Why do people act like admitting you love Love Island is a crime? If you’ve ever hesitated to confess your addiction to Keeping Up with the Kardashians or the fact you’ve watched Shrek more times than you can count, you know exactly what I’m talking about.
For some reason, entertainment choices are now personality tests and it’s exhausting. Why is it that reality television lovers are shallow, superhero movie fans are basic and indie film watchers are pretentious? We need to calm down, it’s just television. Entertainment is supposed to be fun, not a competitive sport! But of course, instead of letting people enjoy things, we have to label them like it’s a game of Guess Who. Sorry! No one ever wins that game, everyone just ends up annoyed.
For example, let’s talk about guilty pleasures, a term that is used often. It’s basically a way of saying ‘I like this but I’m afraid other people will make fun of me for it.’ But why feel guilty? If it makes you happy, then congratulations! You have found the point of entertainment. Watching Twilight for the hundredth time doesn’t make you any less sophisticated than someone dissecting every scene of Little Women. It just means you fancy a vampire-werewolf love triangle more.
When you’re judging people for what they watch it makes you the buzzkill. So what if I still watch Liv and Maddie or any past Disney show? Those shows hit when I was nine and who says they don’t now? It’s not even just kid’s shows anymore, like why am I getting called basic for watching Friends? That show is one I will never stop rewatching.
I will bet the person who made fun of your Hallmark Christmas movie obsession cried during Toy Story 3. The same person rolling their eyes at your Riverdale marathon is probably a dystopia fanatic.
Instead of shaming others for their television preferences, we should celebrate them. Variety is what makes entertainment so great. There is something for everyone, whether a stressful cooking competition or a dramatic animated movie about a bee. Who cares if it lives up to society’s standards? If you enjoy it, that’s all that matters.
So next time you feel judged for watching your “guilty” pleasure show or movie remember life is too short not to enjoy loads of explosions, cheesy romances, and cringe comedies. If someone gives you a hard time, they probably haven’t experienced the joy of watching a Dance Moms fight.