I don't spend a lot of time conversing with people. I'm pretty much the only person I know who would rather give a talk in front of a crowd of strangers than have one casual conversation with an acquaintance on a comfy sofa. The sofa is just out of my element. I'd be uncomfortable, and when I'm uncomfortable, I make sure that YOU'RE uncomfortable, too. Usually by talking about some crazy Japanese cartoon I just watched or counting out loud the hairs on the back of my hand or resting my chin on your shoulder and sniffing really loudly. So, yeah, I just stay away from casual conversation.
HOWEVER, in my imagined conversations with the friends I'd probably make some day if I could bring myself to talk to someone I haven't already known for ages, I get asked the question, "What is your guilty pleasure movie?" And I always take great pride in answering, "I don't have one." Which, of course, I say out loud, to myself, as I'm brushing my teeth preparing for bed, because that's when these hallucinatory encounters tend to take place.
When I think of the term "guilty pleasure," I usually think of "shame," and shame is an emotion that I just can't get behind. In general, I've really started to dig emotions in the relatively brief period of time I've started experiencing them. I even dig some of the "bad" emotions, like sadness, when I'm feeling particularly bohemian. But, man, I just can't get behind the emotion of shame. I think of shame like a terrible taste - it's your bodies way of slapping that moldy sock out of your mouth and shouting "Stop that!"
So my question is this: If you genuinely enjoy something, WHY on earth would you compare it to a moldy sock?
Near as I can figure, there are two reasons to have a guilty response to the things that you like:
EITHER
Your "guilty pleasure" is something that society tells you you shouldn't like (for example, you marathon Hugh Grant rom-coms, even though critics and feminists and everyone else call them unrealistic).
OR
You like something that's really, genuinely bad for your physical or emotional well-being (maybe you eat the whole large tub of butterproduct-saturated popcorn at the movie theater).
Okay, I guess there's technically a third option, where you indulge in something that you know is bad "ironically," but that's really just the first option rephrased in a more pretentious manner, and you really should stop being such a GIT, man!
So this is my opinion: if your guilty pleasure falls into the first category, STOP FEELING ASHAMED. Seriously, just celebrate it! People are more accepting of diversity now than ever before. States are legalizing marriages for same-sex couples, "bronies" are a thing, and there's even a gender-neutral Easy Bake Oven. If someone else is telling you not to enjoy something that genuinely makes you happy, then they're the ones with the issue, not you. Frankly, we're all adults now (whatever the cuss that means). There's no popularity contest to win, so there's no cause to feel shame over something that brings you joy, even if other people find it odd.
BUT, if you're indulging in something that's causing feelings of shame because it's genuinely bad for you, then... STOP DOING IT. Quit smoking. Put the lid back on that tub of cookie-dough ice cream. Turn off Jersey Shore. Your mind is trying to save you from killing yourself/deadening the keen intellect you were born with. You should listen to your mind. It's probably a little smarter than you give it credit for.
Yeah, that's right. I just told you that you're enjoying things wrong.
I don't generally admit to guilty pleasures, then, because I don't think I should feel ashamed of anything I genuinely enjoy. The only time I ever really fall into the "guilty pleasure" thing is when I'm not sure what my reaction to a particular stimulus is. For example, I've been watching this really crazy anime called Spice and Wolf which is about this travelling merchant in some ancient European analogue world who teams up with this ancient wolf demigod thingy. I love the depiction of medieval economics and the great banter between the two lead characters, but I get conflicted because the wolf character is often portrayed as a completely nude woman with dog ears and a tail. So it's this show that's got some really strong points to it, and the naked woman's not even that provocative. I mean, she falls somewhere between "disrobed Barbie doll" and "Lady Godiva" on the Virgin-Whore scale of titillation, so it doesn't really make me feel skeezy that way, but then there's the fact that she's actually supposed to be a naked adolescent girl, and that just makes the whole thing even more unsavory. BUT, then again, it is anime, where everyone looks the same age no matter how old they actually are, and...
See? This is why I stay the heck out of casual conversation.
*snnnnnnnnnnnnnnnfffffffffffffff*
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