not-so-guilty pleasures

i don’t believe in guilty pleasures. you shouldn’t ever feel guilty for what you love.

if you love neil diamond, then you love him for all his sweet jewish body is worth.

if you secretly love listening to lady gaga (not that i do, but if you did…i wouldn’t see anything wrong with it. but i don’t listen to her. right? what? leave me alone.) then you should listen to lady gaga, dagnabbit.

who invented the idea that you should feel ashamed for something you like, anyway? who decided there was some universal consensus to what’s cool and what’s not, and if you like something outside of that proverbial norm, you should label it a “guilty pleasure” and keep it under wraps?

my favorite musings on the lie that is the guilty pleasure comes from sir klosterman himself. i think he put it best in his thoughts on watching the ashlee simpson show:

“Let’s assume that I was somehow humiliated by the fact that I watched The Ashlee Simpson Show, which is something I did almost every week for two months. I think it’s a fascinating illustration of what’s wrong with young people, how the music industry operates, and how modern celebrities aspire to view themselves. But let’s pretend this wasn’t the case. Let’s say I considered this program a guilty pleasure, and let’s say my desire to watch Ashlee explain how her boyfriend ruined Valentine’s Day was something I needed to apologize for. Wouldn’t this imply that The Ashlee Simpson Show was my conscious alternative to something better? Wouldn’t this suggest that—were I not watching The Ashlee Simpson Show—I would be working on logarithms, or studying the lin- er notes of out-of-print jazz records, or searching for factual errors in The Economist? Because these are not things I do, and I don’t think many of the other 2.9 million people watching Ashlee Simpson every Wednesday do these things, either. We’re not losing the battle against cancer because of Ashlee Simpson. If we weren’t watching her pretend to be sexy, we’d probably just be going to the bar earlier.”
source

sorry. i know it’s long, but it’s funny. and true. what wouldn’t i be listening to while running if not lady gaga? classical music? the most obscure indie buzz band that pitchfork is telling me to like? sometimes you just need a little gaga while working on your fitness, alright? and it’s true. we label things as guilty pleasures because we feel like there’s something “better” we should be doing. but why not just fess up to liking something because you like it?

anyway….all of this is just to say that i hate the term guilty pleasure. and i’m not ashamed to say that yes, i do enjoy the following:

that’s right. ABBA. naked. in foil.

if you say you don’t like beyonce, you’re lying. clearly.

i’ve said it once, and i’ll say it again. m. mcdonald.

best part about unemployment? the tyra show.
other shows in this category: real world, maury, and i didn’t know i was pregnant.

and one of mitch’s guilty delights:

the woodwright’s shop with roy underhill.

what? you think you’re too cool for any of these things? you’re not. nobody is. that’s why guilty pleasures don’t exist.

just sayin’.