HW#25 "Baghdad Burning" Introduction

For this homework assignment we were asked to read the foreword and introduction to "Baghdad Burning" by Riverbend, and then summarize it. The foreword is a short description written by Ahdaf Soueif. In this he says that "Baghdad Burning is far from being a rant, and that’s its actually a sensitive, often witty, always brave narrative of what it is like to be an Iraqi living in Iraq today." (Souief viii) He also mentions that this book is firmly on the side of humanity and on the side of life, and has a lot of politics in it. At the end of the foreword he says that "this book makes painful reading. It also makes enjoyable-even fun-reading. It is certainly necessary reading. Never naive, never blinkered, it is a wise and disillusioned book; yet it is not cynical, for it insists on identifying and elaborating on what is good, and what is hopeful." (souief ix) Based on this brief summary I think that this book may possibly end up being one of the more enjoyable books that we have read so far, minus the politics part cause I’m not really the political type. Then theirs the introduction by James Ridgeway. In this introduction he talks about her background and culture which is what makes her so unique and what captivates others to read her blog. He talks about why our Americans went to Iraq for reasons such as oil and other things. He states that the Bush administration determined the war to be a "mission that was accomplished." However, this is not the case at all. "The United States never gained enough control to restore any sort of order" Ridgeway 16) In this he also talks about a lot of facts, and goes into so much detail. Mostly about the war in Iraq. "Saddam is a Sunni Muslim, and his political apparatus was largely managed by a middle class of educated Sunnis, most of who lived in an area around Baghdad referred to as the "Sunni Triangle" (Ridgeway 22) After reading this I feel that I gained more knowledge about some of the issues going on. Because like I said before I’m not one to follow political issues, so I honestly don't know much of what’s going on with those things today. And I think that reading this book may open my eyes to a new experience.

HW#24: A Room of My Own.

We were asked to read chapters 5&6 in Virginia Woolf's "A Room of One's Own." And then consider what Woolf would say about where we have come in history. Also if I had a room of my own. To answer that question I would have to say that I do have a room of my own. "I am talking of the common life which is the real life and not the separate lives which we live as individuals -and have five hundred a year each of us and rooms of our own; if we have the habit of freedom and the courage to write exactly what we think; if we escape a little from the common sitting room and see human beings not always in their relationships to each other but in relation to reality."(Woolf pg.113-114) I think this shows where we are today. I know that each of us may not had a room of their own before, but now we do have the courage and freedom, and with that freedom we can write exactly what we think and feel. And we should escape from the "common" room and reality, go out on our own. My room of one's own would be the library. I know I can go there, find a nice quiet spot, and read and write as I please. There I have no distractions, and I can be myself without anyone telling me different. I am free there.

HW#23 "With Apologies to Virginia Woolf"

After reading chapters 3&4 in Virginia Woolf's "A Room of One's Own," we were asked to write a response to a blog we're watching as if it was Virginia Woolf herself speaking. I chose to do a blog from Jezebel; you can find it at http://jezebel.com/gossip/hells-bells/return-of-the-british-bridezillas-313638.php.

Response as Woolf:
This article that I read was perennial; I couldn’t believe such things like this are actually being allowed to take place. Women choosing their husbands? Marriage was not an affair of personal affection. Betrothal often took place. It wasn’t until about 1670 that women were allowed to choose their own husband, and even then it was only the upper and middle class women. Therefore it was not everyone that could have such power when it came to major decisions. But back then one knew that they could never conquer such desires. In this piece it lets us know that weddings should be exciting, and that you should never have to experience such a catastrophe as being forced to be with another man that you do not chose. A man states in this article that "If I could ask God to provide me with the perfect day, then my wedding day would be it." This is absolutely astonishing, a man, excited for his wedding day?! I am amazed and stunned by what has come of this issue today. I wish that it was always like this. It was inconspicuous back then. And I am happy to be a part of this lovely new world. By allowing a woman to pick her own lover, you are allowing her to chose her own path in life, and make it however she pleases.

HW#22 Is Patriacrhy Still Alive?

After reading chapter two of Virginia Woolf's “A Room of One's Own," we were asked to explain why Woolf said the paper proved that England is a patriarchy. On page 33 in chapter 2 the Woolf states that "Nobody in their senses could fail to detect the dominance of the professor. His was the power and the money and the influence. He was the Foreign Secretary and the Judge. He was the cricketer; he owned the race horses and the yachts. He was the director if the company that pays two hundred per cent to its shareholders." As you can obviously see this man had all the power, and basically owned everything. Making England a patriarchy. When going to the website of the Boston Globe I don't think that it is much of a patriarchy today. The first story they have on their site is about democrat Niki Tsongas, who happens to be female, and happened to win the election over Jim Oganowski. This is showing you that it’s not all about the males winning everything and being higher up then us women. So as for the question is their patriarchy still around, I would have to say yes but not as much as their used to be.

HW#21 Dear Cassidy,

After reading the first chapter in Virginia Woolf's “A Room of One's Own," I understand why you would be asking me for help. It is a very difficult read, even for me; but I will try to help you out the best that I can. In the beginning Woolf has been asked to speak about the topic of women and fiction. Her thesis is that "a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction." I think that this so happens to be a very good thesis statement. It's very clear, and makes a good claim that can be used for an argument. The narrator begins sitting on the edge of a riverbank at Oxbridge. Where she uses a metaphor about fishing. As soon as she gets a "bite" a man security guard comes up to her and tells her that woman are not allowed to be on the grass. She then says "no very great harm has been done," but her "fish" was no longer there. I believe she is trying to say that it was harmless for her to be on the grass, and that she had done nothing wrong. Which in that case is true, I don’t believe it is right that women are not allowed to walk on the grass and are restricted to the gravel pathways. I think she feels the discrimination against her, and that she possibly feels excluded because she doesn’t have the same rights as men. She also talks about how she has a room of her own that she can write in without any distractions. This is unusual because she feels that normally women could not afford a room of their own, it was usually men that had that advantage. I think that this piece is important because it's talking about the past times when women didn't really get the same privileges as men, and i'm sure that’s why your teacher is having you read this. Personally I don’t think its going to be one of my favorites, but it’s bearable. If you do have any other questions feel free to email me again. Talk to you later!
-Jackie

HW#19 Web of Influence

After reading the assigned chapter from David Kline and Burstein's "Blog!" I chose a paragraph from page 88. In this paragraph they talked about how the skewed network makes it easier and less time consuming for the outside readers to acquire information. For example they say that the media only needs to look at the elite blogs to obtain a summary of the distribution of opinions on a given political issue. In other words, they can put in a key word about their issue, and that will be pulled up, letting them not have to go searching through a huge variety of topics. They talk about how bloggers can post their immediate reaction to the important political events before other forms of media can respond. But above all, when they are confronted with a factual error, they can quickly correct and update their post. This makes things a lot easier for the writer to make things right. Also the comparative advantage of blogs in political discourse, as compared with the traditional media, is their low cost of real-time publication. To put it another way, they are saying how most blogs are free, you can easily just sign up with a website and start posting right then and their, as with the traditional media, like in newspapers, it costs money to actually post something in the paper. Overall I think that this paragraph was important because it's reminding you how easy it is to make a blog and start posting your veiws and information about certain issues. And also how readers can easily respond to your post, and let you know what their veiws are on the subject.

HW#18 New men's bathroom layout? Not so much!

For this homework we were asked to monitor some of the blogs we were watching from the last seven days and pick one that was our least favorite. I picked a post from Femenisting.com. You can find the post at http://feministing.com/archives/007867.html. The main thing about this post is the picture. It’s of a men’s bathroom. In the picture it shows the sinks. On these sinks are dismembered women bending over, they are actually attached to the sinks. Like a part of them. The main quote is "What is it about bathrooms and women’s dismembered body parts?" I automatically figured that this bathroom had to be a men’s bathroom, and I found that to be rather insulting. Most of the post was made up of other people’s comments. One of the comments that was on the post I thought was rather funny it was "Any guy who feels the need to pretend like he's humping something when he washes his hand probably shouldn't be allowed in society among the rest of us.Then again, studies show that few men actually wash their hands in public bathrooms. Maybe this will act as encouragement. It's a public health initiative, I'm sure!" I though that that comment made the post a little better, but it still makes me upset that they would create such a thing. Like we don’t get put down enough that now men get to visualize us being bent over while they wash their hands in the bathroom. When I first saw this it made me feel really angry to be completely honest. I don’t think they should have such things like this.