With academic writing morphing into a genre on the web, we mostly read assigned texts from our computer. I decided to use reading the course assignments online as part of an experiment to test my ability to concentrate. Turns out I prefer to read the course material from a piece of paper instead of a computer screen because I grasp the material quicker and gain a better understanding. As previously mentioned in class, reading from our computers often leads to going in and out of multiple websites which means we are not able to give our assigned readings the undivided attention they deserve. I ask myself: Are we program to give text on a piece of paper more authority, esteem and attention? If so, we must acknowledge that the online publication of academic writing is gaining appraisal from the scholarly community and that we must modify how we perceive reading in this medium.  

     It is all a matter of time for me (as the writer), for you (whoever is reading this right now), for us (as a class)…

Feminism in Korea

            Though the United States is not a perfect country, the nationalism that’s been engraved in our history and in our citizens has flourished into the type of thinking that leads most North Americans to think that America is a place where people from everywhere are represented and have the freedom to speak out for or against whatever they choose speak out about. Ideas of Feminism are only relevant in a place as “open” and “accepting” as America. America: the country that gives voices to those who cannot speak. So, when the word Feminism is spoken, places like Korea and Iran aren’t what come to mind. Along with the war history between America and both these countries, Americans would normally not be able to relate Korean politics and Iranian politics to our own because of the differences we’ve associated between America and the rest of the world. America is different. Women here are able to be feminist. What is Korean feminism any way? Does that even happen there? And what about Iran? Certainly not, women aren’t allowed to go outside without head scarf on in Iran; they probably don’t even know what Feminism is. In our shallow American pride, we do not see outside of our nationalist bubble, but Korea’s history along with stories like Marjane Satrapi’s graphic autobiography “Persepolis” show that Feminism isn’t just a western idea.

Feminist perspectives on prostitution 

             There are many feminist perspectives on the issue of prostitution; some think it is bad for female equality, but should be decriminalized, some think it should be legal, and others think it should be illegal. Feminists like Pateman, Satz, and Shrage think prostitution isn’t morally wrong, but given the current social and economic situation women are in, it continues giving women subordinate status. Other feminist outlooks against prostitution come from taking issue with the heavy costs sex workers pay, like risk of violence and sexually transmitted diseases.  An argument for legalizing sex work is that it lets women build careers for themselves, which can help build self-esteem and empowerment. Pro-sex workers think that saying that ‘prostitution’ is an issue for women, takes away from the reality of societies where other structures lead to oppression of women. I’ve found that there are rarely feminists who identify as purely for or against sex work; the issue is too complex so even if someone thinks that prostitution hurts the female goal of equality, they still might think it should be legal.

LiveJournal is a blogging website founded in March of 1999 by Brad Fitzpatrick, a student of computer science.  In 2005, it was purchased from Fitzpatrick by the American blogging software company Six Apart, and in 2007 the Russian company SUP purchased it from Six Apart.  Although academic research on LiveJournal is limited, a December of 2008 study ranked it as the sixth most popular website, among American college students.  LiveJournal offers uses personal blogs (or weblogs, online journals) and the option of creating LiveJournal “communities,” which link multiple bloggers together.  One LiveJournal blogger of note is Cleolinda Jones, whose blog is called Occupation: Girl.  Jones began her LiveJournal in 2003, at the age of twenty-four, and is still blogging on it currently.  In her first entry, Jones said, "I swore, when I was in high school, that I was going to grow up but I was never going to grow old, popular cultur

            “The key issue is interaction” (Fitzpatrick 20). People have become so afraid of interaction, so afraid of collaboration. Instead people run behind the title of author. An author has power; the ability to create and influence others through words, or art. However, if an author is so powerful, imagine how powerful co-authors would be, or multiple authors, or a piece produced through a collaboration of dozens of minds! Most pieces are collaborations, but their “authors” won’t admit it for fear of loosing status in an academic world that praises individual genius. Yet, if people would only harness the power of collaboration and commit to it boldly, not in shame, then the world of writing would expand exponentially, inclusive of all those unable to be published or heard for whatever reason, and best of all, more people would be able to have fun.

 Virginia Woolf calls every woman to join a society that is separate from the society in which men operate – the Outsiders’ Society.  She says that we cannot operate within the society of men, because there is “something in the conglomeration of people into societies that releases what is most selfish and violent, least rational and humane in the individuals…” (124). The Outsiders’ Society, Woolf states, is “the kind of society which the daughters of educated men might found and join outside your society but in co-operation with its ends” (126).  She indicates that there is power in being outside of the insiders’ society: “the power to change and the power to grow… can only be preserved by obscurity…” (135).  Existing and working in this Outsiders’ Society will give women power by obscuring them and separating them from the “limelight which paralyzes the free action of the human faculties and inhibits the human power to change and create…” (135).  Virginia Woolf believes that being outside of men’s society will “shroud” women “in darkness.” 

Last semester I took a course entitled “Reading Popular Culture: Freaks” with Suzanne Schneider, in which we discussed at length what it means to me marginal and why people in the so-called “Outsiders’ Society” are put there in the first place.  The idea of existing outside of society according to what we discussed in Freaks is very different from what Virginia Woolf seems to think about being an “outsider.”

I.                   Breaking Away

I am a twin. For a very long time now, I had been vying to be my own separate person. My parents, or anyone else in our family for that matter, have never treated us as if my twin and I are just one person. I can’t say much for other people, though. For some reason, the general public thinks that because we are identical twins—same not only outside, but even inside, within our genes—that our personalities should be the same way, too. This is not the case.

Growing up, my mother always made us wear the same clothes. The garments would be similar in pattern and design, only differing in colors. We always had the same hair, the same earrings, the same friends, even the same face. As children, it was fun being my twin’s reflection, and vice versa. When I was old enough to realize there was something wrong in the picture, it seemed impossible, then, to alter the way that many people have been viewing us—inseparable, an entity that somehow cannot exist without the other.

Academic Blogging, a Possible Genre of Digital Humanities?

Tumblr is a blogging website that allows users to post pictures, videos, links, and written pieces to a blog of their own design.  The interface is very user friendly (I can even navigate it), and it offers a variety of layouts, both free and for a price, that can help personalize each individual blog.

Along with ways of personalizing ones blog, Tumblr also has a variety of options that fosters a sense of collaborations.  For example, if you find a blog you like you are able to “follow” it and then posts from that blog appear on your homepage or “dashboard.”   Another method of collaboration is the action of “reblogging.”  If you see a post, picture, or video on a blog that you like you have the option to “reblog” it.  When you “reblog” a post it appears on your own blog with a list of who has posted or “reblogged” it beforehand; when a post is “reblogged” there is also the option to comment on or add to the post.  The comments or additions are separated from the original post which allows it to remain cited.