Women’s issues [Escriba el subtítulo del documento] [Escriba aquí una descripción breve del documento. Normalmente, una descripción breve es un resumen corto del contenido del documento. Escriba aquí una descripción breve del documento. Normalmente, una descripción breve es un resumen corto del contenido del documento.] sonia 01/10/2013

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How can this be? A hit TV series and pop culture phenomenon in which half the female cast

wear little if any makeup and sport hair so bad it's worse than 80s hair? Can we say O'Brien? Can

you believe that the actress who plays her is pictured above? (O'Brien, we hardly knew ye.) But

it's a credit to Siobhan Finneran that looks don't matter on Downton Abbey -- only acting chops.

Downton Abbey is like gummy vitamins -- it goes down so easily that you may not realize it's got

stuff that's good for you. At the heart of this story about the Grantham family estate, with the

lords and ladies upstairs and the servants below, are a handful of feminist themes that remind us

that the rights we take for granted are ones that were not around at the time this period piece

takes place. Women couldn't vote, women couldn't inherit property or a title, and if a woman was

pregnant out of wedlock, welcome to the streets. (What the Dowager Countess might have made

of Teen Mom would be something to consider.)

The women are the stars of the show -- even if the men seem to be in control -- because for the

most part they rise above their travails. Sure, we root for Mary to overthrow the entailment and

enjoy a bedroom romp without bringing shame down on the family, Gwen to get her secretarial

job, Sybil to become a nurse and marry Tom the chauffeur, Edith to drive that tractor and write

that column, and Isobel to right every injustice in the world including getting Mr. Moseley's

father to win the Grantham Cup for his roses.

We root for them because we know these battles have already been won. At a time when women

are open to criticism for wanting contraceptives covered, voting for a President who won't put

them in binders, trying to fly around the world and maintain peace, and entering Congress in

record numbers, it's good to know that somewhere in a world of beauty, privilege, fresh cut

flowers and breakfast in bed, even wealthy women slim beyond reason have it hard.

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While the women are busy trying to better themselves and the world around them, the men of

Downton Abbey are acting like spoiled children.

Thomas is trying to screw up Bates' life, get out of service by becoming a medic, get out of the

war by getting his hand shot off, screw up Bates' life once again, make everyone's life miserable

and throw his weight around, make a go of it in the black market, clean up the mess in the

storage area he made after the black market thing failed, find the dog he hid so he could find her

and impress Lord Grantham, get into the new footman's pants.

Matthew is moaning about honor and not taking Lavinia's father's money under false pretenses,

moaning about his sperm count, moaning about the mismanagement of the estate.