Facts Are Your Friend

For my North Carolina readers, a gentle reminder that the Amendment One vote is happening on May 8th, a harmful political move that would hurt children and families across the state. The above video states some of the following facts:

Amendment One will harm children:
- A child of an unmarried parent could lose their health care and prescription drug coverage, putting the child’s health at risk. 

- A child could be taken away from a committed parent who has loved them their entire life if something happens to the other parent.

- It threatens existing child custody and visitation rights that are designed to protect the best interests of a child.

Amendment One will harm families:

- Marriage for gay and lesbian couples is (sadly) already banned in our state. But the impact of the amendment is so broad that it snares not only gay and lesbian couples and their children in its legal net, but also any unmarried couple and their children.

- Amendment One bans all other legal relationship recognitions—prohibiting North Carolina from ever recognizing civil unions and domestic partnerships. Thousands of North Carolinians rely on these legal protections. Removing these rights creates far-reaching and long-lasting harms for families from all walks of life.

- Amendment One would interfere with protections for unmarried couples to visit one another in the hospital and to make emergency medical and financial decisions if one partner is incapacitated.

Amendment One will harm unmarried women:
- The amendment is a dangerous step backward for domestic violence and stalking protection.
Domestic violence protections could only apply to married couples.
- In Ohio, where a similar amendment passed, this loophole has allowed convictions to be overturned.
- This amendment has the power to leave open for question how North Carolina’s domestic violence laws are applied—threatening our state’s victims of domestic violence.

Additional facts can be found at Protect All NC Families.

Early voting has already begun. For those outside the state who wish to help, visit ProtectNCFamilies.org. Vote AGAINST Amendment One on May 8th. 
 

Friday QuoteDay

“Women and men do not receive an equal education because outside of the classroom women are not perceived as sovereign beings but as prey… the capacity to think independently, to take intellectual risks, to assert ourselves mentally is inseparable from our physical way of being in the world, our feelings of personal integrity.

If it is dangerous for me to walk home late of an evening from the library because I am a woman and I can be raped then, how self possessed, how exuberant can I feel as I sit and work at the library? How much of my working energy is drained by by the subliminal knowledge that as a woman, I test my physical right to exist every time I go out alone.”

— Adrienne Rich, American writer, feminist and activist who recently passed away.

“Taking Women Students Seriously,” from her book, On Lies, Secrets and Silence.

Weekly Flâneur: Pin Me

Image of pins and badges on display. Click to enlarge.

Pins of Interest?

Interesting pins?

The pinnacle of pin interest?

Pinterest word plays that are just not pinned down working?

Pah. Pins provided per Portobello Market, London, UK

Weekly Flâneur: Floating

Image of small rowboats and swans. Click to enlarge.

Row, row, row your boat ...

 Ready for summer sun, anyone? 

Richmond, London, UK 

Friday QuoteDay: Hollywood Edition Part III

"Just over a year ago, my son Felix was born via gestational surrogacy. He came out of me nine months early and because of my broken belly, his babycake was baked in a wonderful angel's oven and now -- I can't believe it -- he's a year old and walking. He has expanded my capacity for joy a thousand-fold.

His life would have been much harder to come by if not for the birth control pill. How's that, you ask?

Well, it's a simple fact: The pill is used for many situations that have nothing to do with the prevention of pregnancy. The pill was prescribed to me when hormonally induced migraines kept me locked up in dark rooms for days at a time. It was prescribed to me to regulate insanely painful cramps every month -- cramps so painful that I often vomited. And here's a little secret I am happy to blow the lid off of: The pill is often prescribed during the IVF (in vitro fertilization) process to help MAKE BABIES!

That's right, women dealing with infertility are often put on the pill to help regulate a cycle so that they might have a more successful IVF. The pill is used to manage ovarian cysts, endometriosis and other conditions too. Not to mention, it helps couples plan for wanted children.

Obviously, I'm not a doctor. I'm just a woman grateful for my necessary and very helpful medication. And I'm sure glad I don't have to discuss any of these conditions, including infertility, with my employer.

A girlfriend and I recently wondered what would be more mortifying: having to tell her male employer she needed birth control to mitigate a heavy flow or just bleeding all over herself in the office?

So with that image in mind, I encourage all women -- and the men in their lives -- to protect access to birth control, and encourage our politicians to take women's health issues out of the political process.

For more information, please visit the most comprehensive and willing advocates for women's health in America: www.plannedparenthood.org."

— Elizabeth Banks, American actress, in a blog found here.
Image via Wikipedia.

Serious Music Discussion, Part II

Jamie 2:50 PM to Natalie:
On April 21, aka National Record Store Day, special editions of David Bowie's "Starman" will be sold.

Natalie 2:55 PM to Jamie:
And on April 22, aka National Natalie Screams Day, special editions of David Bowie's "Starman" will be in my pants.

David Bowie, Starman, 1972

Serious Music Discussion

Natalie: "So, do you think the male half of The Civil Wars pretends to be Johnny Depp when he entertains paramours? Because, seriously, he's a bandana and an eyeliner pencil away."

The Civil Wars: Barton Hollow

Jamie: "John Paul White is married with 4 kids, so I hope he's not entertaining paramours. Joy Williams is currently prego. Not with his baby but to her manager husband."

Natalie: "10 bucks says he dresses up as Jack Sparrow for his lady love during grown-up times. That's how they have 4 kids!"

Friday QuoteDay: Hollywood Edition Part II

Image of Tina Fey with quote. Click to enlarge.

Full text, for those who can't see the image, below the jump.

Friday QuoteDay: Hollywood Edition

“Patriarchy is not men. Patriarchy is a system in which both women and men participate. It privileges, inter alia, the interests of boys and men over the bodily integrity, autonomy, and dignity of girls and women. It is subtle, insidious, and never more dangerous than when women passionately deny that they themselves are engaging in it. This abnormal obsession with women’s faces and bodies has become so normal that we (I include myself at times—I absolutely fall for it still) have internalized patriarchy almost seamlessly. We are unable at times to identify ourselves as our own denigrating abusers, or as abusing other girls and women.”

— Ashley Judd, American actress, writing in The Daily Beast.

Tonight's Jam

Gotye featuring Kimbra, "Somebody That I Used To Know."

This has been stuck in my head all day. It's a relief, since "99 Red Balloons" had previously taken up residence in my brain for most of the week, and all I know of that song is the tune and title. Shh. Don't hum it! Listen to the pretty painted man instead.

Weekly Flâneur: Repeat

Cheery cherry blossoms, click to enlarge.

Another girl, another dream ago, we walked together, the backs of our hands meeting briefly,

 and felt our skin press against the sun-warmed bricks. 

Cherry cherry, Plaza-Midwood, Charlotte, N.C. 

(Cherry blossom time is so fleeting, so fast, I couldn't catch a moment to snap pictures of the pink blooms in Charlotte. This photo is an oldie, but goodie.)

The Measure of Success

“Feminists are having a hard time being elected because they essentially are unlikable. ... Find out if your girlfriend is a feminist before you get too far into it. Some of them are pretty. They don’t all look like Bella Abzug.”

— Phyllis Schlafly, ladies and gents. The Hairpin wryly says that Schlafey, "reveals she's been emotionally scarred by her pretty, feminist ex-girlfriends. No, but she is sharing dating tips with Citadel students."

And on the other end of the spectrum from today's Friday QuoteDay, we've got ERA-fighting Schlafly claiming that women who want things like equal pay for equal work aren't to be taken seriously or liked by men, because even if they are kinda hot, they don't have the proper empty vessel status required for men to tolerate/date them.

(And by the by, the civil-rights supporting, gay-rights championing, feminist, environmentalist Congresswoman -- and therefore "likable" enough to be elected -- Bella Abzug rocked her glasses and big hats style in a way that would put Lady Gaga to shame.)

How to Get Blog Hits, FitC Style

I'm not a successful blogger by any means (I'd never win America's Next Top Blogger, no matter how often Tyra Banks told me to use SEO phrases and smile with my eyes) but here are a few things I've learned from having Flâneur in the City these past few years. Follow my lead and you too can have tens of blog hits from people who aren't even related to you! Tens, I tell you!

1.) Katy Perry's boobs. Never mind the feminist critique that accompanies the photo of KP's candy cleavage and the clear preference for Lady Gaga. Pictures! Boobs!

Lesson: Pop stars can be used to teach anything. Feminism, economics, quantum physics. If you're writing about a subject that isn't spicy enough to draw in readers who aren't your friends and family, throw in some pop stars.

Two for the price of one!

2.) Backstreet Boys! Clearly I underestimated the draw. The 1990s are alive and well in the hearts of Internet users and damn it they will have their Backstreet's Back, all right!

Lesson: Nostalgia = Blog hits.

3.) Quotation marks around the phrase "David Bowie's Penis." There's half my Google hits right there.

Lesson: This lesson really only applies to FitC. But if you have a celeb (or author or musician or congresswoman, but not a real person in your life) you love, write about him/her. Avoid being creepy about it. There's a difference between jest and stalking. And if there's one thing I am absolutely certain of is that everyone loves David Bowie and his spider from Mars.

4.) Obscure hits come from the phrase "fishing lures London." One photo of shining fishing lures near South Kensington mean a few readers have found FitC in hopes of improving their fishing. Sorry, mates.

Lesson: The more obscure, the better. Any topic you know that no one else knows? Write about it. And use keywords that pertain to the subject. Frequently, but not obnoxiously.

5.) Friends with blogs. A lot of my hits come from Shakesville and Feministe; both sport open forums that encourage readers to share what they've been bloggity-blogging about. When I write something related to social justice, feminism, politics, or 90s pop stars, I share. I have a whole Reading List of blogs and sites that I am in touch with, and I want to add more.

Lesson: Make friends with benefits! Also with blogs.

Friday QuoteDay

"Now, I want to be very clear that there is nothing wrong with wanting to be attractive or sexy. Just about everybody wants this. What’s wrong is that this is emphasized for girls and women at incredibly young ages, to the exclusion of other important qualities and aspects. Being hot becomes the most important measure of success."

— Jean Kilbourne, author, speaker and filmmaker; quote from "Killing Us Softly."

"In this update of her pioneering Killing Us Softly series, Jean Kilbourne takes a fresh look at how advertising traffics in distorted and destructive ideals of femininity."

Weekly Flâneur: Only You

Image of couple embracing in Grand Central Station, NYC. Click to enlarge.

Love is in the air.

Grand Central Station, NYC, March 2012

Today's Weekly Flâneur is brought to you by Jamie of Bibliophiled Away, who snapped this sweet shot of an unknown couple in late March. (Are you part of this couple? Let me know!)