Fetishisation

Get our free weekly email for all the latest cinematic news from our film critic Clarisse LoughreyGet our The Life Cinematic email for freeIt’s that time of year again: Keanu Reeves has a new film out. Cue the stampede. Every time the widely beloved 58-year-old actor hits the press trail for a new project, he is greeted with the same heady flurry of sexually charged hero worship. This week alone has seen the John Wick star endure an impromptu marriage proposal from a fan, and field questions about being the “internet’s…

Frida Kahlo with a disinterested expression holds a scissor, her braid and locks of hair scattered around. Added to the Self-portrait with Cropped Hair are the words of a Mexican song: “Look, if I loved you it was because of your hair. Now that you are without hair, I don’t love you anymore.” Critics of the time had said that it was an assertion of her identity after her divorce. I have been thinking about the painting because young Iranian women who are taking off the hijab are being sent flowers with notes that read,…