In a post titled “Can a feminist read Cosmo?” Hugo Schwyzer says, almost as an aside

Over and over again, I’ve heard my women’s studies students describe reading fashion magazines or watching sexist shows (or, increasingly, looking at mainstream pornography) as “guilty pleasures.” And as a feminist, I’m wary of that phrase.

He said it here.

In the post he goes on, with more generosity but also more authority, to weigh the pros (there are some) against the cons of the likes of women’s magazines. And I’d add that the subset of people who read Cosmo and believe it is probably considerably smaller than the subset of those who read it (like… pretty much everyone I’ve ever heard say they read it) for the howlers.

But what I really wanted to do for a second was question the term “guilty pleasures.” Which, after yesterday’s post about women and “good” vs “bad” sexy I think the term guilty pleasure is just more of the same.

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Holly of The Pervocracy, taking her own entirely non-guilty pleasure in Cosmopolitan illustrates why the only reason ever to feel dumb, or guilty would be if you ever took any of it seriously:

[“guy poll” results] What girlie look do you most go for?
The girl next door: casual, not a ton of makeup, ponytail — 76.1%
...The fashion plate: cutting-edge outfit, the latest haircut, trendy handbag — 6.9%

This is only funny because it comes after sixty pages of ads and editorial on how to become the fashion plate.

She said it here.

I happen to think you’d be better off not reading Cosmopolitan or Elle on the one hand, or Details, Esquire, or GQ on the other. But not because doing so is either dumb, wrong, or something it’s possible to be actually guilty of.

And as Holly points out, if you look at it as a sort of find-the-hidden-object puzzle magazine it sounds like it can be hours of harmless enjoyment.

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And while I hadn’t thought of it when I started writing about it, it seems like the only possible source of guilt in most so-called guilty pleasures would be for women failing to hyper-monitor their hyper-responsibility. Said hyper-responsibility being an expectation set for women to compensate for… correspondingly low expectations set for men. Just saying.

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But seriously, how’s eating pudding supposed to be “sinful” or “decadent?” How’s going to a spa an “indulgence?” How’s there anything shameful about “squandering” extra money you earned on a good, or a better, or another vibrator? It’s just pudding. It’s just a spa. It’s just a vibrator. What’s to feel guilty about?

It’s not that there’s nothing to feel guilty about in the world. It’s just that it seems to me very, very few of them are accompanied by actual pleasure. Obsession, maybe. Compulsion, sure. Pleasure? Not so often.

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Finally, see also Jenna’s piece “The Real Reason Women’s Magazines Suck” at Jezebel