#WoW | Guilty Pleasure
Or is it a petit plaisir as the French say
(PORTUGUÊS) (NEDERLANDS)
Suddenly, I think 15 years ago or so, it was fashionable in the Netherlands to talk about your guilty pleasure, about what you enjoy with a slight sense of guilt. Of course, that notion had also blown over from America, via influencers on socials. Always good for a hilarious conversation between friends or with strangers at receptions in the absence of a common topic because everyone feels guilty about all sorts of things and self-mockery is a virtuous way of putting yourself in perspective by revealing your secret pleasures.
There are many things I don't understand. And this is one such thing.
The #WoW is: guilty pleasure
AI dictionary CHATGPT (2023)
MEANING & DEFINITION
A guilty pleasure is an activity, preference or habit that one considers slightly embarrassing.
For example, this could be a music group one listens to, a television show one loves, a type of food one eats, or an activity one likes but does not openly share with others or is ashamed of.
The term is often used to refer to popular culture that is not considered ‘high-quality’, such as reality TV shows, ‘cheesy’ romantic comedies, or kitschy music from the 1980s and 1990s. People may feel guilty about it because they feel they are compromising their taste or personality by indulging in this activity or preference.
When I rewind the film after a party, dinner, fun night, when all those conversations or the talk in the room along with booze and hilarity come along again some questions always arise. About myself, about why I said or didn't say something. About another, about unconscious or conscious motivations. And about why we laughed so much. Beautiful evenings. Until someone starts talking about their guilty pleasure. That has a different effect on me than on most. It seems. What happens to me is this: someone narrates and then I just feel the drama of someone living with guilt. Because if you have that in a small way, like with a guilty pleasure, then you also have that in a big way. You can't have one without the other.
OK, you read this and say out loud: ‘Liesbeth come on! Don't always think so deeply about things anyway. It's only about a song that someone likes to listen to. After all, it doesn't fit the bill and that can be hilarious. Surely you eat cherry chocolates while being a yoga teacher!’
See, that takes the biscuit. Because why shouldn't someone who teaches body, mind and emotion awareness eat cherry chocolates? Now explain that to me? Who has expectations? Who has everything and everyone pigeonholed? We are living in the twenty-first century and never before have there been so many pigeonholes for everything. All of a sudden, we even have all kinds of people.
I really do understand a little bit how things work in life and what general humour is and yet I find it painful to hear that someone can't just say: I think that's great music. Point. No, it is made suspenseful with furtive smiles, rosy cheeks and downcast eyes. So clever to be so open about yourself and the result is that everyone laughs with you too. Even better, most of them understand and come to the table with their own furtive pleasure. Togetherness is the result.
Perhaps that is what drives people to expose themselves just like that (even in front of strangers): arriving at togetherness that is disappearing in our society even though it is essential for a dignified existence.
To my knowledge, I have no guilty pleasure and I don't feel guilty about that at all. Not even a tiny bit. I talked about it at length with my housemates. They listed everything from watching detective series or eating meat (even the latter apparently falls under that). Maybe it's that others decide for you whether it falls into the category of guilty pleasure? I am going to contemplate on that and believe me, after a long life of hard work (including on myself and ongoing), I hardly have any guilt about major events so there are no more sneaky pleasures either. Delightful. I care little if others disapprove or approve of my behaviour. What does matter to me is working on togetherness, friendship perhaps. I love that and if revealing guilty pleasures helps with that, world peace is another step closer.
By the way, the French speak of a petit plaisir. How beautiful is that! No guilt. Just: pleasure.Â
#WoW means Write on Wednesday. Every Wednesday on X/Twitter, @karinwinters or Irene the @verwondervrouw - participants of the #WoW - invents a word you can write about (blogging, vlogging or plogging). Nothing has to, everything is allowed. You can enter at any time, so feel free to join in.