Pretension
I hate it. Nothing is worse. Well, maybe not giving new experiences or new types of media or art a chance and just assuming it’s “just not your thing” is worse. But just barely.
I realize everyone is different, and we all have different tastes. The only time I think one opinion is better than another is if someone is so closed off to the other’s option. Or if we’re comparing anything to Nickleback. Anything will always win.
I strive to be the kind of person who likes Nicholas Sparks books and movies for what they are- cheesy, predictable stories with feel good endings (sometimes). They’re not masterpieces of literary prose set out to change the world, and they’re not supposed to be.
I want to be thrilled by big budget action movies and offended by the numbers of women James Bond goes through (yet will watch a new one, every time). At the same time I want to able to see an “indie film” and love the story it’s trying to tell; the conflict it’s showing between two complex individuals; the questions it’s asking me to answer.
I never saw Mocking Jay 2. I will, but I don’t really care. I can’t wait for Me Before You. I loved Twilight– mostly because everything in my life at the time aligned to make Twilight a surefire mainstay in my life. And I really fucking love those books. And the only movie besides Baz Luhrman’s Romeo and Juliet (thank you hormonal 9th grade), I’ve watched over and over are the Harry Potter films.
I love great TV- probably more than I like movies. I loved the show The Honourable Woman with girl-crush Maggie Gyllenhaal on The Sundance Channel. I love water cooler shows that everyone is watching and talking about Monday morning like The Walking Dead (except for Game of Thrones- I never got into it)
And I equally like shitty tv. Because most times after a long 10 hour day of work the last thing I want to do is think about my feelings or an international conflict portrayed on a TV show. I want to judge The Duggars and be jealous of The Kardashians but think they’re totally stupid. Or I want to escape to Orange County or The Upper East Side or Buckingham Palace in The Royals. Entertainment is supposed to be that— entertaining. It should take you away and let you live in a fantasy that isn’t real or maybe sometimes isn’t even that GOOD.
We watch it because we can relate….. (to this scene)
And yes, that should be balanced with art that make you think of others outside yourself and makes you address the realities that most of life doesn’t happen in the 90210. Sometimes it happens in the meth-infested Ozark Mountains like in Winter’s Bone.
And PLEASE let’s get over the fact that I love Taylor Swift. And Justin Bieber’s latest is probably one of my favorite albums of 2015.
I love great books and many of the classics, but mostly these days if I have an hour to spare, I’m reading something easy. Because my brain hurts. And some days you just want to read a little MFM or about a sadistic priest who you want as your lover. And when it’s not that it’s an adorable YA story that reminds me of the teenage-hood I wish I had had. Or it’s a self help book because adulting is hard, man.
That’s Normal is like that. Our team has grown such that we aren’t feeling the pressure to produce as much daily content personally as we might have in the past, but being on a “beat” and opinionated and talking about shirtless guys gets HARD guys (and I say that with all seriousness). In the years I’ve been writing on the Internet I’ve been grieving, held friends as they lost children, lost relationships and suffered personal failings, all of which I’ve rarely talked about (Man Candy Monday usually isn’t the place!). But it’s not always easy to see the fun light side when life isn’t that. And on days I’ve struggled, I have to remind myself that TN is bigger than Nikki and I. It’s a community of people looking for a daily escape- whether to talk about Outlander or the latest book recommendation or Tom Hiddleston.
If TN was the ONLY thing you read on the Internet, I’d question if we were the best place to get your daily news (we’re not), but in a world full of Facebook fights between your Trump-loving Uncle Don and your 22 year old nephew who is Feeling The Bern, when there’s job uncertainty and relationships are falling apart and your kids won’t talk to you or you can’t make kids, in the mundane and the lonely and the dark and in the light, it’s ok to escape. It’s ok to like what you like- don’t let anyone else tell you it’s not ok.
So if someone thinks they’re better than you because you cried at the newest trailer for the latest single ladies night out movie, fuck them. Wear your tears proudly girl, I cried them too.
But whatever you do, do not drink cheap wine. Put down the Yellow Tail. I mean it.
