HW 27: First 2 Blog Posts

Works Cited:
Riverbend. Baghdad Burning. New York: The Feminist Press at the City University of New York, 2005.

This book so far seems really interesting. It is written by an Iraqi girl who goes by the name Riverbend. She made an online blog to share with the world her day to day life living in Baghdad during the war. This book/blog fits into our course work because it is, as I said, a blog and our class is based on blog writing and the importance of blogs on our country and world today. It ties in with women in the digital revolution because the book is in fact written by a young girl today. Riverbend explains that she made this pretty much just to rant and complain about the war, (Riverbend, 5). From reading this book I will learn to have a more open mind about this war and what it feels like to be living in Baghdad. I learn about life in Iraq as a woman and how it feels to live in the middle of a war, since none of us have had to deal with that. I think overall I will just learn more about this war going on, on the other side of the world. It will provide many benefits for me because I will learn more about our world and other cultures.

HW 25: Intro & Forward of "Baghdad Burning"

I thought the Forward and Introduction of Baghdad Burning was very interesting and it has already begun to open my mind and see the war in a different perspective. The forward, by Ahdaf Soueif, was a very brief description of the blog written by “Riverbend.” He uses many good quotes from her blog about the war and it helps bring his forward together. He talks about the recent war, and the invasion in 2004 to Iraq and how Riverbend approached her new lifestyle because of this.
The introduction of Baghdad Burning, by James Ridgeway, goes into much more detail about war and how Riverbend’s family is dealing with it. He talks about American politics and how the Bush administration wanted to send troops into Iraq even before 9/11. He talks about the American Government and how Riverbend refers to it as “the puppet show.” Ridgway talks about the Gulf War and World War II and how they built up to the 2003 war in Iraq. Riverbend also had to deal with the Gulf War by her home. He goes into depth about the Riverbend’s culture and the background of her culture like how it is “one of the oldest and richest civilizations in the world,” (Ridgeway, xii). Riverbend comes from a good part of Iraq where she was able to have a job, but unfortunately had to stop working after the war began. She now lives at home with her family and in fear of American Troops. There is also much talk about Saddam Hussein, Sunni Muslims, Shiites and many other different groups of Muslims living throughout Iraq.
The forward and introduction were very informative and well written. They each had a lot of emotion and passion about Riverbend’s blog and they have made me want to start reading this book/blog and learn more about this girl’s life.

HW 24: Then and Now

Woolf explains deeply as to how far history has come by the end of her book. Women have come very far and are not treated so inferior to me. Woolf notices that women and men are more equal as well. “I had come at last, in the course of this rambling, to the shelves which hold books by the living; by women and by men; for there are almost as many books written by women now as by men,” (Woolf 79). Women also were not only writing novels they were writing information books such as books on Greek Archeology and aesthetics. This compared to now has completely changed. Women are very equal to men, we can do whatever work men can do, we can write whatever men can write. Women don’t sit at home raising a family and cooking like they use to do in Virginia Woolf’s time. I would definitely say we’ve come a long way.
Woolf says, “…if we have the habit of freedom and the courage to write exactly what we think…” (Woolf 113) and to me, that is what a room of one’s own is. In comparative to this quote I believe that I do have a room of my own and I think anyone can have one. Back in Woolf’s time I think she was lucky to have a room of her own because where women were treated inferior to men she wrote exactly how she felt in this book. She wasn’t afraid of what other people think and I think Woolf would love to see our world now.

HW 23: Woolf and Jezebel

"With Apologies to Virginia Woolf"

I have been reading blogs online lately and it seems that everything revolved around gossip. The blog Jezebel has many blog posts about women celebrities and the gossip going around about them at that specific time. I do enjoy all this dubious gossip (Woolf 61) though. Where do I find information about Lucia Moses? Hair? Comediennes? Movies? Angelina Jolie? The latest celebrities? Why all my questions can be answered on www.jezebel.com. Women getting noticed about the new film Smiley Face is wonderful in the post “Living Dolls: The Stepfordization of Hollywood’s Comely Comediennes.” I love how this blog does not agree with patriarchy. They are trying to show people that films with a girl protagonist in a comedy film can be a good thing. I should fondly agree with them about this. Overall Jezebel is a great feminist blog and I should continue keep myself updated with it.

HW 22: Chapter 2 Patriarchy

I think Woolf said the paper proved that England was a patriarchy because it mostly had to do with men. “Somebody scored big in South Africa (who I would assume to be a man.) Sir Austen Chamberlain was at Geneva,” and “Mr. Justice commented in the Divorce Courts upon the Shamelessness of Women,” (Woolf 33). The only bit of news that mentioned a woman was about a woman who hung herself. The paper and Woolf makes it sound like England thinks society will be better now that there is one less woman around. This paper had headlines about men, which proves the point that England is a patriarchy. Woolf also discusses throughout the chapter how men are said to be superior to women and they have all the money, knowledge, and education. It basically seems to be saying that women are stupid and pointless.
I took a look at The Boston Globe to see if it would give a transient visitor to our planet the impression that the United States is a patriarchy. In my opinion no, The Boston Globe does not give this impression. The front page of The Boston Globe had stories about high school students in Massachusetts, the unfortunate loss the Boston Red Sox had last night, Romney and Giuliani in the presidential election, and expected layoffs for Boston Scientific Corps. There are also many other stories and sections of The Boston Globe such as arts and movies, automotive, books, weather, and jobs that could interest people of both sexes. In conclusion I don’t think The Boston Globe shows patriarchy in the United States at all with its broad range of stories included in its paper.

HW 21 Dear Sissy

Dear Little Sister,
A Room of One’s Own is definitely a difficult read even I had some trouble reading the first chapter. In the first chapter the character, Mary, is heavily contemplating the importance of women and fiction. She talks about walking by a river and through a college and how she is inferior to the man she comes across. She compares two poets and their poems about war. A lot happens in the first chapter but the most important is the connection of women and fiction and also a woman having a room of her own to write this fiction. I think all this is meant to show the inferiority of women to men. Men can have money and a room of their own and women cannot. Mary shows her anger towards this idea in chapter one. Your teacher may find this important because it’s a lesson in the history of gender issues. Women were barely allowed to right because they weren’t as good as men. It is important to know what gender issues were like back in the early 1900s and this book is a really a good piece of literature to show this. I think this book is difficult and confusing, and I had some difficulty with the reading as well, but it’s an important essay of it’s time.

HW 19: Juan Cole

After reading the article by Drezner and Farrell in Blog! How the Newest Media Revolution is Changing Politics, Business, Culture, the most important paragraph I found and easily understood was on page 86 to 87. It is the first paragraph under the title, “The Ties That Bind.” The paragraph is about Juan Cole and how he made a blog after September 11, 2001 called “Informed Comment.” He was not being heard by the people around him, because no one was interested. Being online and creating his own blog with his own thoughts helped Juan become heard throughout the United States and even throughout the world. Juan Cole knows three Middle Eastern languages fluently which allowed him to look at Muslim blogs and monitor reports throughout the Muslim Region. He kept his fellow American bloggers updated constantly. In other words, this paragraph is important because it proves that anyone who’s anyone can have a blog and express themselves on blogs. Blogs are great things to create and Juan Cole is a great example of this.