True Story

I realized today that I keep calling Pinkberry (an American yogurt chain), Snog (a British yogurt chain).

In my defense, they are basically the same thing.

Which explains why, a couple of weeks ago, when I asked Mr. B if he wanted to go to Snog after a movie, we ended up making-out in the parking lot.

It wasn't yogurt, but it sure was fun.

Gender Inclusion in Bible Scares Conservatives

Silly wimminz! Religions is for the menz! Now stop looking for enlightenment and make me a sammich.

Via Fannie's Room comes a link to a not-surprising-in-the-least article of a conservative Christian group protesting gender inclusive changes to the New International Version Bible (NIV). The Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood fear that the language changes will alter their interpretations of theological messages. Those interpretations include divine justification on how God totally likes men better and wants them to push the women-folks around. Or as they put it: women should submit to their husbands in the home and only men can hold some leadership roles in the church. (Also mentioned for having a problem with NIV translations is the Southern Baptist Convention. Surprise, surprise.)

This is the most problematic aspect of believing that the Bible is the literal word-for-word voice of God; those words have to change to be understood by multiple readers in multiple languages. The Bible was not written in King James English from Jesus' hand, and translating a work that comprises the vowel-less written Hebrew and colloquial Greek into a text universally understood by all English speaking peoples (not just those in America, where Biblical phrases sneak into our vernacular and pop culture) is a daunting, dedicated task made possible by academic research and study.

The changes aren't even radical; God is still referred to as He and the Father, when there are ample mentions of God as the Mother in the Old Testament, and comparisons of God as a woman in the New. (Some examples here, from a professed skeptic.)  Even some supporters of the Catholic Church recognize the feminine descriptions of God. The NIV translation isn't doing anything more than changing "man" to "person" in accordance to the source word. As the article states, "At issue is how to translate pronouns that apply to both genders in the ancient Greek and Hebrew texts but have traditionally been translated using masculine forms in English."

As Fannie points out, there are some passages in the Bible are inarguable sexist and oppressive towards women. Despite this, millions of women are still a part of the Christian religion. By choice. For an organization to go out of it's way to further oppress those who would seek to have spiritual fulfillment and inclusiveness is one of the least Christian things I can think of.

Weekly Flâneur: Thirsty

Image: Row upon row of porcelain teapots. Click to enlarge.

 

We had a kettle; we let it leak:
Our not repairing made it worse.
We haven't had any tea for a week ...
The bottom is out of the Universe.
-- Rudyard Kipling

 
Teapot heaven, Portobello Road Market, London.

Visual Reminder

Woman holding sign reading: Gay Power. Black Power. Women Power. Student Power. All Power to All People.

Protester, 1970.  

Photo by Diana Davies, from the New York Public Library Digital Collection.

Playing Catch-Up

Back from RiverRun International Film Fest, aka, one of the world's most well-organized film festivals. I have always been in awe of my film fest friends (Lou and Mags in particular, organizers of past events like the Charlotte and the Doha Tribeca film fests), the amount of coordination it takes to ship in, entertain, and herd film makers and critics away from their cameras and computers, and choose the films and woo the venues and keep the sponsors happy and sell tickets all for the love of the medium is mind-boggling inspiring to me. North Carolina is full of stubborn, wonderfully artistic people that fight tooth and nail to make our state one of creative integrity and I'm proud to be witness to it in its myriad forms.

My own creativity has been slow this week; it's one of those weeks where everything seems absent of time, and I keep forgetting today is Wednesday and not Tuesday. Closer to the weekend, but oh, poor neglected Flâneur in the City! Absent of posts for a whole week, and after I met so many new people that graciously nodded after I begged them to read my blog! (Well, graciously nodded and backed away slowly from my blabbering. And I may have mentioned David Bowie's penis more than once. But still! Agreed to read! It counts!)

I have been working on laying out my thoughts on Miss Representation, and everything I've written so far needs a loving edit. It was an amazing movie, as expected, and there was a lot to mull over and process. Update on it all coming soon, my dears!

To my new readers, welcome, and to my forever readers, thank you. I do love you all and I appreciate the time you spend indulging me. Keep with me, my friends, and as ever I promise to entertain you!

For now, here's some baby pandas on slide. Oh, yes. FitC: Home of David Bowie, Feminism, and Baby Pandas.

Friday QuoteDay

“My life amounts to no more than one drop in a limitless ocean. Yet what is any ocean, but a multitude of drops?” 

— David Mitchell, author of Cloud Atlas          

Weekly Flâneur: Doubt

Interior of bar with sign of teapot reading: "War Dept. When in Doubt Brew-Up" Click to enlarge.

When in doubt, tea will cure all.
Garlic and Shots in Soho, London.

Running Rivers, Running Films

Posting may be a little light the next few days here at FitC, as I will be attending the RiverRun International Film Festival in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

Our own Unofficial Feminist Film Critic, Matt Brunson, is going to be a judge, so hopefully I will be able to link some of his updates and musings on the fest in this space. I'm not quite certain how my time there will be budgeted, but if I am able to write, I will update the blog with my own work as well. (Though Weekly Flâneur and FridayQuoteDay will publish as usual!)

While there are a ton of films to see, I am the most excited about the documentary Miss Representation.

The description for Miss Representation reads:

Filled with interviews with journalists, scholars and politicians including Katie Couric, Gloria Steinem and Condoleeza Rice, this revealing documentary addresses the harsh reality of the representation of women in modern society. Miss Representation studies the norms forming the message that a woman’s value lies in her youth, beauty and sexuality.

A film about the portrayal of women in the media? Calling out sexist bullshit? Questioning gendered norms and the male gaze? Margaret Cho? YES. The trailer is heartbreaking and wonderful all at once. I can't wait to see this and hopefully engage with some of the other attendants on the topic.

If any of my readers are planning on attending RiverRun this week, particularly this screening, come say hello! I'll be the tall girl in the audience, most likely chugging a caffeinated beverage. No pink hair, despite my picture. If the venue happens to be full of Amazonian women, just whisper something like, "David Bowie is the Chuck Norris of hipsters." That's a surefire way to get my attention.

(Also on the agenda? An '80s Prom Party. Can't decide if it's awesome or sad that wearing my normal clothes will allow me to attend in costume. Leggings. Off the shoulder dress. Leg warmers. Bangles. All I need is to rock a side ponytail with poofy bangs and I'm set.)

Equal Pay Day

It's 2011, and yes, we're still fighting.

It's not asking much, really. Equal pay for equal work. How hard is that to understand? Any argument against equal pay boils down to sputtering nonsense, often coupled with unrealistic assumptions and outdated defenses. (Like? "Men are the breadwinners!" or "If women want more money, they can just marry up!")

So, what can we do?

Support the Paycheck Fairness Act. As National Women’s Law Center Co-President Marcia D. Greenberger states:

"It's shameful that nearly 50 years after President Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act into law, women still earn, on average, only 77 cents for every dollar paid to men—a pay gap that translates to more than $10,000 in lost wages per year for the average woman worker. The Paycheck Fairness Act will strengthen and update the Equal Pay Act in critical ways. It will bar retaliation against workers for discussing salary information and facilitate class action equal pay act claims—essential steps in closing the wage gap.
At a time when the economic recovery remains fragile and nearly 40 percent of mothers are primary breadwinners, no woman and no family can afford to have employers discounting their salaries. It's long past time to eliminate the pay discrimination that has been a fact of life for far too many women in this country for far too many years. Congress should act quickly to pass the Paycheck Fairness Act."

 

Friday QuoteDay

“Because when we find ourselves believing that killing a man makes us more of a man, but loving a man makes us less of a man, it’s probably time to reexamine our criteria for manhood.”

—	Jay Smooth, founder of New York City’s longest-running hip hop radio program, WBAI’s Underground Railroad and video blogger.

Weekly Flâneur: Lonely

Image: Sunbeam on empty parking lot. Click to enlarge.

Filled with bodies of sunshine.

Car park, Charlotte, NC.

Addendum to "In Defense of Lady Gaga and 'Born This Way'"

A Powerline song from A Goofy Movie.

I should just retire from blogging now. It doesn't get any more '90s or nerdy than this. By the by, Gaga and Goofy? A match made in heaven.

In Defense of Lady Gaga and "Born This Way"

Do you know what the Internet needs today? A blog post about Lady Gaga. And "Born This Way!" Man, where are those articles?

Gaga! Oh-la-la! What's she up to now? Apparently pissing off a great deal of people. "Born This Way" shot to the top of iTunes charts the first week of its release, breaking records as the fastest number one single since iTunes began.

This chart-topper is not without criticism. Fans and foes alike have pointed out the obvious Madonna sound comparisons. But that? Yawn. I'll save that for someone else. (Hilariously, the most apt sound comparison seems to be Powerline, of A Goofy Movie fame.)

The lyrics are another matter; the Internet world has pointed out that Gaga's use of the term "Orient" and "Chola" are not campy pop, but offensive racism. And the opening lines of, "Whether you love him or capital H I M" isolate lesbian fans, particularly lesbian fans who are agnostic, atheist or believers in capital H E R. An anthem for the LGBT community that neglects the L, possibly half of the B, (and, some argue, the T) isn't really an LGBT anthem. (As we know from this post, Gaga is a strong supporter of LGBT rights. This oversight doesn't quite fit with her activism.)

The ableist language of the title also rubs the wrong way: If God (of the H I M variety) makes no mistakes, what of those born with mental illness, or chronic pain, or debilitating conditions? There's a cruelty in the lyrics to assume that everyone is as able-bodied and healthy as Gaga. Grand theologian Gaga is not.

But. (And there's always a but with this one!) With the knowledge that Gaga tackles a complex topic with overly simplistic lyrics that can be problematic, note that there is a positive to this.

First, Lady G penned these words during this past year, and this past year has seen an increase in awareness for the LGBT youth in the media -- particularly in Dan Savage's It Gets Better campaign. It's not a stretch of the imagination to think that Gaga wrote this with gay youth in mind. Admittedly, it does cater more to the male side of LGBT youth, but if her inspiration came from the youth suicides in the media the male favor may be intentional.

Secondly, the idea that sexual fluidity and identity are not a product of nurture, but nature, is one that still needs to be pushed. And even though the Lady sings she must, "be myself, respect my youth," one hopes that it is the older demographic that takes in this message. Who listens to the radio? Everyone. Whether we want to hear it or not, "Born This Way" is blaring out over loudspeakers in the malls and car stereos across the States. It turns into a "Gay Rights 101" song, reaching those who still believe that being gay is a choice, a sin, and something that only happens to hairdressers in Manhattan.
If anything, the overly simplistic message of being born gay can reach ears of those who would never consider homosexuality beyond what outdated bigotry and harmful stereotypes tell them.

Third, very simply: How many pop stars are singing explicitly about gay rights other than Gaga?
A grand total of none. Really. If you can think of one, please correct me. Top 40 music is not that diverse.

Yes, for those past our 101 courses, the message may be marred in problems, language faux pas, racism and is patronizing to, if not exploiting, the LGBT community. But for the rest of the populace? It may just the eye-opener they need. A tiny seed planted that can grow with the right nurture and education. And in talking about the problems of the song, we can make sure Gaga's oversights are not our own. We may be born ignorant, but we don't have to stay that way.


(UPDATE: After posting this article, I experienced some computer problems that prevented me from changing the working title, "The Silver Lining of Lady Gaga and 'Born This Way'" -- a title that really did not fit. The title has now changed, in addition to a few edits for a cleaner copy. Thanks.)

From FitC's (Unofficial) Feminist Film Critic

This week: Sucker Punch. Matt Brunson's review sums it up.

SUCKER PUNCH
*1/2
DIRECTED BY Zack Snyder
STARS Emily Browning, Abbie Cornish
It wouldn’t be quite accurate to call Sucker Punch the ultimate fan-boy film, but it’s a designation that nevertheless offers a near-perfect fit. It only fails the fan-boy test in that its protagonists aren’t chiseled macho men but rather five women, and as everyone knows, fan boys are too scared of modes of feminine expression, individuality and sexuality to accept ladies as anything more than arm-accessories for the taciturn heroes (it’s no coincidence that the fan boy’s favorite female character is probably Kick-Ass’s Hit Girl, a young child still years away from true womanhood). In virtually every other regard, though, Sucker Punch is a (wet) dream come true, an orgy full of Dolby sound and CGI fury. To finish the paraphrase by stating that it signifies nothing would be to drag Shakespeare into a world — and a conversation — that would baffle him. He wouldn’t be the only one: As another critic noted after attempting to explain the plot, “What the fuck am I talking about?”... 

Read the rest here.

Girls in sailor outfits fighting? You know what I miss? Sailor Moon.

Sucker Punch is not Sailor Moon.  Sucker Punch wishes it could be Sailor Moon.
This has nothing to do with Matt's review. Instead of paying for Sucker Punch, save up for the re-release of Sailor Moon in September. 

Driving While Spring

 

Click to enlarge.

(Drawn while having coffee with Mr. B. 

The worm lived to see another day. My coolness did not.)

Trying To Tell Me Something?

(Image: Search Keywords: "flaneur-in-the-city.blogspot.com" and "lick my face")

Evidently, Googling "lick my face," leads one right to FitC.

Whelp! I aim to please!

(Gabrielle licking Xena's face in Devi.)

Friday QuoteDay

Kickin' in the front seat

Sittin' in the back seat

Gotta make my mind up

Which seat can I take?

It's Friday, Friday

Gotta get down on Friday

Everybody's lookin' forward to the weekend, weekend

Friday, Friday

Gettin' down on Friday

Everybody's lookin' forward to the weekend

Partyin', partyin' (Yeah)

Partyin', partyin' (Yeah)

Fun, fun, fun, fun

Lookin' forward to the weekend

Yesterday was Thursday, Thursday

Today i-is Friday, Friday (Partyin')

We-we-we so excited

We so excited

We gonna have a ball today

Tomorrow is Saturday

And Sunday comes afterwards!

 -- Existential dialogue and dilemmas with Rebecca Black
(And Happy April Fools Day from Natalie!)