There’s Nothing Guilty About Guilty Pleasures

When people find out the weird knowledge that I have inside my brain, I often get judged for it. In a university community, spouting your knowledge of the Kardashian and Jenner clan or exclaiming your love for BuzzFeed quizzes is somewhat frowned upon.

I’ve been constantly berated for knowing Lindsay Lohan’s love history, the names of random D-list actors, my love of crappy romance novels and devotion to screaming goat YouTube videos. I’ve been known to screw up geography, I still can’t really tell the differences between government offices and I find dancing with a tambourine to ABBA much more fun than discussing John Locke. My best friend and I have been mocked repeatedly for comparing ourselves to Kourtney and Khloe Kardashian and guess what? Little do most people know that we are both successful in our fields and she is absolutely the smartest person I know.

Don’t get me wrong; intelligence is a huge turn on for me and I’m not trying to play into a stereotype that women only care about celebrity gossip. Trust me, you don’t want me speaking for all women. That shit will get you in trouble. But, what I am saying is that we need to stop feeding into this stupid idea that we all need to keep our guilty pleasures secret. There is nothing wrong with having different interests, personalities, loves, passions or whatever than something else.

It’s complete BS to assume that the only intelligence that exists comes from black coffee and philosophy and turtlenecks. That can get so contrived and boring. I can be just as smart as anyone else, and I just happen to know that Beyonce would be my celeb BFF, according to BuzzFeed.

Working at a newspaper all day when the environment is tense more often than not, it is not only necessary, but smart that I partake in mindless, fun activities. I’m tired of feeling guilty because by day I’m intelligent and by later day I watch “Real Housewives.” (I don’t actually, but should I start?)

So, I guess what I’m saying is the next time you hear a woman and her friend discussing their thoughts on the Kimye Vogue cover, don’t assume she’s a bimbo or an idiot. In fact, she’s probably just blowing off steam after her shift at the hospital or being a professor. #boom

Also, if you have any trashy recommendations, I’m all ears.

Photo by Martin Sotirov