final entry

Age? 19

Sex? Male

What is your degree subject (both if joint)? Sociology

Does ‘Being Bad’ relate well to the other modules you are taking? Not particularly but it's to have variety

If so, how? And if not, why not? Well this semester my sociology modules have been more focused on such things as research methods so theres been quite a difference

Have you found ‘Being Bad’ too demanding, too easy, or at an appropriate level? I have the module appropriate although it took a while for me to work out using the blogs

Do you think the list of topics covered on the module was appropriate? Yes

Are there any topics not included in the module that you would like to see included? I think gambling may have made a good subject also

Do you think that the format for classes has worked well? Apart from people talking in lecture and things i think the format has been fine

What did you think of the module team? They've been very helpful

Do you think it would have been better to have had more:
Small group discussions? Not really
Discussion and debate among the class as a whole? I feel as though there was a lot of this which is fine with me
Information and talk from lecturers? I think again there was an adequate amount of this too

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 because it gives a vaster array of understanding to the subjects involved

Do you think that interdisciplinary modules are a good idea? yes i think they provide variety to a semesters modules

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

Would you like to see more modules that cover this kind of subject matter? yes i would

Are you planning to take the follow-up module PH2004 ‘It Shouldn’t Be Allowed’ at level 2? i havent quite decided what to do for my second year modules yet.

Would you recommend ‘Being Bad’ to a friend? yes

Do you think that the blogs (web logs) were a good idea? i would prefer essay writing but its interesting to try different ways of study

What did you think of the other assessments (e.g. would it be better to have one longer assessment rather than two shorter ones?)? i found the other assessments good as well especially the creative writing

What have you learned from the module? that many people have very different opinions on what being bad is

What parts of the module have you found most useful and why? i found the smoking part the most interesting, i now watch for people smoking in films

What parts do you think were a waste of time and why? I didn't enjoy the bandits lecture i found it quite dry

Are there any other comments you wish to make regarding ‘Being Bad’? thankyou for reading

Comment on Smoking entry

http://speckwood.blogspot.com/

I think smoking in the youth today in my opinion is very much to do with peer pressure i myself smoke and although now i have many friends who dont smoke at the time when i started people all around me were smoking especially friends and to fit in i took up the habit. It's something i regret yet im not sure whether i actually want to give up because of course i carry on smoking. But i think if it wasn;'t for the peer pressure i experienced i wouldn't be smoking but of course im sure there are other factors involved in my decision, like things such as media.

comment on alcohol entry

http://beingbadwolverhampton.blogspot.com/

I agree with the blogger very much in this case in that alcohol as a drug seems to be very much accepted in his society. In recent news it has just been decided that cannabis will become once again a class b drug although commitees have given advice to the home secretary to keep it class C. She has decided to raise it to class B because the drug in recent times is a lot more stronger than it used to be, yet it is still possible to go into off licenses and bars and buy absinthe which has a rediculously high alcohol percentage, and off course alcohol is a drug that a lot more people die of each year compared to cannabis. I am personally not a fan of either drug but when you look at both i find it hard to see how cannibis is seen to be deemed as the more dangerous

comment on lying with integrity blog

http://beingbad19.blogspot.com/

I think lying is still a subject with very blurry borders of what is right and what is wrong. I personally try to be as honest as i can be, just like (i hope) most people do but just like the blogger said i'm still not really sure whether it is ok to till the odd white lie. Although i occasionally say the odd white lie i dont think i say them to make someone feel better about themselves. For example if someone asks me "Do i look good in these clothes?" I won't say yes to make them feel better about themselves, instead most of the time I actually actually say yes to make me feel better because this person will not be hassle when we are socialising. So maybe when we tell white lies we aren't actually telling them for altruistic means, but just to help ourselves, or maybe i'm just a bad person.

Scarification

Scarification is seen usually as quite an extreme form of body modification. This is when scars are made into the skin by cutting and branding. The cutting and branding can be used to make particular designs. Sometimes scarification can be very similar to tattooing as one method of scarification involves putting ink into a fresh cut so when the cut heals the ink stays permanent on the body. Scarification has also been used much like tattooing in particular tribes around the world for such things as rites of passage out of adolescence, but in the case of branding scarification has been used for marking slaves and even criminals.Above are examples of scarification used to make designs on the body.

Gambling Addiction

Gambling is a subject that much like smoking has been glamourised through the years but is denounced by many religions as a very bad habit. However just like smoking i wanted to look into more of the idea of it being addictive. Unlike smoking though we still see many advertisements for such things as online poker and casinos and in this country in recent years there has been a growth in casinos and although the idea was scrapped there was plans to build a super casino in Manchester a year ago. According to American statistics there are 15 million gambling addicts in the USA and people who are on much lower incomes gamble three times as much as those on high incomes. Far from showing the glamourous world of gambling that we see in places like Las Vegas. Another rather negative view as come from the American Psychology Assiociation who say Internet gambling shows signs of being just as addictive as drugs and alcohol therefore instead of being a pastime it becomes an addiction in which people who are worse off are more likely to get into that state.

Here is a link with more statistics on gambling in America

http://www.overcominggambling.com/facts.html

Ted Haggard

When listening to the being to religous lecture, it came to my mind that to me personally, another idea of being to religous would be to use your faith in trying to influence peoples political beliefs. So i tried to find a good example of this and Ted Haggard is a good example. This man was the head of The National Association of Evangelists (NAE) which represents millions of Evangelist Christians in America. He was even listed in time magazine as one of the 25 most influential evangelists in America. He is firm supporter in President George W Bush and has supported him through out is presidency and rallyed evangical christians to follow his cause.It has even been said that Bush and Haggard meet for meetings every Monday. This shows the power he has in representing such a large community in America. However scandal struck for him. He has publically said that homosexuality is wrong and that is the stance of the NAE. However he was found out to have had sexual relations with another man in 2006 and also of buying the drug Methamphetamine. He has since resigned from his position as head of the NAE, not surprisingly.

Here is the article where he confessed to having Homosexual relations

http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/11/05/haggard.allegations/index.html

American History X

When talking about bad film, this was the first film that came to my mind. Not that American History X is a bad film by any means, but the subject matter of the neo nazi underground and some scenes of harsh violence caused controversy. The film is about two characters who are drawn to neo-nazism as their father is killed by a black drug dealer the story shows us how the one character is influenced by the others actions as they are brothers. It shows the influence people can play on each other. One extremely controversial scene in the film however is when Edward Norton's character Derek Vinyard makes a black man put his face on the pavement and he stamps on it braking the mans jaw and killing him. The scene shows very much the bleak harshness of the film and the brutal reality involved. Although this particular scene is not easy watching the film is a great piece of work.

Bill Hicks-comedy hero or just a cynic

Bill Hicks seems to still have a strong popularity even after 14 years since his death. He has seemed to be remembered by the ones who love his work as "The Angry Man of comedy.". I have watched some of Bill Hicks's shows through the dvd releases that have been put out. He talked about topics such as being anti-war, as he was doing shows when the Gulf War was happening, Being pro-smoking, drug use and bashing advertising and corporations. But as the subject of smoking was covered in the Being Bad module here is quote from him on what he thinks of non smokers:

"“The worst kind of non-smokers are the ones that come up to you and cough. That's pretty cruel isn't it? Do you go up to cripples and dance to?."

I have personally found and im sure do a lot of his fans find, that Bill Hicks is not just a comedian but a commentator on the world around and a brutally honest comentator at that, and when i first watched something by Bill Hicks i found it refreshing because it was a person telling you of his experience and opinions instead of just rolling off joke after joke.

However Uk comedian Tim Harkness argues that all Hicks did was tap into a generation of cynics who automatically think the worst of people.

But i think people should watch and decide for themselves so here is a clip of his stand up:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9ySCcnoo3c&feature=related

Straight edge lifestyle Being good?,and straight edge tattoos

Throughout history tattooing has seemed to be used in branding and marking people, to belong to particular groups. For example in Mayan culture tattoos were used on men as a sign of courage. So what i wanted to do was research a community who use tattooing as a symbol of their beliefs but is present in society now all over the world. We can see this in the straight edge community. What is meant by straight edge is a lifestyle that abstains from recreational drug use, smoking, alchohol, casual sex and in cases where the person is very strong in their beliefs even such drugs as caffiene. The straight edge scenes roots can be traced back to the Washington DC hardcore punk scene of the early 80's where bands such as Minor Threat gave the message of straight edge through their lyrics. Here is an excerpt from one of their tracks "Out of Step"

"Don't smoke Don't drink Don't fuck At least I can fucking think."

As you can see from this lyric the straight edge message was a very straight forward one but the idea was that some bands in this scene wanted to concentrate on making music rather than taking drugs.

However this message over time has formed into a community, which has its own symbols to represent it. The most common symbol is an X. Which many people have tattooed on their body to show that they belong to the straight edge community. This symbol has come from the x's that were put on peoples hands on the door at hardcore punk shows. It was adopted by the straight edge community because it is used on the cover of an album by a band called The Teen Idles. This band included Ian Mackaye and Jeff Nelson who went on to form Minor Threat, who coined the term straight edge and are straight edge themselves. The community still thrives today although people have used straight edge as an excuse for elitism which according to Ian Mackaye one of the creators of the philosophy is absolutely wrong.

Here is a link to a website full of straight edge tattoos:

http://www.straightedgeink.com/

Here is also a link to the record label Dischord records who released the prominent Washington DC hardcore records, from bands such as Minor Threat, Dag Nasty and Teen Idles. This record label is ran to this day by Ian Mackaye and Jeff Nelson of Minor Threat, who have know gone on to do other musical projects the most famous being Ian Mackaye's band Fugazi.

http://www.dischord.com/

Above are photos of The teen Idles cover, An example of a Straight Edge tattoo and Ian Mackaye the singer from Minor Threat perfoming with the band.

Mad Men-smoking

I was watching TV the other day and ended up watching this drama called Mad Men for anyone who hasn't heard of it, it's about the ruthlessly competitive men and women who are part of an advertising firm, it is based in the 1960's and the members of the firm manipulate and exploit people to close their advertising deals. What caught my attention on this show however was the way smoking had a very glamourous appeal with all the characters, which is understandable really as the show is based in a time was smoking was still seen as glamourous, a particular scene caught my attention in where the main character, Don Draper who is the biggest ad man in the business and also it seems quite the ladies man is having a drink with a woman trying to close a business deal, at the start of this drink they flirt rediculously while smoking there cigarettes until, Draper makes a harsh comment about the business deal then the woman puts the cigarette out only halfway through being smoked ,and soon after leaves. I remember in the smoking lecture it being discussed how smoking has being used in the past in films to sexually charge a scene and this was very present in the scene in Mad Men, although it has been made very recently it seems to be a sort of homage to the way smoking was used in these more old fashioned films and showing the glamour also associated with smoking at the time.

Above is a picture of the woman Draper is talking with, and a photo of Draper himself both smoking.

The official website for the show is:

http://www.amctv.com/originals/madmen/

field trip

I believe that there is a tattoo convention at the birmingham nec. This seems to be appropriate as it is actually covered in one of the lectures. There are many different things of interest at the convention including tables for different tattoo designers and tables for different styles of tattooing including old fashioned methods using wood. There will probably be freak shows as well simlar to the circus of horrors which are usually entertainment not for the faint hearted.

Above is a poster for the event