Love the example with the music you listened to in school! Believe it or not, up until recently I was the same. I would describe artists whom I enjoy listening to, yet whose style don't necessarily fit into my usual repertoire (Harry Styles is a good example) as "guilty pleasure" music and was very weary of whom I even shared this information with... But then one day I thought, "Why the f*ck do I feel 'guilty' about some of the music I listen to"?! When I ran with that thought, I realised the guilt was more shame and that shame induced this innate fear of not being accepted by the uber-cool music freaks that constitute a part of my circle...
My conclusion: I'm 42 years old and still putting up fronts for the sake of appearing "cool" in front of others, which is so not cool 🤦🏻♀️ I now refuse to refer to it as guilty pleasure music and have no problem talking about what I enjoy, even if someone else whose opinions I value doesn't like it 🤷🏻♀️
I'm a huge Christina fan to this day too, by the way, and had a crush on Fred Durst back in the day 😉
Love the example with the music you listened to in school! Believe it or not, up until recently I was the same. I would describe artists whom I enjoy listening to, yet whose style don't necessarily fit into my usual repertoire (Harry Styles is a good example) as "guilty pleasure" music and was very weary of whom I even shared this information with... But then one day I thought, "Why the f*ck do I feel 'guilty' about some of the music I listen to"?! When I ran with that thought, I realised the guilt was more shame and that shame induced this innate fear of not being accepted by the uber-cool music freaks that constitute a part of my circle...
My conclusion: I'm 42 years old and still putting up fronts for the sake of appearing "cool" in front of others, which is so not cool 🤦🏻♀️ I now refuse to refer to it as guilty pleasure music and have no problem talking about what I enjoy, even if someone else whose opinions I value doesn't like it 🤷🏻♀️
I'm a huge Christina fan to this day too, by the way, and had a crush on Fred Durst back in the day 😉
Good for you, Stephanie! I can identify with your conclusion.