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 […]
Meatloaf’s Bat Out of Hell – a rock opera on patriarchy 29 September 2018 Posted by: Michael H Hallett Category: Arts , Patriarchy , No 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 , 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. […]
Aerial silk – legitimising displays of the genitals 4 October 2016 Posted by: Michael H Hallett Category: Patriarchy , 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, an Australian […]
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 […]
Paris, paint and prostitutes 24 September 2015 Posted by: Michael H Hallett Category: Arts , History , Sexuality , No Comments In the second half of the 19th century Paris saw the confluence of two major streams of change. The first was to the French capital itself. The cramped old arrondissements were demolished to make way for Baron […]
Point Blank – Springsteen and the shadow of shame 5 March 2015 Posted by: Michael H Hallett Category: Arts , Shame , No Comments As the 1960s gave way to the 1970s, hopes of a freer and more egalitarian society arising from the flower power revolution and the Summer of Love gave way to disillusion […]