49. No Guilty Pleasures

If you like something- a TV show, a musician, a vacation spot- never call it a guilty pleasure! Just because someone else views it as silly should never take away from the enjoyment you get. In that spirit, today, we celebrate one of Nora’s pop culture pleasures. 

Transcripts may not appear in their final version and are subject to change.

I’m Nora McInerny.

A lot of people ask me what I did when my husband died.

How did I cope? 

How did I get through those first weeks and months without him?

And the answer is obvious: I leaned on a group of women who have seen me through a lot of my life. Women I can always count on, day or not, to bring me out of any horrible mood.

Women who have been there for me at all hours of the day and night.

I’m talking about the real housewives.

New Jersey.

Beverly Hills.

Orange County – the early seasons.

I was soothed by their consistent inconsistency, and the fact that my problems were…not theirs.

I could armchair quarterback all of their conflicts, all of their issues. 

I liked getting lost in another world, where handbags cost at least four digits and nobody’s forehead has moved since 2010.

I like them like I like pop music, and rom coms and the gossip magazines you get at the grocery checkout or anything else that people have looked down on as lowbrow…anything that describes itself as a guilty pleasure.

I learned from my friend Kara that there is no such thing as a guilty pleasure if you don’t feel guilty about it. And when she said that, something clicked. Why should we have to qualify the things we enjoy, to discount their value in our lives? Yes, we all need to eat our vegetables and also…dousing them in ranch dressing is even better. Yes, I have enjoyed literature and fine poetry and I have also found poetic enjoyment in the Shakespearean drama that is Andy Cohen’s Housewives universe.

I don’t feel guilty about the pleasure those women brought me when I could barely function. I DO feel guilty about how much I drank when I was watching it…and it wasn’t even pleasurable! Another story for another time. 

You are not dumb or silly for liking what you like, whatever that is.

Lose the guilt. Keep the pleasure.