The other night, me and three other guys were searching Netflix for something to watch. Someone suggested “Pretty Little Liars,” with a following statement of “I don’t really like it, but it’s okay.”
It was at that moment that four guys all realized we had a mutual obsession with “Pretty Little Liars,” and every single one of us admitted it was our favorite guilty pleasure.
It got me thinking about that term: “guilty pleasure.” We usually use it to describe something that we are embarrassed to admit we really enjoy. I’m going to take this moment now and say that my two favorite guilty pleasures are “Gossip Girl” and Nicki Minaj.
Once you admit such things, you realize you are never alone. One of my guy friend’s favorite moment of television is Chuck and Blair’s wedding from the series finale of “Gossip Girl,” but he will never admit it in public — until he is drunk, when it becomes the only thing he wants to talk about.
I propose that everyone stop being so ashamed of what you like and be bold. Marshall Henderson recently tweeted, “move over Lebron, PRETTY LITTLE LIARS SEASON 4 PREMIERE TONIGHT!!!! #AYEEEE,” along with retweeting its replies. If a star basketball player is willing to admit to something that most guys never would, what reason do you have to hide?
It normally has to do with gender roles: guys are scared to admit they like “Desperate Housewives” or some equally feminine show for fear it makes them less masculine. I didn’t intend to talk about noncomformity to gender roles and what not, but this is one area where people are backwards. Admitting that you listen to Natasha Bedingfield on a regular basis does not make you any more feminine then listening to Three 6 Mafia. If anything, it makes you more masculine for not being embarrassed about trivial things.
Guilty pleasures are not just for men, though. Most girls I know have a wedding board on their Pinterest, regardless of their relationship status.
A female friend of mine, an English major, freaks out when each new Nichlolas Sparks novel is realeased, as well as with every one of the movie adaptations, even though she doesn’t consider the novel literature.
What is even worse than hiding your guilty pleasures, though, is when someone says something is a guilty pleasure when in actuallity it is not. Working out is not a guilty pleasure, eating a gallon of ice cream and crying during your fiftieth rewatch of “The Notebook” is, and you should not be embarrased about that.
I am not ashamed of stating that Britney Spears is still hot and talented. I cried during “Pay It Forward.” I have had Fall Out Boy’s new album on repeat for two weeks. My “guilty pleasures” are now out, but I never had anything to be guilty about. Why can’t we just start to admit what we like without worrying about it?
Although if you like Nickelback you should probably keep that to yourself.
Casey Holliday is a senior English and Journalism major from Horn Lake. Follow him on Twitter @Casey_Holliday.
