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In film, there is no such thing as a “guilty pleasure”

MVW Encyclopedia
4 min readSep 30, 2021

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There is no reason to be ashamed about liking something

“Paris Tuileries Garden Facepalm statue” by Alex E. Proimos is licensed under CC BY 2.0 (via Wikimedia Commons)

According to the highly respected and often quoted contemporary encyclopedia of modern language, the Urban Dictionary, the term “guilty pleasure” refers to:

When you enjoy a type of music or particular program but you are ashamed to admit it when you listen to it/watch it with your friends and family.

A concept as popular as this in today’s culture has transformed the idea of a “guilty pleasure” in a sort of a meme by now. People often chuckle when they compare each other’s “guilty pleasures” and it’s all in good fun. However, in some instances, there is a couple of reasons why the idea of feeling ashamed about liking particular works of art can be somewhat dangerous.

It is no news that we live in a highly polarized society. It has never been easier to genuinely upset someone simply by using your words cleverly and incisively. Mental fragility is at an all time high and one of the spaces where we ironically see its presence is in the conversation about art.

Try the following experiment. Find a popular thread praising any kind of TV show, film or saga on Twitter. Once you find it, you have a simple task: say you don’t like it. You are guaranteed to receive a bigger reprimand than Jesus Christ’s…

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MVW Encyclopedia
MVW Encyclopedia

Written by MVW Encyclopedia

Movies. Video Games. Watches. If you are passionate about any of these, I guarantee I’ll piss you off at least once.

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