L Blogger

Baghdad Burning is an account on a blog of a young woman in her twenties living in Baghdad during the war of 2003.  People of America who support the war do not understand what she or any of the families in this city unless you are apart of our military and stationed there. (Riverbend,Vii)We can all say we can imagine what it is like and say our opinions, but we never really know what it is like there, unless we have been or are going. Soueif isn’t going to sugar coat any account she experiences, she will tell everyone what its like to be in Iraq and let us know what they go through on a daily basis. Rideway’s introduction provides us with the background of Iraq and how it got into the war with America and where it has started and now what its become.
When I think about the war when it first started was I just remember sitting in social studies class and watching the planes go down on television on Sept. 11, 2001. When 2003 came around, I guess I was scared because I never realized what war brought two between countries. I was scared that more attacks and threats would happen in the U.S. and possibly might hit New Hampshire. “Riverbend is poignant in relating what happened since the war: the loss of her own job, the fear she and other women now feel walking in the streets without men, the risks of stepping outside with her head uncovered,” If I was in Iraq and a young women; I would be petrified to walk around the streets.

Woolf has let us know that woman are finally climbing up the ladder in society. Although it has taken us year, we have been considered “equal to man” but other females beg to differ. “For women have sat indoors all these millions of years, so that by this time the very walls are permeated by their creative force, which has, indeed, so overcharged the capacity of bricks and mortar that is must harness itself to pens and brushes and business and politics. But this creative power differs greatly from the creative power of men. “ (Woolf, 87) In this era, women had to write to make money, like Jane Austen. I saw the movie Becoming Jane, the movie showed a lot about how she would write privately and her writings reflected the time and women. So it relates to this book and how Jane Austen had to make a living off of her pen and paper. With women not really being educated in this era, Woolf states; writing is the only thing really they would make money off if they were not married. “It is not that they celebrate male virtues, enforce male values and describe the world of men; it is that the emotion with which these books are permeated is to a woman incomprehensible.” (Woolf, 102) Living in a society with virtuous men, woman didn’t want to live by the standards of men but they did, they had no other choice.Thank god for the women of the late 1890’s and beginning of the 1900’s that women like Abigail Adams, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Susan B. Anthony.

No I don’t have a room of my own. I share it with another person in my dorm room, but I do have my own space in my room and I do take time for myself. At home, I do have a room of my own. I have a sister but shes not always in my hair. I have peace and quiet when I am at home. Woolf would want me to go as far as I can and I think she would be proud of me being college and going the extra step because she didn’t have opportunities us, girls have now for an education.  I think Woolf would have wanted me to reach for the stars and never look back.

“Apologies to Virginia Woolf”

Woolf describes the women in the book as looked down upon by men and not as intelligent. She quotes a man in her book saying, “ the best woman was intellectually inferior to the worst man”, which means that the smartest woman is as smart as the stupidest man. I found an article on Jezebel called Will Hilary’s “Tonya Harding Option” Leave Country to Eastern Bloc Hooverite John McCain?” Whenever I think of women being put down, I think of the upcoming election and Hilary Clinton. Some people don’t think Hilary could be our next president and I think she can relate to Woolf’s. Hilary puts her self in the position to try and become something no one has ever done. As being woman, we have always been put down by society and have “lowered” standards to man. Although women are climbing the ladder of success, we still get teased and referring to Virginia Woolf is a perfect example because that where it all started.After reading over the article, once again I noticed people over exaggerate Clinton’s perception of how she would run the country.

Patriarchy is a system that puts males superior to females. I believe that the United States shows patriarchy in some society stereotypes. The article I chose was on Huffingtonpost.com. They posted about how Hilary Clinton is always wearing pant suits and how its more feminine to wear skirts.  Female Fox news anchor, Ainsley Earhardt cracks a joke on her male co-host anchor saying how she has worn a pant suit before but “We don’t wear the pants.” Was she trying to make a comment toward her male bosses or going along with her male co-host being anti Hilary? Oh she was totally going with him on this one ladies and gentlemen. She continues asking Brian, male anchor if he wants them to wear pants but he says he’s a pro-skirt man. Surprise response? Ha, of course he is a pro-skirt male, have you ever met a male that isn’t?
“Most woman have no character at all,” Woolf quotes the Pope.(81) She sees this as an insult and I cant imagine living in a time like this where men would say this about the opposite sex. Women are seen as the “weaker sex” I learned in psychology. We are suppose to cook, clean, do laundry, this and that. We aren’t suppose to be the “ breadwinner”. We are suppose to obey our husband and abide by his rules of the house. “ ‘ Men know that woman are an overmatch for them, and therefore they choose the weakest or the most ignorant. If think did not think so, they could never be afraid of women knowing as much as themselves.’
….In justice to sex, I think it but candid to acknowledge that, in a subsequent conservation, he told me that he was serious what he said.” -Boswell, The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides.     Men, in these days think they are above and beyond the best and woman are superior to them. Thank god things have changed for woman.

“Blogs (short for “web logs”) are periodically updated journals, providing online commentary with minimal or no external editing . They are usually presented as a set of “posts,” individual entries of news or commentary, in reverse chronological order. The posts oftern include hyperlinks to other sites, enabling commentators to draw upon the content of the entire World Wide Web. Blogs can function as personal diaries, political analysis, advice columns on romance, computers, money or all of the above. Their number has grown at an astronomical rate. In 1999, the total number of blogs was estimated to be around 50; five years later, the estimates range from 2.4  million to 4.1 million. The Perseus  Development Corporation, a consulting firm that studies Internet trends, estimates that by 2005 more than 10 millions blogs will have been created. Media Institutions have adopted the form as well, with many television networks, newspaper, and opinion journals now hosting blogs on their Web sites, sometimes featuring dispatches from their own correspondents, other times hiring full-time online columnists. “ (Kline, 85)

This paragraph is important because it shows the importance and the increase in growth of blogs today. We have over millions on blogs on the internet. Blogs provide us with information that is useful and honest, which sometimes its not true about the television media. Also in Web of Influence, it tells us that bloggers will be the ones who tell the sites like NY times and CNN when they post a story too quickly and report the wrong information. In other words, They correct the mainstream media when they are in the wrong and My claim is it’s good thing bloggers catch their mistakes. Journalists are smart and intelligent but I feel like bloggers take more time when they are posting their posts. Blogging has become so big for other interests like advertising for companies and more. Knowing the material for blogging is important because some day blogging could be the number one source to go to. Not only do people not know a lot about blogging but what it can do and the honesty of it.My point is that the statistics in this paragraph are pretty significant to us because the increase of blogs are tremendous in the past 10 years.

DailyKos and Wonkette are very eye-catching blogs, which both bring a lot of discussion to the table about politics. In the coming election, I think that Wonkette would influence me more for the upcoming election. I like Wonkette because of the way Ana Marie Cox writes. Cox writes not too formal but at a level, that a reader of any age understands and can relate to. I like how it’s a conversational voice with a little bit of professional writing. Teens and young adults can understand and read the blog like if they were writing it. Wonkette is a unique blog with an original set up. I like the set up because the webpage is simple and easy to read. With the DailyKos, my eyes wonder and its hard to find out what I am looking for. There site has too many sentences and words, it’s not very organized. Wonkette also covers more than just politics which is very convenient for bloggers. I’m not a big fan on politics, so it would be interesting to find out a lot about the subject and be able to look up what else I’m interested in on the same blog.