Guilty pleasure – you have the right to pleasure!

Imagine the following situation: you come home after a hard day at work or at school, feeling tired and frustrated. A healthy, nutritious dinner that you prepared three days ago is waiting for you. Instead of a vegetable salad, you would rather eat something else – it could be a slice of pizza, fries, a burger or a cake. You struggle with your thoughts, but in the end you decide to abandon the dinner you prepared earlier and order a pizza. The doorbell rings, the aroma of fragrant cake and the first bite that… does not give you any pleasure. It seems to you that you have failed, because after all, this week you were not supposed to order anything and focus on more thoughtful food choices. In the end, you feel even worse.

The vicious circle of guilt

The above situation has certainly happened to each of us at least once. Roeline Kuijer and Jessica Boyce from the University of Canterbury in New Zealand conducted a study on unhealthy eating habits. It turned out that participants who associated chocolate cake with a sense of guilt showed significantly less self-confidence than those who treated eating chocolate cake as a moment of celebration. This translated into the everyday lives of the study participants - those who thought of chocolate cake and felt guilty had trouble losing weight and were unable to enjoy small victories, and also returned to old eating habits more quickly.

Although the study above focused on food and eating habits, the process behind so-called shameful pleasures is identical every time. Something that is supposed to give us pleasure ends up making us feel guilty.

What is a guilty pleasure ?

According to Sami Schalk , a professor at the University of Wisconsin in the Department of Gender & Women's Studies, guilty pleasures are activities or choices that we like but shouldn't like. Why? Because they are against the social canon and can affect our image in a way that is contrary to our idea. Examples of such behaviors include eating unhealthy food, reading "junk" magazines or books considered "mind-numbing" (for example, romance novels), or sexual practices that are still taboo.

Schalk also draws attention to a very important thing, namely: the cultural construction of so-called shameful pleasures. They are not universal for everyone, but rather conditioned by specific social groups. As an example, Schalk cites watching the NBA Finals and watching the series The Bachelor . He points out that in the first case we are less inclined to question the point of watching the NBA or suggest that this type of entertainment is "stupid" or "worthless". In relation to The Bachelor , however, such conclusions come much more easily.

Guilty pleasure as a pretext

As the term guilty pleasure has become more popular , it has come to function as a convenient argument or justification that allows us to indulge in pleasurable activities without remorse. Is that really the case? As long as we feel the need to justify rest or activities that do not bring specific results in the form of productivity, we will not break free from the vicious cycle of guilty pleasure .

You have the right to pleasure!

The words "pleasure" and "shame" should not be next to each other. If you feel guilty not because you did something wrong, but because you ate a slice of pizza instead of a healthy sandwich or chose light reading instead of reading a scientific paper, something is wrong. You have the right to rest, to log out of the world, to have fun.

Robin Nabi, a professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara, emphasizes that rest in the form of watching a TV series or reading a book that does not require intellectual engagement not only allows us to breathe, but above all liberates us from the eternal pursuit of productivity and problem-solving. It allows us to "switch off", similar to meditation or sports, and has a positive effect on our mental resilience in the face of stressful situations.

Pleasures – and by extension, moments of rest and relaxation – should not be associated with a waste of time or require justification. Shameful pleasures are not shameful at all – the guilt we feel when we decide to log out of the productive world driven by consumerism is a harmful social construct. You have the right to pleasure!

Kuijer, R. G., Boyce, J. A. Emotional eating and its effect on eating behavior after a natural disaster
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22369959/ [accessed 22/03/2022]
Nabi, RL, Torres, DP, Prestin, A. Guilty Pleasure No More. The Relative Importance of Media Use for Coping With Stress
https://www.jenniferwilsonwellness.com/uploads/9/1/0/6/91062736/guilty_pleasure_no_more.pdf [accessed 22/03/2022]
https://www.wpr.org/professor-lets-drop-guilty-guilty-pleasure [accessed 22/03/2022]