To be clear I have no guilty displeasures. I am too old, (over 69),to be bothered with feeling guilty about things I don't like. Maybe because I keep trying new things. Maybe because I hear the clock ticking and realize all I have is right now.
I am a very good cook. I cook fairly complicated meals for my family almost every day of the week. That being said, my guilty pleasures are Dinty Moore beef stew and Fruit Loops. Pedestrian taste at its finest.
I find that happens a lot with songs, I like them the first time, they become transcendental after a few listens, and then eventually they just start seeming ordinary, nothing special. After more time passes I can start becoming fond of them again due to familiarity and nostalgia.
🤣 I don't actually feel guilty about hating any of those. They just fit OP's definition of "things that someone like me 'should' like" in some form or fashion, but I don't. At this stage of my life, the categories are "Hell yes!" or "Nooooo…" Guess which one is bigger? 😏
I don’t go to museums that much. It’s not that I hate them. I actually quite like them, but they’re not a passion of mine, and I’m a bit lazy when it comes to going out. The thing is, I work in a very well-known museum, and, educated upper-middle-class cultural habits being what they are, a lot of my acquaintances go to exhibitions quite often, far more often than I do, despite not even working in one. It’s not some great source of shame, but I do find it slightly embarrassing.
But my guiltiest displeasure is food. I like to think of myself as (not very originally) extremely open-minded, as someone who enjoys trying new things, entertaining strange ideas, taking risks... and I feel that some parts of my life do indeed reflect that. But that is certainly not true when it comes to food. For some reason, not only do I dislike most foods, but, more annoyingly, a great many of them make me want to puke. I would love to be one of those unhinged food adventurers who will happily gobble grilled tarantula, monkey brain, some weird synthetic blob, or whatever else. But I can’t even put asparagus in my mouth without gagging until my eyes water. And the fear of not being able to eat this or that ends up turning me into a sad, frightened little conservative once mealtime comes.
I've found opera a bit hit or miss. I guess as with any art form, there's a varying degree of quality / style that influences how much you enjoy it. The first two I ever saw I found tremendously dull - Mozart's Don Giovanni, and Puccini's Madame Butterfly; but then the next two, Puccini's Tosca and Verdi's Aida, were among the most transcendent experiences of my life. If I hadn't been obstinate and kept trying opera because of the guilty displeasure at not really enjoying the first two, I'm not sure I would have found that there are some in fact that I absolutely love. So perhaps guilty displeasures can be a good motivating force some of the time! Of course, if that gets taken to extremis then you are essentially just pretending to like something in order to maintain your sense of image/self, which is not good.
To be clear I have no guilty displeasures. I am too old, (over 69),to be bothered with feeling guilty about things I don't like. Maybe because I keep trying new things. Maybe because I hear the clock ticking and realize all I have is right now.
I am a very good cook. I cook fairly complicated meals for my family almost every day of the week. That being said, my guilty pleasures are Dinty Moore beef stew and Fruit Loops. Pedestrian taste at its finest.
I memorize a poem once a year. Even poems I like, I end up definitely liking less because of the effort to memorize them.
Food for thought! I sometimes find that the more I explore shorter works the more pedestrian they seem.
I find that happens a lot with songs, I like them the first time, they become transcendental after a few listens, and then eventually they just start seeming ordinary, nothing special. After more time passes I can start becoming fond of them again due to familiarity and nostalgia.
Guilty displeasures FTW! 👿 So many…televised sportsball games…most documentaries…prediction markets…vibe coding…coffee shops…peopling…most musicals…mmorpgs... 😈
Not sure what I'm supposed to like but I definitely don't like any of those things either.
That's a lot of things to feel guilty about!
🤣 I don't actually feel guilty about hating any of those. They just fit OP's definition of "things that someone like me 'should' like" in some form or fashion, but I don't. At this stage of my life, the categories are "Hell yes!" or "Nooooo…" Guess which one is bigger? 😏
I don’t go to museums that much. It’s not that I hate them. I actually quite like them, but they’re not a passion of mine, and I’m a bit lazy when it comes to going out. The thing is, I work in a very well-known museum, and, educated upper-middle-class cultural habits being what they are, a lot of my acquaintances go to exhibitions quite often, far more often than I do, despite not even working in one. It’s not some great source of shame, but I do find it slightly embarrassing.
But my guiltiest displeasure is food. I like to think of myself as (not very originally) extremely open-minded, as someone who enjoys trying new things, entertaining strange ideas, taking risks... and I feel that some parts of my life do indeed reflect that. But that is certainly not true when it comes to food. For some reason, not only do I dislike most foods, but, more annoyingly, a great many of them make me want to puke. I would love to be one of those unhinged food adventurers who will happily gobble grilled tarantula, monkey brain, some weird synthetic blob, or whatever else. But I can’t even put asparagus in my mouth without gagging until my eyes water. And the fear of not being able to eat this or that ends up turning me into a sad, frightened little conservative once mealtime comes.
I always worry that the guilt hide shame.
Your taste are not a mistake, it is not something you can fix or apologize for.
You can feel guilt to not have try to listen to any opera, but when you try it and conclude you don’t like it. Then that’s it.
It is destructive to think your not a « real culture intellectual » because you don’t like opera.
Do not feel less than people who do love them.
Now, more lightly, to answer your question, my guilty displeasure would be golf. A sport that every one in my family play and I never did. ⛳️
I've found opera a bit hit or miss. I guess as with any art form, there's a varying degree of quality / style that influences how much you enjoy it. The first two I ever saw I found tremendously dull - Mozart's Don Giovanni, and Puccini's Madame Butterfly; but then the next two, Puccini's Tosca and Verdi's Aida, were among the most transcendent experiences of my life. If I hadn't been obstinate and kept trying opera because of the guilty displeasure at not really enjoying the first two, I'm not sure I would have found that there are some in fact that I absolutely love. So perhaps guilty displeasures can be a good motivating force some of the time! Of course, if that gets taken to extremis then you are essentially just pretending to like something in order to maintain your sense of image/self, which is not good.
Good point! Our tastes certainly can change, and the guilt can definitely be a useful signal to trigger that.
I don’t like Prince! There, I said it 🤷🏻♂️
A first for everything!