The limits of individualism and the pursuit of happiness
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Like most children, I had a fair few career aspirations: a tennis player, a teacher, and a princess, to name three examples. Some were realistic, others a bit more far-fetched... Blessed with an excellent education, the opportunity to try my hand at creative and sporting pursuits galore, good food on the table every night, and parents who encouraged me to dream big, the world felt like my oyster. Perhaps naïvely, it never crossed my mind that I’d be excluded from a field of work or deemed unable to make decisions about my finances or health ...
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The new Mean Girls film has hit streaming services. This musical remake of the iconic 2004 original follows Cady Heron, a new girl at a US high school, as she learns the complex rules that govern ‘girl world’. To win in this unruly jungle, you have to wear the right clothes, join the right clique, and, importantly, shun the right people. You must differentiate yourself from others by emphasising all the ways you are better than them. You have to be mean. In the 2004 film, Cady plays along but soon realises that the things she ha...
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‘I believe in God.’ Those words made me sit up and listen when they were uttered by Samantha Morton during her acceptance speech for the BAFTA fellowship award on Sunday night. Morton, who has starred in blockbusters such as Minority Report and Fantastic Beasts, also directed the 2009 movie Unloved, which she said was about ‘faith, hope and forgiveness’. Morton is a committed Catholic. And she’s not the only celebrity who has been willing to share their faith from a public platform. A few years ago, Hollywood act...
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‘He was a gentleman on whom I built an absolute trust.’ These words of wounded disappointment belong to King Duncan in Macbeth, but they could have come from an episode of The Traitors – the hit show about truth, suspicion, and betrayal – which concludes tonight. The premise is simple: 22 contestants, one Highland castle, a series of......
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Valentine’s Day is fast approaching. Whether you find the onslaught of red hearts and pink confetti charming or vomit-inducing, it’s all hard to escape. Our culture is hungry for love. You may be aware that the TV show Love Island is currently running its first all-star series (where ‘big’ names from previous seasons return to......
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