Category: Culture

Unsurprising that this question of yours, Habib le toubib, is attracting a lot of attention from migrants and diasporans. And it would: migrants and diasporans have a personal culture that hybridises their upbringing and their environment, so it will be perceptibly different to that of their local mainstream. It’s a big brushstrokes kind of personal […]

I’m leaving out of my answer the role of mtf transgender performers in the transaction—on which see Do real transsexuals and “shemale porn” have nothing in common?, and the transactionality, on which see Is it wrong of me to enjoy “shemale” porn? I know it’s degrading and fetishizing, but what can I do about the […]

I resisted watching this. I did not want to watch a show about how the terrorists are out to get us, and the president is some Action Man, and “Kaboom Kablooey Ergo No Habeas Corpus”. In other words, I have made a point of never seeing 24, and I did not want to watch 24 […]

The Founder (film) – Wikipedia—The Founder (Rotten Tomatoes)—The Founder (2016) (IMDB) Just seen. Biopic about Ray Kroc and Richard and Maurice McDonald. Good, well crafted film, I thought. Amazing and subtle performance by Michael Keaton. Susceptible to the cliches and annoyances in plotting of a biopic, including the mandatory flashback setpieces (though the setpiece here […]

Really does depend on the church, and on your predilections. You have had some great suggestions here, including: Pay attention (so you actually know what you’re rejecting—and I’ll add, so you can still get a valuable cultural grounding); meditate; read stuff. I’m grateful I was forced to go, but I got bored a lot too. […]

Dansby Parker is almost there with his answer. As with many cultural differences, this one comes down to Politeness theory. In many cultures, like India and Greece, good social behaviour involves breaking down the boundaries between people you like, such as friends. Sharing a table involves that, and sharing food at the table makes that […]

A2A Pegah Esmaili Pegah, canım, you don’t expect an ordinary answer from me, do you? Like Cleopatra (meh, inbred Greek), or Catherine the Great (she’d fricking squash me) or Joan of Arc (back away from the crazy)? Good. Because you’re not going to get one. In the modern cornucopia of female objectification, do straight men […]

First, as my friend Sam Murray puts it (God, I’m sounding like Michael Masiello now), it was ever thus, and only attitudes to cheating have changed, by both place and time. Never mind the Ancient Greeks and Paris shtupping Helen (which was much more about Bronze Age views of host–guest relations than either Menelaus or […]

Sicut alicubi dixit medicus bonus Habibus Magnus: Confiteor. [As the good doctor Habib the Great has put it elsewhere: “I Confess”] [Hey, it’s not my fault Habib chose to quote the Catholic Mass in Latin.] You know, Habib le toubib, I’ve been expecting a question like this for maybe a month or two. Since I […]