Blog Larceny

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This is taken straight from SoMyMom's blog, chosen as an Editor's Pick at Salon.com (http://open.salon.com/content.php?cid=89111). But it's very me.

After posting about a probable "Sex and the City" sequel (a tip from the ever-newsworthy Popeater), a strange feeling came over me. Anxiety. Guilt, even. For every compatriot that would be excited for this revivial of nursing home-bound cougars, just as many feminist and men readers will roll their eyes and file me as a particular type.

Backlash to such overplayed pop culture can be vehement. Take one review of last year's "Sex and the City" movie from Ain't it Cool News:

"Imagine, if you will, a Rob Schneider movie, a Ben Stiller movie and an Adam Sandler movie teaming up and slipping Rohypnol to the BRATZ movie, pulling a train on her sorry, barely legal ass, then leaving the unfortunate spawn of that unholy union in the LA sun for 40 years until it rotted and leathered to the point that it was attractive only to gay men and other women. That’s the Sex and the City movie."

This from the same guy who thought teenage raunch fest "Sex Drive" was "hilarious." (Who would watch such a movie?)

And who invented the concept of guilty pleasures? Is it a natural-born predator of capitalism?

For guilty pleasures are inevitably rooted in mass culture: John Mayer. Carmen Electra (dusty ol' skank). Bestselling self-help novels. Maroon 5. "90210." "Titanic." I cringe even as I write these.

Meanwhile, underground bands, movies and novels are always cool, even if sub-par, as they often are.

Further: Guilty pleasures can only unsully their status by devolving into relative obscurity. At which point they're up for being cool again. Think about it: Steve Martin. B-movies. Fanny packs. Tab. Rick Astley. Kurt Cobain.

So how can we unsully the sullied sooner? Dispel hot commodity hatred in this Obama era of unity and progressiveness?

Not sure. Maybe share your guilties to shed the stigma?

But please note: If one more person tells me how much I need to read "Eat, Pray, Love," I'm gonna throw the [Michael Pollan] book at them.

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