Age? 25

Sex? female

What is your degree subject (both if joint)? Social Policy & Social Care

Does ‘Being Bad’ relate well to the other modules you are taking? yes

If so, how? And if not, why not?

Have you found ‘Being Bad’ too demanding, too easy, or at an appropriate level? yes however i feel that the screen plays and stories were quite hard for students not doing it as subjects, so i feel that the other students may do better by default due to the subjects they study.

Do you think the list of topics covered on the module was appropriate?
yes but i would have liked to have seen more
Are there any topics not included in the module that you would like to see included? abortion

Do you think that the format for classes has worked well? yes but i would have like to have seen a better time as its hard to arrange child care for that time in the day.

What did you think of the module team?
i thought that they were all approachable but i thought that Dr Meena treats us like kids when we are paying £3000 a year towards her wages.
Do you think it would have been better to have had more:
Small group discussions? no
Discussion and debate among the class as a whole? yes
Information and talk from lecturers? yes

The approach taken in the module is interdisciplinary (drawing on perspectives from English Literature, Film Studies, Creative Writing, Philosophy, Religious Studies, Media Studies and Politics): do you think this a useful way of approaching the topics covered in the module? yes however as i said above this can exclude students from doing well on the assignments

Do you think that interdisciplinary modules are a good idea? yes

Do you think you have benefited from the interdisciplinary approach taken in the module? yes

Would you like to see more modules that cover this kind of subject matter? yes and more evil behaviour like murder ans serial killers

Are you planning to take the follow-up module PH2004 ‘It Shouldn't’t Be Allowed’ at level 2? no

Would you recommend ‘Being Bad’ to a friend? yes but i would explain the assignments before hand and the time

Do you think that the blogs (web logs) were a good idea? yes

What did you think of the other assessments (e.g. would it be better to have one longer assessment rather than two shorter ones?)? YES!!!

What have you learned from the module? the range of different options we have in society

What parts of the module have you found most useful and why? kids video think that this showed our youth society today.

What parts do you think were a waste of time and why? n/a

Are there any other comments you wish to make regarding ‘Being Bad’? no

Drugs & Beer

Drugs and beer are considered (more so for the first one) as bad behaviour. I think that society excepts beer because it is legal and controlled and if we only drink in moderation its OK. i myself don't separate the two, drugs along with beer have the same desired effect - to feel different or happier. Even though drugs are seen by society as "bad" more and more people use them and more and more have access to them. Society instead of separating the two should look at the reason why we as humans feel the need for a little pick me up.

Many people live for the weekend where they can go out and get slaughtered, forget about the weeks problems and enjoy themselves. I feel that this sets a pattern in our minds that beer will make us feel better, solve problems and then the drinking can become worse. With drugs its a similar thing however due to the people that users have to buy the drugs from more problems can come along such as low level crime etc.

I feel that society our shallow does not answer some of our basic humans needs and that's why we feel the need to "let go" sometimes, this i believe is the reasons why people feel the need to drink and to take drugs. They both have negative effects and they both provide us with the chance to forget.
Maybe the 9 - 5 job, and living in a shallow society where looks and status are more important than peace of mind gives us the perfect opportunity to behave in this way due to our mundane lives.

www.cannabis.net/beervdrugz/index.html

Bad Music

Music has always at some point offended, the 1950's song "under the board walk" was deemed to be to racy for the youth to listen to and other bands such as the sex pistols have caused a riot for critics when licensing to the lyrics.
The argument about bad music is large however i feel that sometimes music is blamed for ridiculous things, in recent history, two teenage pupils walked in to their school and performed a massacre. Critics blamed Marylin Manson (rock singer), and his music for the boys committing the crime. i understand that music can change our emotions but to push us to killing seems unrealistic.
the boys that committed these crimes had other outside influences in their lives apart music and maybe if the country that they lived in didn't allow people such easy access to these guns then it may have been prevented.
regardless of the issues involved bad music has always been criticised yet i think a person needs to be in a bad mental state for music to tell them what to do and this in its self shows us that its not the music but the environment of the youth that molds the adult.
Bad music is attractive to people and i think people feel rebellious, i believe that there will always be a market for bad or naughty music and we will always enjoy it. maybe it it because that songs that talk about things that are taboo and things that society would frown upon discussing and as this module has shown we all enjoy a discussion on bad issues.

i have put some music vids of maralyn manson on to see if you think it could drive you to kill! see what you think (some swear words! if you dont like it dont watch)

www.sex-pistols.net

stealing

i thought that this issue would be good to add to my blog as it is highly regarded as bad behaviour yet we all are guilty of this even if we would like to say we are not.
i think that like lying there are many factors on the issue of stealing. if we broke into someones house and stole their person belongings we would regard this as a very bad, however we all at some point in our lives have stolen a grape from the super market, or a pen from work or maybe a chip of someones plate. all of the above things are stealing, we are still taking something that is some one Else's with out permission. but i would not get arrested for stealing a pen from work or a chip, but i would get arrested for stealing from a shop or a home. what is the difference? and why is it different? well i would argue that we see stealing in terms of the vale of the thing we are stealing. a chip is not the same value as a plasma screen TV. yet according to most religions and moral is that all stealing is the same, yet there are differences. i think that the simple thing of laying the difference on the value shows how much our morals are involved. in a capitalist society we see the act of stealing as a blow to profit, yet we don't consider it a blow to our souls or morals. then there is the issue of why we steal which is why we steal. now i think most people would steal to feed their family yet for drugs or just for kicks is something we wont except. then another factor to consider is who we steal from.
stealing like lying is a complex issue and even though we say we are against it because of our morals i think that we are all a little more money minded than we would like to think.

for info on kids and stealing follow link

www.kidshealth.org/kid/health_problems/learning_problem/stealing.html

Comments on other blogs !

I have tried to comment on a mix of other peoples blogs, friends, strangers and acquaintances :

Julie Mills - Play Time
I thought that Julie did a brill blog and i think her infidelity blog was very good, it is nice to see real life examples of the behaviour we have been discussing. http://www.cardonessplace-jules.blogspot.com/

Ellie Chand -
I thought Ellie's Blogs we very good and informative, you could tell that she had enjoyed writing them. I enjoyed reading all of them and i liked the design. However her comment about kids, was a little miss understood, i know that it was uncomfortable to watch, yet i don't think it required her to repent her sins as Ellie didn't do nothing wrong she just watched it. But like i said brill blog overall.

http://whatyouclassasbad.blogspot.com/

Anneka Betts -
I thought Anneka had tried very hard with her blog and you can see that she had thought about what she was going to publish, however i thought that the comment about Bonnie & Clyde, was a bit different from the information i have, i always assumed that Bonnie & Clyde were murderers not fighting for what is right. so i will have to check this out, however i loved the photo's and design. http://anneka-anneka.blogspot.com/

Megan Evans-
Every blog was a joy to read! meg always gets down to the core of the issue and i enjoyed reading it all! www.being-badwlv.blogspot.com/


Brenda Marimba-
I would like to comment on Brenda's blog about teenage pregnancy. i though some of the comments were valid, but as i was a teenage mom , i was offended about the last comment "keep your legs closed", i think that this comment assumes that all teenage mothers are tarts or loose women. i do see the rise in teenage pregnancy and do see the problems with this, but i think we should bare in mind that our grandparents would have been married at 16 and many with children by the time they are 20. i have been with my partner since i was 17 and i am now 25, 1 partner 1 child no tart!. so i think sometimes we need to think about the comments we make as some time they can be far from the mark. http://breny-wwwbreny12b.blogspot.com/

Chantelle Robertson -
i thought that Chan got straight to the point and i enjoyed the pictures, i thought the blogs were well thought out and i enjoyed reading. Favorite blog was the kids blog, she seemed to share my view and how the film raises issue about the youth and the culture surrounding our youth today.
http://channyann.blogspot.com/

By looking at the blogs and discussions from other students i feel that we have uncovered a lot of society;s thoughts on the way we view certain behaviour as bad. i think what surprised me the most is how much we do view as bad. some things that i myself would view as healthy behaviour, others seem to think it its against all their personal morals. i think that this shows us how much we differ in somethings. the other thing that i have found by reading other students blogs is the amount of people that have been very righteous in their blogs yet as humans are not very nice to know and some down right nasty. i think this shows us how much of our own bad behaviour we don't see or refuse to recognise.

telling lies

i think that this is one of the most complex of all the behaviour discussed in this module, we tell lies for many different reasons and for many different out comes. i do also believe that we can lie with integrity, i have and i would lie to make some feel better again.

i think the first thing that comes to mind is when i worked in a care home. when some one is dying of cancer and they are asking you how bad the pain will get, i would reply that the drugs they are on will deal with it. i knew in the end the pain killers would not do everything but i also knew that the person i was telling needed peace of mind. other residents in the care how would ask me what time their mother would collect them ( they were mostly 70+) and i would reply , she on her way. the resident would be happy and would stop worrying. sometimes we need to lie to help people around us and i have not problems with this, sometimes the truth is to much to much to bare and that why we do sometimes need to lie. i think the distinction is that if we lie to someone we are lying to save them pain and not to make our own lives better.

however i think that thereare people in the world that make telling a lie and art and here is in the picture of one of these people above...............www.superpatriots.us/lyingsources/index.htm

Gambling could also be argued bad behaviour and i tend to agree, i think its very bad behaviour when a person works all week and blows it all on gambling. if they put the money away every week they would probably be allot richer than they are any way.

however i think its quite hard to say this, as we all gamble in one way or another. i think waiting to see if you have won the anticipation and the feeling of winning is so fantastic, you can see why people get addicted. its easy to fall into a pattern however, my Nan (bless her) used to have a scratch card once an week, now she between 4 & 8 a day!. she knows what she doing and she tells me if she wins it will come in handy for a rainy day! she 84 she had all her rainy days and with 8 daughters, and 24 great grand children she gonna be looked after however her gambling goes. but she still loves the thrill of seeing if she has won.

i think gambling is ok aslong as your in control not the urge to gamble.

www.gamblinghelp.org

Cheating

I think that out of all of the bad behaviour that's this is one of the worse. If a couple break up over an affair all the family suffer as well as the children. But whenever we look at society there seems to be so much of it going on. It is constantly talked about in the media, Jeremy Kyle and other talk show host have various methods of "detecting" if your partner is cheating. there is even an American show entitled "cheaters". We seem to have a fascination for it. We all enjoy watching it on soap operas to.
i think is similar to bandits and out laws people who cheat are liars and untrustworthy yet we always enjoy watching them be grilled on TV. there are Even websites to dedicated to showing people the sign's of your partner cheating. If they are or not i don't think is the issue, if you cant trust a person you will find out eventually, but all the media and literature about cheating partners and lie detectors and body language specialist will eventually be to much and our partners will run away and leave you with your paranoia.

Body Modification

Body modification is the act of changing ones body for religious, social or cosmetic reasons. This can come in many forms as I feel that most societies have some form or the other. Make up could be argued as a body modification and even the wonder bra!
To change ones physical form in any way shows unrest in society with the way our bodies are formed. With the recent fashion history and the amount unhealthy looking models, to the trend in cosmetic surgery this shows that western society is undecided in the way we as humans should look. However western society is not the only one that modifies the body. Tribes in developing countries and other places around the world do this.
Modification could be used also to convey information, our status social, our religious tendency and our image. I feel that modification can and does benefit humans; I also think that it gives us an insight in to our psyche and the way we think. However I think that the forms of body modification can go to fair, such as female gentile modification and others that are performed to decide our behaviour.

For more info………www.bmezine.com

Bandits and Outlaws

Bandits and outlaws have always been romanized in the media and especially in film. The most common would be Robin Hood, whose crusade was to steal from the rich and give to the poor. However this must be fair from the truth. Outlaws like bonnie and Clyde didn’t have helping the poor as their main objective. Most of the out laws and bandits would have concentrated on avoiding the police for whatever they were no the run from. But still when we think of these people we have that Robin Hood figure in mind.
They sometimes help those in need and they also have the ability to avoid the law. Outlaws can and do get away with things that we would never attempt for fear of the consequences. There is a freedom in this life style and I think that is why we are attracted to the idea of the outlaw on the run fighting to the end. It reminds me of the rebellious child or teenager, they are courageous in standing up to the authority of the parent and putting a finger up to the consequences.
It could also run deeper than this, the figure of Robin Hood is held because of his fight for what is right. To have the courage to do this is something that most of us couldn’t do, sometimes in life we allow things that are “bad” to happen around us because we do not have the courage to stop them. Robin Hood along with other bandits who fought for the common good have this courage and I think this is why we have this respect for the ideal of a bandit because they possess something we don’t have.

For more info on Bandits - http://www.legendsofamerica.com/

Religion

Religion is something that can pull together civilisations or rend it apart. From the beginning of time when we still worshiped Mother Nature to more modern religions we have always felt the need to worship in one way or another. The human race has always constantly changed and amended our religions to the way we live and I find it interesting that modern day society is picking up and trying on new religions like new clothes. Religion offers its followers somewhere to belong and answers to the questions we would all like to know. And I feel that is why we all, at some part in our life, fall easily into religion whether we are born to it or pick it up on the way.
Some may find this new craze in changing religion frightening or an insult to the more main stream religions, but I think this is one of the most liberating times to find the religion that suits you. I myself had a Christian background and went to catholic schools all my life, yet I never found it satisfying. I seemed to think that the things that I believed in (vibrant life and happiness) never came until I died and as an eight year old child this seemed a long way off!
What I think has always grieved me with most mainstream religions, is that they always seem to hate our most natural instincts, and most comically the best parts of life. They seemed to morn life and not embrace it. To anyone reading this please do not think that I am insulting your way of life, it’s just that it never worked for me. I have always enjoyed life and my Christian background never suited me. I have fortunately found something that does and I am now happy with my religious values, but I have found this by myself and I have critically thought of why this religion suits me. I didn’t just follow it blindly because that is what society has asked me to do.
I think this is the edge to religion, it can in the extremes, take thought away from the follower and it can cause so much hurt and pain. I think religion is a wonderful thing when used properly but like the kitchen knife you may use to cook a family meal or to cut someone’s throat, its comes down to how you use it and sometimes, like everything, religion is not used properly.

http://www.paganfed.org/

Kids –

I can understand people that have been very upset watching this film. I read on the net that people thought that the film went against their religion and others who thought that the film was against all there morals and societies too. But what this film shows to me is how much can be determined by were we live. The children in this film live in the an poverty stricken area were they are and will always exsposed to social problems. They all have adult experience of life and even the younger ones of 9 or 10 are enjoying smoking weed and cigarettes. The children go though the entire day with non or little adult influence on there lives. The young ones stay out at a party for the entire night and there is no panic to find them.
This film screams to me of the social problems not only in our society but across the world. Recent studies shows that Britain’s youth are not taken care of in the same way as other developed countries despite our wealth and I think that this film raises these issues in our country. It is all very well and good to say that the film is disgusting and that it should not had been made but the point is how it made you feel. It made you feel dirty unsafe and exposed and children down the road from most of us are going though these issues everyday of their lives. They have no chance of making such a middle class view by saying film should not have been made and its amoral. The issue of bad film would not even touch their life. If the effort to slag this type of film off were put into helping the youth of today then people like Larry Clarke would have no inspiration for filming these types of things. That is the reason this film makes us feel so bad is because we know it is happening all the time.
All the kids in this movie are victims of society dark underbelly. Even the boy who goes around “deflowering” young girls is still a child, he has not been to taught respect a female nor have the girls been taught to respect themselves either. That is why he is so successful in getting what he wants. Because of lack of education for the parents and the children this is why a child gets into these life threaten situations, it's another of those social problems that can hit children that are out of mainstream society.
For more info on helping youth and other social excluded groups ………… http://www.youthinformation.com/http:/

Bad Comedians

I think we all enjoy someone saying something that’s offensive and wrong. . Comedians not only have the freedom to do this but we pay them to do it. They say sexist, racist, ageist, things you name it and we enjoy every moment of their offensive behaviour. I think it comes down to the little rules of society and our twisted view of propriety, we would never say things that the comedians say yet we all think them. If a comedian says it in a cool and funny way we all applaud but we know if we said these things at home in the company of Mum or Nan they would go crazy, yet they would happily sit next to you and laugh if someone was on the TV saying it.
I think it comes down to the school joker in class, the one that would goad the teacher into a epileptic fit, you would laugh and laugh at the outrageous things being said to the teacher yet you would never say them your self. It’s entertainment with a twist! They are saying what you would love to say even if it’s wrong, but society does not allow you to; it is entertainment in the purest form, like watching the hangings in the old town square or fight outside the pub. You should be offended yet that little red devil on your shoulder is saying, “you love it” It’s that sick fascination that makes you look at a car accident when you know after seeing what you are looking for you will regret it. Bad comedians provide an answer to this inbred need we have for the offensive and sick.
And after we have watched and laughed to our hearts content we go home as innocents, because we never said those bad words we were just there ……….

This site gives up to date info on comedians, tickets reviews etc .....

http://www.chortle.co.uk/

Masturbation

I will never understand the hype about masturbation. It seems so odd that in a society that readily talks about sex, drugs, and condones so much bad behaviour that we all seem to shut our mouths and giggle when the subject is raised. We all seem to know that it is a still a taboo subject, but in the same conversation we will discuss our sexual preferences. I think that a society that is so centred on our personal happiness we would not only welcome but embrace the solitary act. We tell our children to do what makes them happy, we are told to look out for number one, retailers constantly (specially with women) tell us that we are worth all the pampering and spoiling yet we cant except the one natural solitary act.
Some of us think it’s a immature thing, some of us feel its dirty for a women to do it, you could argue that this is overtones of old Victorian values, but yet women can work and vote and do all these liberating things, yet we seem to think this one thing is below us. However I think the ann. summers sales on there “women’s range” would argue that even though we say we don’t we do……..

http://www.annsummers.com/

Smoking

Many films and advertisements over the years have glamorized the idea of smoking, and as teenagers I bet most of us considered it. As children we can buy candy cigarettes to pretend that we are all grown up. I think this has always been the case and no matter the amount of anti smoking campaigns some part of us will always consider it attractive for a variety of reasons.
When trying to research this subject I came across the usual statistics on the number of deaths etc however it did surprise me on the amount of film stars today still have there photos taken whilst smoking. I am sure we have all seen the pictures of the actresses from the 1950’s looking all demure for smoking there cigarette, but I thought it was a thing of the past, and that most actresses would not condone it . How naive I was! It seems that all the information and the social stigma, has not stopped that sex appeal we get from smoking a cigarette.
So to really confuse that bit in our brain that finds it sexy please remember this picture!

http://www.forestonline.org

field trip

I think that our field trip should be to somewhere like a London’s Soho district or maybe Amsterdam’s red-light district. These places offer drugs, sex and many other forms of “bad” behaviour .These places would provide us with an opportunity to see bad behaviour has it happens, especially Amsterdam as not only is some of this legal it is also for sale and we may see more than usual suspects frequenting these areas.
Here is some tourist info ..........
http://www.holland.com/amsterdam/gb/