The Land of Squee

You have just said so much of what I loathed about being in Intensive (read: Elitist) Drama for three years. And a part of it, for me at least, was that if you admitted to enjoying something that wasn't up to the Dramatic Standards, you had to start with "I know it's bad, but ... " and justifying it as a guilty pleasure. Even if you did actually like said thing, you had to like Dark, Artsy Dramas so many times more, otherwise you clearly weren't serious. It would be so nice not to have to apologise for liking certain things, and that "need to be better than everyone" (which I had pretty badly in elementary school) can make it that much harder when you realise that there are people who look down on certain tastes. What makes up for it is the fact that there are equally intelligent people who actually like those things. Or those who don't like them, but don't demean others for liking them. I think that -- disliking something without automatically losing respect for anyone who likes it -- is one of the hardest things to do, and I still have issues mastering it.

Thanks for the rant -- I can relate to what you're talking about, you've just voiced so many of my own frustrations better than I could.