I had defected.

A confessional at the Church of St. Francis Xavier, Manhattan, New York, taken by Kwok-Chi Ng, Wikimedia Commons

If she came to Mass with me, she’d be very confused. First, it’s probably Saturday afternoon — not Sunday morning. What’s with that? That wasn’t an option in her day. And how come I’m wearing slacks and sneakers? Yes, it’s Saturday but shouldn’t I be wearing my Sunday best dress to church? And gasp!No hat! Not even a little lace square bobby-pinned to my head? How disrespectful!

The 20-year-old me would also wonder what happened to the altar rail. It has disappeared, and the altar itself is no longer up against the back wall but is now facing the congregation. What’s more, the priest is speaking English — not Latin! And though said priest is still a he, he is often now assisted by altar girls — not always boys. And shocker of shockers — yesterday’s sonorous organ music is often replaced by rocking guitars. Can it be? The 20-year-old me remembers weddings where the leading lady’s entrance could not be heralded with Here Comes the Bride, which was considered secular and thus banned from the church. Bummer! A wedding without Here Comes the Bride was like lasagna without ricotta cheese.

Also, when I was young, a cousin married a non-Catholic (shameful!), and the ceremony had to be performed in the rectory. Such a “sacrilege” could be permitted only in the priests’ house — not God’s.That it was allowed at all was probably to prevent the couple from seeking a non-Catholic church to marry them. A few years later, however, still another cousin had the gall to fall in love with a Protestant, and they actually were allowed to take their vows inside the church — but only outside the altar rail — not on the altar itself.

Since the altar rail has disappeared, we no longer kneel to receive communion. Instead, we now stand with hands palms up, and the priest or lay minister (yes, an actual lay person — sometimes even a lowly woman!) places the host in our hand, instead of on our tongue, and we transfer it to our mouth. My 20-year-old self would be horrified. It was sacrilegious to touch the host back then; and once it was in our mouth, we were supposed to let it dissolve without letting it touch our teeth. And unlike today we never sipped the consecrated wine from a common chalice. (To tell you the truth, I still don’t do that. I know I should have more faith that God won’t let me catch the cold of the person in front of me who is coughing, but still… It’s bad enough that I now have to shake that person’s hand during the peace-be-to-you exchange). We also had to fast from midnight the night before receiving communion. I remember being in a quandary at Mass on New Year’s Day, which is one of several holy days of obligation. I disliked going to communion because I felt I was advertising the fact that I hadn’t been partying after midnight on New Year’s Eve. I figured it wasn’t anybody’s business that I may have been dateless on the big night.

Our pre-communion fasts were not the only times we were deprived of sustenance. We also had to fast between spartan meals during the forty days of Lent.

As for that New Year’s holy day of obligation, it was … are you ready for this … the Feast of the Circumcision. Fortunately, the church has now renamed this to the Feast of the Holy Family, a much more decorous designation, I feel.

Oh, and I can’t forget another ritual of my youth — weekly confession. Yes, weekly! I was such a goody-goody that I used to have to make up sins to have something to tell the priest. “I disobeyed my mother three times.” No way. I told you — I was a goody-goody. I never disobeyed my mother. And “I lied twice.”To tell the truth, the whole confession was a lie.

November 13, 2017
Legislator Who Stood Up to Sexism in ’73 Sees Some Progress: “People just watched us like we were from outer space”
- By Jen Fifield, Stateline, Pew Charitable Trusts, November 07, 2017
Colleagues warned Senfronia Thompson that speaking out would jeopardize her political future.

It was the spring of 1973, and 34-year-old Thompson had just started her first term in the Texas House of Representatives. Earlier that day, she was walking into a popular lunch place near the Capitol in Austin when Democratic state Rep. C.C. ‘Kit’ Cooke saw her and said loudly, for everyone to hear, “Oh, here comes my beautiful black mistress.”

She was infuriated. That same afternoon, Thompson, a Democrat, stepped onto the House floor to tell her mostly white, male colleagues she would not tolerate racist or sexist insults.

“We will never root these maladies out of Texas,” she said, “unless we start with ourselves in this House of Representatives.

Even as sexual harassment allegations explode in statehouses around the country, Thompson, now 78, says that in Austin’s pink granite Capitol, she doesn’t see male lawmakers and lobbyists harass women like they did 44 years ago. Nevertheless, the nation’s longest-serving female legislator says that when it comes to winning and wielding political power, women remain at a distinct disadvantage.

Women hold a quarter of all the state legislative seats, but less than a fifth of the leadership positions, including Senate presidents, House speakers, and majority and minority leaders, according to the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University. And they rarely make it all the way to the top: Women lead just five Senate chambers and six House chambers nationwide. Only five states have female governors.

“Women aren’t being tapped in the same way that men are,” said Jean Sinzdak, associate director of the Rutgers center.

The Year of the Woman

During Thompson’s first year in office, states were ratifying the Equal Rights Amendment, and Roe v. Wade affirmed a woman’s right to have an abortion. In Texas, Democrat Frances ‘Sissy’ Farenthold had just run for governor, and Sarah Weddington, who represented ‘Jane Roe’ in Roe v. Wade, was one of the women in Thompson’s freshman class of lawmakers.

But women had very little legal recourse against harassment. It wasn’t until 1980 that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission officially defined sexual harassment and declared it a violation of a Civil Rights Act provision that prohibits employment discrimination.

During Thompson’s first term, she was one of just five women in the Texas House; there was one female senator. Only 22 women had been elected before her in either state chamber. She was one of just eight black representatives. “People just watched us like we were from outer space,” she said in a recent interview with Stateline.

Thompson was outnumbered, but she refused to be disrespected. “Being an African-American person, and having an Anglo call me a black mistress,” she recalled, “that’s just like being called a black whore.”

As the number of women in the Texas House and Senate has increased to 37, or 20.4 percent of all 181 lawmakers, Thompson said the atmosphere has become considerably more welcoming and respectful to women.

The percentage of state legislators in the United States who are women shot up from 6.4 percent in 1973 to 20.5 percent in 1993. But it hasn’t grown much since. This year there are about 1,840 female lawmakers or a quarter of all 7,383 state legislators in the U.S.

When canvassing for votes, though, women still report facing sexist comments, said A’shanti Gholar, political director of Emerge America, a political advocacy group headquartered in San Francisco that aims to get Democratic women elected. People ask female candidates why they aren’t home taking care of their children, she said, or even tell the candidates directly that they won’t vote for them because they are women.

“The first people they want to vote for are white men,” Gholar said, “Because white men, to people ? that’s what power looks like.”

And though things may be better now than they were in 1973, discrimination and harassment remain rampant in statehouses across the country. In the past month, after many women accused Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein of sexual assault, women in many state capitols ? including Arizona, California, Illinois, Kansas, South Dakota and Rhode Island ? have come forward to accuse male lawmakers of harassment. Just last weekend, the Republican speaker of the Kentucky House of Representatives tearfully stepped down from his leadership role following harassment allegations.

As accusations come to light, some state leaders promise change. The California Senate hired investigators to look into allegations there. Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan, a Democrat, introduced legislation to require sexual harassment training for state officials. And Ohio Senate leaders say they plan to offer sexual harassment education and training.

While Thompson said she doesn’t often hear about men harassing women in Texas, state Rep. Donna Howard, 66, a Democrat, said she does. When asked if women were fully respected, she laughed. “In a word, ‘no.’ “

“What I hear is mostly comments, but there is physical harassment, too, with people going too far with hugs and pats,” she said. “There is one report of a senator doing humping motions to a young woman in an elevator.”

Many comments from male Texas lawmakers have made the news over the years. In 1993, for example, Democratic Lieutenant Gov. Bob Bullock told a female senator that she could pass any legislation she wanted to if “she’ll cut her skirt off about six inches and put on some high-heel shoes.”
November 10, 2017