Sex in patriarchy – how the past shapes sex today 15 December 2018 Posted by: Michael H Hallett Category: Cornerstones , Patriarchy , Sexuality , No Comments In A brief history of shame, I wrote how patriarchy arose some 6,000 years ago, giving rise to male dominant, anti-female, anti-sexual societies. Here I’m going to examine […]
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) […]
Porn is a gauge of our sexual health 6 December 2018 Posted by: Michael H Hallett Category: Pornography , No Comments A lady friend recently recounted to me that she had been sitting on a train next to a man who was openly watching porn on his mobile. My friend felt very uncomfortable and found […]
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 , No 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 […]
Does sexual shame affect penis size? 19 November 2018 Posted by: Michael H Hallett Category: Shame , No Comments I’ve written extensively on this site how sexual shame unconsciously affects the entire spectrum of human sexual behaviour, both psychologically and in the bedroom arts. But let’s go one step further. Could it even affect that […]
Do you listen to hear or listen to respond? 18 November 2018 Posted by: Michael H Hallett Category: Emotional principles , How-to & step-by-step , No Comments Listening. Like breathing, it’s one of those things that we tend to take for granted—in other words, to assume that we do it well. I recently wrote the […]
The birds, the bees, and the fear of sex 8 November 2018 Posted by: Michael H Hallett Category: Sexuality , No Comments I can still vividly remember the place where my father took me aside, some time in 1976, for the obligatory ‘birds and bees’ talk that all teenagers faced back then. It was a […]
Hessa – my first experience of porn 6 November 2018 Posted by: Michael H Hallett Category: Pornography , No Comments I can see the place now, the place I had my first experience of porn. A terraced hillside in southern Switzerland, right down in the Italian-speaking canton of Ticino. The hillside once grew grapes, which […]
How to develop your ‘inner observer’ 28 October 2018 Posted by: Michael H Hallett Category: How-to & step-by-step , No Comments By definition, unconscious shame is invisible. The first step towards releasing it is developing the capacity to observe it—awakening our inner Observer, sometimes also known as our inner Witness. What, or who, is our […]