Bars and clubs – a front line in the war on patriarchy 24 June 2017 Posted by: Michael H Hallett Category: Patriarchy , No Comments It’s 8:30 on a Friday night and I’m seated at the bar of Revoluciòn de Cuba in Milton Keynes’ egregiously titled Theatre District. A mixologist who clearly loves his job […]
Horror films and the shame of sex 18 June 2017 Posted by: Michael H Hallett Category: Arts , Shame , No 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. […]
The end of the real-life Monopoly game 10 June 2017 Posted by: Michael H Hallett Category: Emotional principles , No Comments The kitchen is filling up. It was deserted for a while but they’re drifting in now, in growing numbers, their faces blank with shock or denial. They’re looking for a cup of tea and […]
This magnificent ‘selfie’ generation 8 May 2017 Posted by: Michael H Hallett Category: Anxiety , No Comments I recently saw a Facebook meme that showed four teenage girls taking a selfie. Paraphrasing Winston Churchill’s epic cry during the Battle of Britain in 1940, the caption read: “Never in history has a generation taken so many […]
Westminster attack – the inability to express pain 26 March 2017 Posted by: Michael H Hallett Category: News , Radicalisation , No Comments On the morning of 22 March 2017, 52-year-old Khalid Masood ploughed his car into the crowd along Westminster Bridge before being shot by police near the Houses of Parliament. Four people died […]
Japan – sex fears and ghost towns 15 March 2017 Posted by: Michael H Hallett Category: Sexuality , 3 Comments Figures released by the Statistics Bureau of Japan reveal that the country’s population is declining. The 2010 census returned a figure of 128 million inhabitants. Five years later it fell by a million. Declining population […]
Porn categories reflect historical taboos 5 March 2017 Posted by: Michael H Hallett Category: History , Pornography , 1 Comment WARNING: Contains nude images As you are no doubt aware, PornHub recently released their statistics for 2016. Being very graphic people, they produced a nicely-coloured map of the world showing the top porn categories for […]
Shame-based issues #6 – Radicalisation 3 March 2017 Posted by: Michael H Hallett Category: Radicalisation , Shame , No Comments Radicalisation may seem a strange thing to lump in with shame-based issues, but every single extremist who ever lived has or had an unconscious but profound sense of shame. It is from this shame that […]
Shame-based issues #5 – Honour-based violence 3 March 2017 Posted by: Michael H Hallett Category: Patriarchy , Shame , No Comments While the term ‘honour-based violence’ is often used in the context of the British Asian community, it includes all violence meted out for infidelity or perceived sexual slights, which all communities are prone to. […]
Shame-based issues #4 – Sexual dysfunction 3 March 2017 Posted by: Michael H Hallett Category: Sexuality , Shame , No Comments If there is one area where humanity’s fundamental shame is glaringly obvious, it’s sexual dysfunction. Take a look at the following statistics: 35% of the world’s women have experienced violence or sexual violence 45% […]