4 thoughts on “What Is Your Guilty Pleasure?”

  1. I’ve never liked the phrase “guilty pleasure”. To me, it suggests that there are things we like and enjoy that we should be ashamed of.

    That doesn’t seem right to me. You like something or you don’t. There aren’t things you “should” like and things you “shouldn’t” like.

    But I understand the overall point of the phrase. Sometimes you like things that aren’t good for you — like fatty foods, for instance. It’s pretty easy to list the negative health impacts from a diet with too many of these items.

    The picture gets murkier with other cultural items, however. Are there books that are demonstrably bad for you and your health? Is there music you can listen to that somehow makes you a worse person? Is there any evidence that certain TV shows — reality TV, perhaps? — rot your brain? I don’t think there is.

    When I was young, comic books had the stigma of being bad for you, and you weren’t really doing “reading” until you graduated to more “adult” literature. But I’ve been a lifetime reader and lover of comic books and associated collections, and I certainly don’t feel that my brain has been ruined in any way.

    With the growing acceptance of comic book characters, through movies, TV shows, and their own version of “adult” works, public opinion has shifted away from this somewhat. Although I strongly suspect there are plenty of parents trying to wean their kids off of “childish” stuff they read.

    Long story short: comic books are my answer for guilty pleasure. Although I don’t feel guilty about it at all.

  2. Certain bands that were not part of my Music B.A. – Guns ‘n’ Roses, Alice Cooper, Nine Inch Nails. Sometimes, they’re just the perfect fit.

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