Bad Will Hunting – your shame is not your fault 13 December 2018 Posted by: Michael H Hallett Category: Arts , Shame , No Comments “It’s not your fault.” In the Oscar-winning film Good Will Hunting, much-loved actor Robin Williams plays a psychologist who treats an angry, uncommunicative South Boston janitor (played by Matt Damon) […]
Life drawing – the light and shade of shame 3 December 2018 Posted by: Michael H Hallett Category: Arts , Shame , No Comments I recently started life modelling—posing naked for artists to draw the human body. Even in life drawing, as in everywhere in our patriarchy-based society, there is shame. As a keen observer […]
Pointing the finger at God – why are Michelangelo’s willies so small? 30 November 2018 Posted by: Michael H Hallett Category: Arts , History , Patriarchy , 7 Comments I’ve been a little obsessed by penis size lately. I think it’s something to do with having recently begun life modelling with the good folks at […]
Meatloaf’s Bat Out of Hell – a rock opera on patriarchy 29 September 2018 Posted by: Michael H Hallett Category: Arts , Patriarchy , 4 Comments Some years ago I wrote how Pink Floyd’s 1979 epic double album The Wall was a complex 26-song cycle about patriarchy and its institutionalised sexual shame. I don’t know […]
Hostiles – no peace with patriarchy 29 December 2017 Posted by: Michael H Hallett Category: Arts , Patriarchy , No Comments The advertising hoardings of the London Underground are currently filled with posters for a new film, Hostiles. Scheduled for release in January 2018, Hostiles is described as “a landmark cinematic experience” that “might well […]
American Ugliness – the fall of Kevin Spacey 9 November 2017 Posted by: Michael H Hallett Category: Arts , News , Shame , No Comments I don’t have a single favourite film. But there is a bunch of films, indeterminate in number, that rise above the rest. Wonder Boys, Shakespeare in Love, Apocalypse Now, Chinatown, […]
Harvey Weinstein – why men must address their sexual issues 13 October 2017 Posted by: Michael H Hallett Category: Arts , News , Shame , No Comments As I write, social media is ablaze with furore over multiple sexual allegations against movie mogul Harvey Weinstein. Until just a few days ago Weinstein was in a […]
Horror films and the shame of sex 18 June 2017 Posted by: Michael H Hallett Category: Arts , Shame , 2 Comments While most film genres rise and fall in popularity over the decades—we are currently in a mini-age of comic book action films—one genre stands head and shoulders above all others in durability: horror. […]
Aerial silk – legitimising displays of the genitals 4 October 2016 Posted by: Michael H Hallett Category: Arts , Shame , No Comments I recently attended a fun day at a factory celebrating its 100th anniversary. Among the events at the fun day was a small circus featuring a variety of skilled acts. The ringmaster, […]
If war is to end, so must war stories 20 February 2016 Posted by: Michael H Hallett Category: Arts , Patriarchy , No Comments Ca-ching! Multiplex cash registers around the world are still sizzling hot from the record-breaking box office performance of The Force Awakens, episode seven of the long-running Star Wars saga. Star Wars Inside […]