How do I defend my bad taste?

Question: How do I put the case in defence of my love for subversive genres and “low-art” when I’m met with derision for my tastes by my peers?

The films you watch, the TV shows you enjoy, the art you hang on your wall, the books you read, the music you listen to. If you enjoy what is seen as low-art or is from a subversive genre e.g. horror, queer or cult then chances are someone will shame you for it. Perhaps you’ve internalised the shame and feel it without anyone now having to be there.

I have a friend who checks what others have written online about a film before he’ll consider watching it. It has to have a stamp of approval otherwise he risks wasting an hour and a half of valuable time in the limited span we are all allotted.

He relies on what critics and the mainstream approve of. On what critics who have studied the art form have to say. On what a panel has deemed the winner for an award.

That’s fine for him. He only consumes high art. The classics. The worthier films and TV shows.

I have just finished watching a film called Squirm. It’s an 80s horror about killer earthworms. It’s not Shakespeare. The effects, the cast, the plot, the direction - it’s all ripe to be picked apart and derided. It’s also a film I wouldn’t automatically recommend in casual conversation to a group of strangers. Chances are, it’s not their “thing”.

It is mine though.

I loved it. I was thoroughly entertained by it. It was perfect for the mood I was in. I didn’t want to watch something heavy, or critically acclaimed.

When I choose something shlocky to read, or watch a film by first time directors with a less than stellar quality cast of actors, or select which art to put on my wall, or to look at in a gallery. I ask myself, will “I” like it. Is there a chance “I” could be entertained. Not anyone else. Couldn’t care if it bores the pants off someone else or is hated by the mainstream.

I happily pop on a horror slasher whilst eating breakfast. Or lunch.

I’ll walk around town, headphones on, listening to some pop band from way back or a moody goth band.

As a teenager my bedroom had a huge poster of death, complete with a scythe. And the skull glowed in the dark. This sat next to a poster of a creature with blood soaked jaws creeping out of a sewer. When we had guests staying over, my bedroom was turned into the guests one. I was shuffled into the small box room with space for just a bed. Needless to say, I had to cover my posters with old newspapers so as not to terrify my parents’ friends.

My tastes are weird. Not normal. Are disapproved of. Not applauded by my peers.

Good.

Cos I have a contrarian streak. Like a moth to a flame, I’m drawn to the subversive.

If I was to go to the Louvre in Paris, I wouldn’t and haven’t stood in line waiting to look at the Mona Lisa. I wouldn't feel any status from posting a selfie of me with the browless one. There’s a piece which shows two topless ladies (one’s a princess I believe) in a bath and one of them is tweaking the nipple of the other. Now that I will go and consume and stand in wonder before.

I derive no pleasure in doing something just because everyone else is doing it. If I want to do it, then fine. But true to my perverse nature, I will automatically feel turned off if its popular even if I would have enjoyed it.

To conclude my ramblings and to answer the question of defending your tastes and mine. First of all, notice whether you feel ashamed of your choices. If you do, tell that inner voice to shut the fuck up. And then lean into it. Feel proud of your tastes. The more ashamed you should feel, the mightier your pride.

And if anyone turns around and says to you something along the lines of what on earth do you like that piece of shit for, only the dim witted, clueless, low of intellect, ill educated scum think this is art/music/literature. There is something wrong in the head with you, you obviously are not capable of appreciating the finer, more normal and proper art.

Tell them, they could be right. And go on to say, you like what you like, you love what you love. You may even explain what there is to love about it. The joy they feel from looking at Turner, you get from a poster of Garfield.

You don’t need anyone’s approval, applause or your ego stroked from having high tastes.

Finally, by being positive and upfront about what you actually like and not what sounds impressive to like, you’ll find your people. And to those who don’t share your tastes, they can at least be impressed at you being your authentic self.

As for me, I think I’ll follow up today’s visual entertainment by indulging in a double bill of creature features - and treat myself to a bucket of popcorn whilst I watch the masterpiece of cinema that is Slugs!

Peebs xx