Guilty Pleasures

Guilty pleasures – there’s a term you often hear these days. It’s become quite fashionable for celebrities and the like to tell us mere mortals about their ‘guilty pleasures’. When I first encountered this phenomena I got quite excited – I had visions of Konnie Huq revealing all about her crack cocaine habit, Kate Winslet admitting that she regularly gargles with her own urine, or Keith Harris telling the readers of TV Quick about his extensive collection of animal porn. But sadly no – all I got was various Z-listers admitting to enjoying watching Adam Sandler films, or eating cucumbers dipped in vinegar, (now, if they were masturbating with the cucumber whilst watching Adam Sandler films, that might be considered something they should feel guilty about). Before going any further I should point out, for purely legal reasons, that, to the best of my knowledge, none of the aforementioned celebrities do crack cocaine (or any other drugs), own animal pornography or drink their own (or anyone else’s) urine. My problem with the way the term ‘guilty pleasures’ is commonly used in the media is that it trivialises the concept of guilt. If you feel guilty about enjoying something, it rather implies that something about the activity is shameful, or would be considered unacceptable, perhaps even illegal, by society at large.

Now, whilst listening to, say, Kajagoogoo or Wham, might mark you down as certifiably insane, it isn’t actually socially unacceptable or illegal. It isn’t something that anyone should really feel ashamed about, let alone guilty. Whilst their music might be criminal. Listening to those groups does not constitute a criminal act. What I would brand a truly guilty pleasure would be the thrill a paedophile gets from looking at child pornography, or the kick that CIA interrogators might get from torturing alleged terror suspects. Both are activities which anyone should feel guilty about as, in the eyes of any reasonable person, they are completely unacceptable and fundamentally wrong. Ironically, of course, the sort of people who do take pleasure from such activities are unlikely to actually feel guilty about them, as they don’t consider them wrong. It would be interesting to know what they’d consider to be their guilty pleasures. Voting for UKIP, perhaps? Guilt should be a big deal, but when you apply it to simply liking an unpopular film or group, it dilutes the whole concept. Is it any wonder that people who regularly commit anti-social behaviour, break the speed limit, drive recklessly or abuse their wives increasingly seem unrepentant about it? These are only ‘minor offences’, no worse than enjoying Jim Davison, apparently. So, next time you describe the 1976 remake of King Kong as a ‘guilty pleasure’, just stop and think – by doing so you are legitimising shop lifting! Reserve ‘guilt’ for crimes, not bad taste!