Guilty pleasures and I get along so well. Whether it be the sappy love ballad by Shania Twain or that double-stuffed oreo cookie dipped into milk. We get along. Here, though, is what grinds my gears about guilty pleasures...
Why do they have to be considered guilty? Why do I have to pretend to be ashamed(a-sham-ed) of sappy love ballads by Shania Twain, The Carpenters, Celine Dion, and Bryan Adams?
What's so bad about wanting to spend a day in bed reading a romance novel instead of a "literary classic" or a "Oprah recommended" novel? Although, as far as the whole Oprah thing goes, I feel that she actually places a stigma on really great novels. I appreciate what she has done for the literacy rates of the world, but come on, does she really have to put a STICKER on the cover? Whatever, Oprah. Whatever.
My pondering has lead to this main question: what defines a "guilty pleasure"? They're different for everyone, let's say that beefy Harley Davidson Motorcycle-riding man won't necessarily admit to enjoying knitting, but why are there certain things which all society views as a taboo thing to like? What do you consider a guilty pleasure and what can we do to erase the awkwardness associated with them? Or, are guilty pleasures actually serving a purpose? Do they maintain a level of privacy that is needed in our secret-less society? Are guilty pleasures providing innocence that we cannot otherwise have? I'm not sure. I just know that I want to be able to listen to my music, read my books, and eat my oreo cookies without being laughed at. Is that too much to ask?!
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Guilty Pleasures
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3 comments:
And here's another question I have - why are some things guilty pleasures for some people, but not for others? My loves of grandmotherly hobbies, Anne of Green Gables, Little House on the Prairie are ALL things that other people (most likely rightfully so) would label as a guilty pleasure, but for me, I wear my love of them loudly and proudly on my sleeve - no guilt associated with these things at all.
One of my guilty pleasures is (besides the obvious romance novel and love of The Carpenters) eating some Ben and Jerry's or having a mug of hot chocolate while I sit on the couch and watch a movie all by myself. It HAS to be all by myself for it to really be categorized as a true "guilty pleasure". I guess for me that is a guilty pleasure because I feel like I could be spending that time productively - working on projects or doing something to better myself . Also, I think it feels like a guilty pleasure because I feel like I shouldn't spend as much time alone as I do.
But seriously - WHY do I feel this way? It sounds like the parts of me that are conforming to "the man", as we could call it, are rebelling against the parts of me that are just intrinsically me. Maybe that's what guilty pleasures are.
For me though, I feel like guilty pleasures are absolutely necessary to existence. If we didnt have something special to do for our "me" time, how could we rejuvinate? Maybe that's why it's actually a good thing to have guilty pleasures. The guilt just symbolizes that you're doing something for the SOLE PURPOSE of pleasing yourself, and I guess that somewhere along the way humans became wired to think that something that self-indulgent is selfish and, well, self-indulgent.
I feel like a lot of peoples guilty pleasures involve food (since America especially has such a stigma against weight), media that is deemed "insignificant" (like romance novels, or movies and music that society says is "cheesy"), or doing something that you deem to be selfish somehow.
Guilty pleasures are a very interesting subject indeed.
Post, I applaud you. This is an interesting topic, indeed. And I think that it is best served up in the blog because I think we're all about shameless dilettantism and self-indulgence. We have our interests and our pride and yet no malice toward the 'cheesy' as would the intelligentsia, nor the arrogant dismissal of high culture like the hopelessly approval-dependent 'peers' around us. We are independently gathered, and heaven knows I'll no more scoff at your snack choices, than you will reprimand my frequent desire to go to the movies alone. I hereby declare this a guilt-free zone. Hoorah!
If any of you out there seek solace know this:
"Give me your nerds, your geeks,
Your bibliophiles yearning to breathe free,
The awkward of your teeming shore,
Send these, the shameless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp, and open the salon door!"
Aw, our salon is a "Safe Place" like the Chick-Fil-A off 29 (That has always confused me by the way - what do they mean?). I love the salon!
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