When someone mentions the words “guilty pleasure," it’s very easy to think of what your particular guilty pleasure is. Mine happens to be Broadway and musicals. If you name any semi-well-known musical written in the last 50 years, I bet that I have listened to the soundtrack multiple times and can even sing along to the majority of the songs. When most people ask what my favorite song is, they give me a confused and slightly-contempt look when I say, the Origin of Love from Hedwig and the Angry Inch because, God forbid, it’s from a musical which is not everyone’s cup of tea. Recently, I’ve been wondering why liking something most people don’t enjoy seems to be so bad. Why is it called a “guilty” pleasure?
“Guilt” has such negative connotations. The word, by definition, means having a bad feeling about something you have done, and it suggests feelings of inadequacy. It is strange that this word would pair with a word such as “pleasure”. If you enjoy doing or reading or watching something, that’s all that should matter. Nothing that brings you bliss should feel guilty. In a sweeping declaration, I have decided to ignore the “guilt” part of my so-called “guilty pleasure”, and just experience the “pleasure” part. I’m letting the pleasure flood over me, and casting the guilt aside. There is just far too little time on this Earth and far too many interests we all can take a liking to, to even consider feeling guilty about anything we find satisfaction in.
The world is so large that it’s impossible for everyone to love the same things. The abundance of activities, places, objects, and people a person can develop an interest in causes me to wonder why the interests with popular majority are viewed as superior to others. Let’s look at television shows for example. With cable, you have every channel ranging from HBO to ABC Family. There are so many channels because people’s interests are broad and ever-changing. Obviously, HBO puts out some great stuff, but so does ABC Family. You can’t hate on someone for loving the Fosters or Chasing Life if you don’t hate them for loving Game of Thrones, or vice versa. More importantly, you can’t hold judgment on yourself for liking a show (or anything, for that matter) that most people do not.
It doesn’t make sense right? It doesn’t make sense that you would judge yourself based on what you like. You should feel no guilt for doing something you find enjoyable. You should feel no anxiety over loving something that most people do not. You are a human and you are as complex and diverse as the rest of us are. It’s okay to have a broad range of interests. I for sure am going to keep loving musicals and singing them at the top of my lungs in my car. You can still love eating buckets of chocolate or calling into work “sick” when you’re really not. It’s okay to love Taylor Swift songs just like it’s okay to love Sherlock fan fiction. It’s okay to love the show Dating Naked just like it’s okay to love making non-stop puns. It’s okay to be you! As my friends and I love to say: you do you, boo.
