I Don't Believe in Guilty Pleasures

My mom told me the other day that some movie she was watching for the millionth time on TBS was a "guilty pleasure." I really hate that phrase.

I used to go out with a girl who had a lot of books. I gave her a bookcase in that had a cabinet area with a closed door. "I'll put my Stephen King novels in there," she said. "Those are my guilty pleasure, and I don't want to show it off."

I have a friend who is totally gay for Keanu Reeves. Back in the 90s, every time a movie with Keanu Reeves came out, he'd bitch for some time about how stupid the previews looked and how much Keanu Reeves sucked. Then he'd nearly always go and see the movie in the theater. And he'd invariably like it, telling me that the director knew how to play off of Keanu's wooden quality and the fact that the audience expected him to suck. Sometimes he'd buy the videotapes. This friend of mine bought Johnny Mnemonic on video because he couldn't find it in to rent anywhere. Finally, when The Matrix came out, he was giving me the same spiel about how the directors used his bad acting as a plus and I finally figured it out. "You're gay for Keanu Reeves."

"I am?" he said, found out. "I guess he's just my guilty pleasure."

I've never liked the phrase "guilty pleasure." Why should you feel guilty about getting pleasure out of something? Look, I'm not, repeat, not saying this is true of everyone who uses the phrase, but I'm talking about the origin of the phrase "guilty pleasure." It just comes from this snobbish, elitist place that I don't like. The idea that you have to feel guilty if you like Keanu Reeves movies or Stephen King novels or something. Something that you're afraid will reflect badly on you. Because, as I've said before, some people seem to think life is only about proving that you're a little smarter than the next person.

"Guilty pleasure" is an apology. I'm sorry I like something universally considered stupid. I don't want you to believe that I can only read at a sixth grade level and that's why I like Stephen King. It's a way of revealing that you care what other people think about your tastes. And I've never been comfortable with the phrase because of that.

If I really gave a shit what people thought about what I liked, I wouldn't talk to people and I sure as hell wouldn't blog.

Molesting children and buying blood diamonds are guilty pleasures. Liking Stephen King novels is just liking Stephen King novels.