Question about guilty pleasures

Several of you listed tabloids and reality shows as guilty pleasures. Listing them as guilty pleasures suggests that you think there is something wrong with enjoying them. Am I correct? If so, what do you think is wrong? Is it embarrassing? Naughty? Not the way you want to think about yourself? Why do I want to know? Playing nosy anthropologist here.

Chris

I'll play.

When it comes to my tabloid mags, I'm pretty much addicted. I know which store puts them on the stands first and I'm there that day right after work! Plus, I probably spend close to $100 a month on them. YIKES I quit getting subscriptions for them because I couldn't keep track and I was forever getting renewals on them (8 months in advance of the expiration. Hate the marketing ploys). Plus, if they were late coming in the mail it would drive me insane to see it on the stands first.

Plus, there's a little niggle in the back of mind that they are "low rent". I guess from all the teasing I've gotten about them over the years. But, it never fails, after teasing me about them, I will find them in hubby's bathroom.

I had one employee, who after she found out about my addiction, exclaimed "But, you have a Masters' Degree!". Um, yeah, but I still like my junk food for the brain. My partner at work razzes me all the time, but then asks me to bring them in when I'm done with them. Makes me feel a little better to recycle them.

It's mindless drivel, but I love it. But, I draw the line at "The Sun" and "The National Examiner". I have my standards. LOLOLOLOLOL.

As for reality TV, I guess I feel my time would be better spent educating myself with documentaries or reading non-fiction. Or maybe doing some housework now and then?

Charlotte

I don't know what sociologists and psychologists think about tabloids and reality shows. And more interesting to me, why folks seem guilty about enjoying them. I intentionally didn't research what the pros think. I want to know what you folks think. Charlotte, what you said is quite enlightening. Thanks.

Chris

I remember a Will & Grace episode where they were trying to analyze a neighbor by the magazines he read. I wonder what poeple would think about me? I read my tabloids plus

Glamour
Cosmopolitan
Vanity Fair
Newsweek
and occasionally Sports Illustrated

Um, a over-sexed, gossip monger? Will & Grace were stumpled by the Vanity Fair, too.

And, I am embarrassed by my tabloids. If I see someone I know when I have my handful of rags I duck into a different aisle til they checkout! Or, put the People or Newsweek on top.

Charlotte

Chris, I'll try to explain it as best as I can (English is not my first language) and I hope that I will not offend anyone.

I think that the "wrong" in watching a reality show is due to 2 main reasons:

1) In the moment you need to know more and more about private and intimate details of strangers, you become a sort of morbid voyeur. Probably, 99% of the people who follow reality shows are not real voyeurs, they'd never risk to committ a crime, but in the moment something private, intimate, morbid, gossip-oriented is openly and legally broadcast on a TV, it all becomes "normal" and risk free.
I still find it morbid to passively live others' lives, but this is my personal point of view. Maybe I am the weird one because I find it boring to watch two people who flirt and want to know absolutely how it continues or because I don't find anything interesting in following a 2-day argument on two guys who have to share a shower and cannot find an agreement on which soap can be used or not...

2) The authors of the shows, normally, tend to increase the level of ignorance and stupidity. Probably they need to attract a large audience, from the educated ones who feel "better" to see how others are stupid to real ignorant fellows who instead feel that there's space also for them in the show business. What worries me is that ignorance and superficiality are becoming an exemple for younger generations.

Bye

Ivy,

Not offended at all! It is rather like slowing down to look at a car wreck.

Charlotte

Thanks Ivy. You make some good points. Personally I have no interest in tabloids or reality shows but I know they have wide appeal. To each her or his own. I am not judging. I am just trying to understand both the appeal and the guilt for enjoying the shows. I have interests than many people find boring or unfathomable. "Why would she like that?"

What we have in common here on Ronda's is trying to understand and treat the migraine monster. Otherwise we're a diverse group in many ways.

Chris

Your point about voyuerism is the main reason these things are considered "guilty pleasures," I think.

But there are all kinds of reality tv, not just the ones that allow a view into people's lives - i.e., the "2 guys in the shower arguing over what kind of soap to use." There are a lot of reality shows of that nature, for sure: MTV's Real World, Big Brother, Real Housewives of Orange County, Keeping Up With the Karadashians, etc. etc. Even so-called "wholesome" shows on TLC like "19 Kids and Counting" and "The Little Couple" are still just glorified voyeuristic reality shows.

Then there are the game show-type reality shows: Survivor, Amazing Race, Top Chef, etc. Some involve a great deal of of skill - Top Chef, Project Runway - some don't. More and more cleverly blend skill with the drama of day to day living: Big Brother (which is heavier on drama), Survivor, the Appentice, the Bachelor (which are heavier on the skill of the social game).

I think the reason people feel guilty about watching these shows, particularly the ones that are pure voyeurism (Real World, Real Housewives, Kardashians) is because they are nothing but drama. So you have to admit that you watch them solely for the drama, which is basically admitting you're a voyeur. Who wants to admit that? It's like admitting you have no life.

Personally, I watch the game show-type reality shows: Survivor, Amazing Race, Top Chef, Project Runway, Big Brother, Biggest Loser. The last two are pushing the envelope a bit into trashy, I have to admit. I won't watch the shows I think cross the "trashy line" though. There are a few shows I don't think have any redeeming qualities. But I think everyone has a right to watch what they want.

I admit to reading the tabloid headlines when I'm in line at the supermarket. I don't buy the tabloids, but I always read the headlines. I personally don't put alot of faith in yellow journalism - I think they make alot of stuff up to sell papers. Otherwise, I'd be right there buying them too I love celebrity gossip too. It's harmless. I think people feel guilty about it the same way they do about reality tv. It's ingrained in us that we shouldn't like to read trash. Then again, I think it's the print media's responsibility to not print trash, so they've fallen down on the job there, in my opinion.

Anyway, that's my two cents'.

Pfst talk about trashy..I love to watch For the love of Ray J, Celebrity Rehab, and Tila Tequila (when it was on) LOL

Or TMZ, Wendy Williams, or Sex Rehab with Dr. Drew.

Got to fess up to watching "Real World/Road Rules" on MTV. I don't watch The Real World itself, but when they move to the Survivor-esque "RWRR" challenges, which are like watching Survivor with the challenges and people going home who lose or get voted off, and a big money prize at the end, and still with the soap opera drama of the Real World, I am hooked!
I didn't put that down in my earlier guilty pleasure list.

I'm not a reality TV watcher myself but I don't have a problem with whatever anybody wants to watch on TV because no matter what you watch, isn't TV a diversion from real life anyway?. What I don't understand is who would actually want to be a participant in reality TV? Maybe I happen to like my privacy. As for tabloids, I don't read them (maybe the cover at the checkout counter), but who cares if that is what you want to read. When you get right down to it, most of what you read is skewed anyway but maybe at a lesser level, including Newsweek. What is written is what people will read, not necessarily all fact. So -- whatever makes you happy.