“Pleased to meet you, don’t you know my name?” It’s the right to victimize 14 May 2019 Posted by: Michael H Hallett Category: Arts , History , Patriarchy , No Comments The opening song of the Rolling Stones’ 1968 album Beggars Banquet kicks off with a screech and an insistent, hypnotic beat. “Please allow me […]
Lap-dancing clubs don’t sell sex, they sell a boundary 3 May 2019 Posted by: Michael H Hallett Category: Patriarchy , Sexuality , No Comments It’s a common misconception that lap-dancing clubs, or gentlemen’s clubs, as they are otherwise (and somewhat euphemistically) known, sell sex*. What they actually sell is an invisible boundary between fake sex […]
Patriarchy destroys our capacity to trust 29 April 2019 Posted by: Michael H Hallett Category: Mother wound , Patriarchy , No Comments In Saharasia, geographer James DeMeo demonstrates that patriarchy arose between 6000 and 2000 BC when desertification of the Sahara, Arabia and Central Asia created competition for food sources between previously peaceful hunter-gatherer and […]
Unconscious shame is rooted in our survival fears 27 April 2019 Posted by: Michael H Hallett Category: Anxiety , Shame , No Comments I have written extensively on this site about unconscious shame in general and sexual shame in particular. In my Are YOU ashamed? toolkit I’ve listed some of the common effects of shame—such […]
Patriarchy at the root of environmental destruction 22 April 2019 Posted by: Michael H Hallett Category: Mother wound , Patriarchy , No Comments I recently attended a grass roots environmental meeting at which an older lady, a staunch activist, spelled out various things we should be doing to protect the environment. A young man, owner […]
4 Tips for healing generational shame 7 April 2019 Posted by: Michael H Hallett Category: Generational trauma , How-to & step-by-step , Shame , No Comments NOTE: When I began writing about inherited issues, I used the term ‘generational shame’ as I clearly perceived the unconscious shame associated with them. What I didn’t see so […]
Porn – the myth of ‘real isn’t enough’ 21 March 2019 Posted by: Michael H Hallett Category: Pornography , No Comments I was at a networking event recently and when I told a young lady that I was tackling porn addiction, she literally exploded: “I could refer a few ex-boyfriends to you. That whole ‘real […]
The sexual energy quadrant – creativity, passion, playfulness and confidence 15 March 2019 Posted by: Michael H Hallett Category: Anxiety , Sexuality , No Comments We tend to think of sex as a component of our love lives, and that’s it. When we have a romantic partner, we have sex with them. Period. We don’t […]
There is a you-shaped space in the jigsaw puzzle of the world 5 March 2019 Posted by: Michael H Hallett Category: Anxiety , No Comments Sometimes, we all need to hear this: there is a you-shaped space in the jigsaw puzzle of the world. Your uniqueness is valued. You are enough. Jigsaw I write this […]
Shame is the lock that keeps patriarchy in place 22 February 2019 Posted by: Michael H Hallett Category: Patriarchy , Shame , No Comments I have written a lot about shame, and I have written a lot about patriarchy. But never before have I articulated the connection between them so clearly. Shame is the lock […]