Welcome to Guilty Pleasures

I started this newsletter because I had a lot of story ideas that were virtually unpublishable. While I was doing my PhD, I got used to thinking about single books, movies, and TV shows for a long time before writing on them—often months, if not years.

But legacy publications—places like The New York Times, The Atlantic, and The Washington Post—move much faster than that. If you want to write about cultural texts for one of the big places, you basically need to publish the piece right as the movie/show/book is coming out.

So, while I do reporting for legacy outlets, I do not often publish on the subjects that I love the most: books and TV and movies, and how they shape life today—especially for Americans and especially for women.

Guilty Pleasures is a place for the pieces I want to write but wouldn’t be able to place. Through taking a look at cultural texts, old and new, I want to explore questions that I find pressing today: What is going on when we consider some movies “guilty pleasures” and others “great films?” What are the costs of the heterosexual lifestyle for women, both straight and queer? How can movies, books, and TV shows help us see choices available to us, choices that mainstream culture often obscures?

The best way you can support this project is by interacting: subscribing, reading, liking, and sharing. Your engagement helps me understand what you love, what you hate, and what you want more of. THANK YOU for your support!

About me

My name is Kelly Marie Coyne, and I write on American culture, with a focus on women’s stories, for places like The New York Times, The Atlantic, New York Magazine, and various academic journals. You can find these essays here.

I teach English and media studies at Hollins University, where I am assistant professor, and at Georgetown University. I hold a PhD in film and media studies from Northwestern, and an MA in English from Georgetown. Teaching is one of my favorite parts of my job—I hope that by reading this newsletter, you will feel like you’re in the classroom with me and my students.

I post Guilty Pleasures articles on my Instagram and Bluesky accounts. You can also email me at kc922@georgetown.edu. I’d love to hear from you!