after a decidedly low-key friday night-in with my flatmates, pyjamas, cadbury's giant buttons and newly-discovered favourite junk tv, popstar to operastar, i'm left wondering what exactly makes trash so enjoyable?when it comes to tv, food, music, clothes, magazines and movies, you can't beat a bit of junk every once in a while. heck in the last week alone i've found myself going nuts for jedward ft. vanilla ice at the national tv awards, dancing like a wally to peter andre in a bowling alley and thoroughly enjoying watching a one hit wonder fake a nightmare on the ironically-titled celebrity big brother. hardly life-changing or enriching in any way, right?
but yet still so fulfilling. and so in my quest for understanding, i turn of course to the ever-faithful fountain of knowledge that is wikipedia (well, it got me through my degree just fine), which defines a guilty pleasure as:
"something one considers pleasurable despite feeling guilt for enjoying it. often, the "guilt" involved is simply fear of others discovering one's lowbrow or otherwise embarrassing tastes, rather than actual moral guilt. fashion, music, and food (especially unhealthier foods high in sugar and/or fat) can be examples of guilty pleasures."
very interesting wiki, but i'm not quite sure you've quite cracked this one. personally i think we've moved on slightly from this and in fact rather than a fear of 'others discovering' what we're really into, the guilt stems from an internal awareness and self-imposed pressure to learn and enhance ourselves, continuously.
i'll happily tell the world i love the saccharine nonsense that is mtv's hit series the hills (all six seasons of it). is it lowbrow? sure. am i embarrassed for liking it? no. yet i will describe it as a guilty pleasure because i know it's not good for me. in the same way that by eating half a family pack of maltesers i know i'm not going to get any fitter, the hills won't improve me in any way shape or form. it is pure, unadulterated sugar and it's enjoyment is both instant and soluble. which is, every now and then, just what i'm after.
