Thursday 7 May 2009

Blog Questionnaire

Age? I am 22 years old.

Sex? Female

What is your degree subject (both if joint)? I am a social work major with two minors. One in Women's Studies and the other in English.

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

If so, how? And if not, why not? I took a class that was about the regulation of sex in the 18c in London.

Have you found ‘Being Bad’ too demanding, too easy, or at an appropriate level? Too easy. I mean, not like I got an A. Everything is easy to procrastinate. Its not the work that's too easy, its the subject matter. I like to be rigorously questioned.

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? Pornography. Polygamy. Open relationships.

Do you think that the format for classes has worked well? I suppose. I don't know what to base it off of.

What did you think of the module team? I have no idea what your asking.

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, Media Studies and Politics): do you think this a useful way of approaching the topics covered in the module?

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? Uh, yes.

Would you like to see more modules that cover this kind of subject matter? In America...surree!

Are you planning to take the follow-up module PH2004 ‘It Shouldn't’t Be Allowed’ at level 2? Nope.

Would you recommend ‘Being Bad’ to a friend? A friend coming to Wolverhampton, yes.

Do you think that the blogs (web logs) were a good idea? Yes, their for narcissistic people like myself.

What did you think of the other assessments (e.g. would it be better to have one longer assessment rather than two shorter ones?)? Um. I like the blogs. And yes, I think one longer assessment rather than the two ones.

What have you learned from the module? That those who have power control what is deviant and what is not.

What parts of the module have you found most useful and why? Blogs. I was about to talk about the things I read on a daily basis.

What parts do you think were a waste of time and why? The group discussions.

Are there any other comments you wish to make regarding ‘Being Bad’?
Yes! The talking is a problem. A big problem. For me and for other people. There is a lack of respect in the room and its unacceptable. I have whispered, everyone whispers but ill be damned if people just don't have like serious loud conversations in the sessions. Its like,why come to class. So I think more control over the classroom would be helpful. If people are disrespectful, they should be asked to leave. I paid 4,300 dollars to come here for one semester. I do not want to listen to other people. I would like to listen to people with PhD's (and of course master degrees). Also, I think people should be made to concentrate. Classes are structured differently here so I don't know how it would be done but I just think it would be nice to really hear what people think and listen to some debates.

Tis all.

Comments

This is a comment to Alexandra Tipper on Global Warming:

Very true. I do think that it is just laziness and self-absorption. No one cares about the generations in front of us and no one really cares about the people around us, if they arent in our loved circle. No one wants to rethink their actions and the way that they consume in the world and it is really unfortunate. I hate that people dont "believe" in global warming. Its like not believing in the sun. Its idiotic. No matter what you want to call it we are going through a climate change and it is not a natural thing, it is because we are using up the worlds resources too quickly.

This is a comment on (I lost the page, I dont know who it is. Sorry)'s sexual deviance post:

Wow, that article is ridiculous. People can participate in any sexual activity that they want as long as it is consensual. Meaning, two people gave consent. Animals cant give consent and neither can children and adults under the influence.
I think that just by calling the sexual behavior deviant it is saying something. I am taking a course about sex in 18c London and it talks about the acts that were considered deviant back in the day. Oral sex was one of them. Nowadays tons of people have and give oral sex and talk about it freely. What we consider deviant is pretty much anything that is not the norm and all the norm says is that a lot of people do it. Sexuality is very fluent and a lot of things that people like, fetishes, are natural. Foot fetishes used to be deviant. Now its just a lil awkward. lol. Oh and also, Freud considered women who couldnt orgasm from penetration as deviant. Now, we know that many women are unable to orgasm without direct clitoral stimulation. What is deviant is controlled by the majority.


This is a response to Magdenlena Drewenska's blog on the Bodies Exhibition:

Of course it is moral. If you read more about it it is actually people that donate their bodies. So they have a choice. They have decided how to honor their body. And it is used for scientific purposes as well. I went to the exhibit in London and it was a really geat experience.

Drugs


I want to talk about drugs. First I will give you the link.


I really like the image that I included in today's post because it shows exactly what I will be talking about. Drugs are considered bad but they are a personal choice and the so called "war on drugs" as we call it in America has gotten out of hand.

I am not just talking about psychedelic drugs right now. I wrote about those drugs in my essay. I am talking about all drugs. I think that the article is right. If America legalized drugs there would be a lot less money focused on a problem that really cant be solved. We could use the money for feeding people and health care and other things such as that. Also, if we regulated drugs crime would go down. So much crime is associated with drugs. There would be less gang related violence. We could control who got drugs and who sold drugs.

We saw in prohibition what happens when something is illegal that people want to use. They will use it. And they will get it anyway that they know how. It isn't complicated. And really, if we aren't talking about children, then whats the problem. The problem is that America doesn't want to look like they do things that aren't religious and morally righteous. We try to take the "high road" which I think usually ends up being the "incredibly naive" road. What do we think? If we pant things as bad then people will not do it. As a matter of fact a lot of the times things happen the opposite way. People love to do what is considered bad. But to be honest, while I am typing, do we really need something else to sell in America? Good grief God. Okay, well if I am not talking about it economically I take this particular stance.

Tuesday 5 May 2009

Teenage Pregnancy


This is going to be a quick one. Teenage pregnancy is not a problem. Not in our society. The problem with teenage pregnancy is that it isnt teenage married pregnancy. People have always had pregnancies while they were teenagers back in the day. The thing is that they were married. So what people really have a problem with is teenagers that arent married and are pregnant. And I should say female teenagers because the shame and blame is always placed on the female.
If two teenagers got together at the age of like 16 and were married and then had a child 9 months or later, no one would give a shit. People think that teenage pregnancy is wrong because it is not a nuclear family. It is a single parent family (usually).
But I will say there are some other issues. Like lack of resources. But when a teenagers parents are paying for the grandchild that isnt a problem but its still seen as bad right? I think the bottom line is that more teenagers need to be educated and given resources. Condoms to be exact. Abstinence only programs dont work (bristol palin) and they are a waste of money quite frankly. Holistic approaches? Those are grand. I think that teenagers should be encouraged to abstain while given information about sex and given condoms.

Monday 4 May 2009

Gruesome Photos Online


Okay, so before I start I need to warn you. Hopefully you are not like me. Hopefully, when someone tells you to NOT do something for your own good, you dont do it. Please dont google this girls name to see the picture. It is really sickening. I didnt even click on the full size. I say just the little picture that comes up and I beg of you not to do it. It's sickening. Oh my God.

So I came across this article. It's about a family's fight to keep pictures of their daughters car accident off of the internet. Police people took photos of the accident and somehow they got into the hands of the wrong people. So the pictures are all over the internet.

This is being bad. This is being bad for soooo many reasons. Remember my post on Jade Goody? Well, its like the same thing. How dare people that do not know this girl, put photos of her death all over the internet. Its horrible. And why does this family have to fight for these pictures? Authorities should be arresting the people that put the photos up. Seriously. In the pictures, she is almost decapitated and hanging outside of the window. Its horrible. Damnit, why did I have to look? Thats the other part of this being bad. One of the reasons people put it up is that people are so fascinated with gore and "reality" and blah blah. People just want to see horrible things. Maybe that is what lead me to the damn picture myself. We're so damn nosey. Gosh. And I really do believe that its "being bad." Im sorry. There is nothing really healthy about wanting to know what dead people look like. And some people think that there is NOTHING wrong with it. I just think we live in a culture that loves to look at shit we have no business looking at. Its horrible. And I just wish I wouldnt have looked, so please. Dont look. And what kills me is that the damn article says...please dont go look. Cause I mean, damnit, its just what you want to do after reading the article. But I have warned you enough. Dont.

Anyways. I think that its pitiful that people dont respect this girls family's wishes. She deserves NOT to have pictures of her death up like this. And this quote really disgusts me:

Two weeks later, Lesli's brother, Geoff, got a call from a neighbor. "Have you seen the photos?" he asked. Apparently, photos of the crash scene were circulating around town, via e-mail. Soon they showed up on Web sites, many of them dedicated to hard-core pornography and death. A fake MySpace page was set up in Nikki's name, where she was identified as a "stupid bitch." "That spoiled rich girl deserved it," one commenter wrote. "What a waste of a Porsche," announced another. *From article linked above

And you know what. I remember in high school that me and my friends, like everybody, would go on this website. I wont tell you what it is. But their were pictures of like...dead people. Isnt that awful?! I cant believe I am admitting this. But we were so fascinated. I would look and then run away and pray. Cause 1. I felt guilty, 2. I was uber religious and 3. I still couldnt not look after everyone called me over to do so. Or it would be pictures of like...people who go to the hospital, so like someones finger cut off or something. What in the hell is wrong with people? Why did I always walk over to go look? Its just so weird. Is it natural or is it bad? Well heres another quote about it from the article.

...but it doesn't explain why so many people feel compelled to look. Some are driven by simple curiosity, psychologists say—the same urge that causes passing motorists to gawk at accidents. But online, anonymity allows us to go further, without the fear of public judgment. "It's like having a mask," says John Suler, a cyber-psychologist at Rider University. That mask can cause us to behave in ways we normally wouldn't—fueled by a kind of mob mentality. "The people looking at these photos don't have to face this family, and it disconnects them from the victims they're hurting," says Solove, the author of a book about Web privacy, "The Future of Reputation."

The internet is the best and WORST thing to ever happen. I really think that. And I feel awful that I was compelled to look! I wasnt even done reading the article and I had to go look. I do think its like having to see whats going on when you see commotion or an accident.

Sunday 3 May 2009

Farting in Public

This is gross and yes it is bad. If people need to fart, they should do so in the privacy of their own homes. If they do it out and about, it should be in the wilderness. When people fart in crowded places, it is wrong. It's just disgusting and it makes the air unpleasant for everyday. Dare I say its like smoking. lol.
But I just read this article (I cannot believe I am reading articles about farting) and I think its serious. I mean, I cannot believe that farting is such a taboo in certain parts of the world. For someone to kill themselves over it is horrible. But the article said that some people relate farting to anal sex which is freaking stupid.
I do agree that it is stupid but it shouldn't be made illegal. What if someone has an upset stomach and then they just fart. That's a mistake. But some mistakes are still bad. For instance, killing someone is still bad, even if it is a mistake. So farting is still bad, even if it is a mistake. Difference between murder and farting is that one needs to be illegal. We do need to make sure that it is continually made socially unacceptable. So if you smell a fart and know who dealt it, you have to give them the nastiest look so that we can upkeep order in our society.

Saturday 2 May 2009

Throwing Away Food


This is considered bad, this is bad. I do it. All the time.

I decided to talk about this because I am talking with my housemate Virginie and she has told me that I have changed a lot from when I first came here. Besides not being very friendly. Hehe. I mean, thats not funny. But seriously, I am an American. And some stereotypes are true for some of us. Mine was that I didnt like any food that wasn't American. I threw so much food away. I mean, the first two weeks that I was here, I am sure I could have fed an entire family. I am serious. For days. It was that bad. I went to a restaurant with the girls and I ordered chicken with a baked potato and veggies. I didnt like it. I gave it away. I then ordered a bagel with chicken. Didnt like, I gave it away. Well actually, I threw that away. The first 2 weeks that I was here, I ate McDonalds, Pizza Hut, KFC and Subway. American, American, American, American. Even now, I am still funny about eating food I dont like. But I am told that I have changed so much.


But what I find interesting is that my friends, my European friends, believe that throwing away food is wrong. Well, Brits seem to be a tad like Americans.




Throwing away food is not only wrong because there are so many people that go without that we could try to feed. But also, its bad for the environment (as the article above states) because it causes greenhouse gases. Food just ends up in trash fields. Ack. Stop wasting food. And yes, that includes me. I will eat what I have because eating is not solely for pleasure. As a matter of fact, its only about nourishment so whether it tastes good or not should not really matter. As long as it doesnt make me gag and its edible.