A closet full of skeletons and guilty pleasures

For me, personally, one of life's under appreciated phenomena is the scandalous feeling of indulging in a guilty pleasure. For example, locking yourself in a room, making sure no other soul will hear the blasphemy you are about to commit, and then eventually blasting “Teenage Dream” by Katy Perry on full volume, singing along to your heart's content, but still shrouded in the paranoia that someone will find out your deep dark secret.

It's a roller-coaster of an experience with multiple layers of emotions, starting from denial to pure ecstasy to shame. We often feel like we're committing a sin if we enjoy something that the majority of the public will make fun of, whether that's eating fries with ice cream or genuinely enjoying the act of watching Keeping Up with The Kardashians for six hours straight. But what makes us so ashamed of accepting our little guilty pleasures and telling other people about them?

A guilty pleasure, by definition, is something that brings happiness to the consumer but is not held in high regard by everyone else; it's something that will give you short-term pleasure with long-term negative effects. The negative effects in question being the judgement you'll receive from friends, family, and even strangers alike. Human beings are opinionated creatures, which naturally entails that very few people will fully embrace the things that you like. This results in hiding the things that you wholeheartedly enjoy in order to fit into the persona that people expect you to have.

“So why do people even do things that will make them feel guilty?” I ask as I eat popcorn chicken smothered in cheese and garlic powder. Studies have shown that guilt adds another level to the joy you feel from doing something, rather than curbing it. It makes the enjoyment much more potent to know that you're not supposed to be doing it. It could be the illusion of rebellion by going against the strict code you have implemented for your own personal taste.

In this generation, everyone has their own personal guideline of what they like, ranging from art to movies to food preferences. And to go against those guidelines can be highly enjoyable. With that in mind, I've grown to stop antagonising my love of B-grade movies while still appreciating the highly acclaimed ones, knowing that it won't ultimately derail my taste in things.

Ultimately, we all partake in activities that we're not necessarily proud of, some of which are innocent or some that dive into possibly murkier waters. Fully accepting them may not be on the cards for now, but is that really the point? If anything, the guilt aspect will just add more spice to the experience, so it may be best to not tarnish that. Just live your life normally with sprinkles of weird likes and dislikes, as long as it's not hurting anybody or yourself.

You can fully let the beast out on “Treat Yourself Day” if you want the unique experience of doing something that's subjectively bad for you without receiving the narrow-eyed judgement.