With regressive gender politics and a restrictive legal system, the Victorian era is not exactly remembered as an empowering era for women. But the Museum of the City of New York is shining a light on a set of oft-forgotten figures: the 19th-century heroines who broke all the rules in a new exhibition called Rebel Women, a tribute to the “nasty women” of the era.
It’s an intimate collection with more than 40 objects on view, including old photographs, fashion garb, posters and poems illustrating the lives of New York’s female activists who fought for equal pay, abortions, divorce and “free love”.
Meanwhile, on the Roman Catholic front... a virgin who is not a virgin can still be a virgin:
In a statement, the US Association of Consecrated Virgins, which says there are 235 consecrated virgins across America, said the document was “deeply disappointing in its denial of integral virginity as the essential and natural foundation of the vocation”.
“It is shocking to hear from Mother Church that physical virginity may no longer be considered an essential prerequisite for consecration to a life of virginity,” it added.
You might need to study up on the common usage vs. specialized usage vs. imagined usage.
ReplyDeleteBut it’s a stretch calling a one time prostitute who decides to abstain from sex a virgin or even celibate.
http://www.celibrate.org/
Who gives a hoot what the Catholic Hierarchy does anymore? Was it ever worthy of the religious and moral authority it seemed to have been granted?
ReplyDeleteWhat is Integral Virginity? Why should anyone care?
Related to the Catholuc Church’s lack of religious or moral authority, there are a bunch of stories in curriculation initiated by a NY Times story regarding the removal of an 88 year old cardinal, Theodore McCarrick, after the Archdiocese of New York deemed credible an accusation that he had molested a 16-year-old altar boy nearly 50 years ago, but not because he bedded or attempted to bed seminarians.
The NY Times contains a few hidden gems about the Church’s actual moral views particularly on adult sex.
“He Preyed on Men Who Wanted to Be Priests. Then He Became a Cardinal. “
https://nyti.ms/2NRTppm
Check out the furtherance of the story in the Catholic media. It’s pathetic. I’ve only found articles paraphrasing and / or quoting the Times article.
Only one commenter attached to the article in the Jesuit magazine, America got it right in asking why wasn’t the cardinal defrocked?