*note: this is the author’s opinion. In no way are you forced to accept this. Just some food for thought, if you will.
In your lifetime, you have heard or probably will hear someone criticize some form of creative media you enjoy. Whether it be music, visual art, literary art, films, or anything of the sort, people are bound to disagree with your opinions on them. In the same manner, you may not like everything that the people around you tend to like. Certain things may seem shallow, strange, and may even evoke feelings of distaste on your end. Or they may just not capture your interest. It can be that simple. Everyone is entitled to have different tastes and preferences when it comes to artistic media.
Take classical music competitions, for example. What the judges decide overall should not determine your own opinion. Just because a man with a degree in musical performing arts says that the person you enjoy listening to is raucous and untalented, that shouldn’t make you stop listening to what you enjoy. This applies to films as well. Critics will say one thing about a movie, but the audience will respond in different ways, sometimes having views on the movie that are overwhelmingly against the reviews of critics. If you dislike Paddington 2, good for you. Just because it has an overwhelmingly positive reaction from both critics and “average human” audiences does not mean you should be forced to enjoy it.
Take books, take artwork, take acting. I dislike Dune by Frank Herbert, yet I’m a sci-fi fan. Does my dislike of a popular book from that genre make me any less of a “good” fan? I know of people who believe Jackson Pollock’s paintings are nothing close to a “work of art,” but I find his paintings quite fascinating. I know many people (including myself) who like the musical Hamilton, but I have friends who think it is overrated. Does this make them “lesser” in their ranking of Broadway musical fandom? Should we pick a fight with our friends over whether or not they hold the same opinions on things as us?
My point is, why should we judge and put other people down for having differing views on harmless artistic media? Well, we shouldn’t, as long as it doesn’t condone or cause direct harm to others, of course.
Though it may sound quite Millian, it shouldn’t be your problem to get somebody to stop indulging in whatever media they like. Just because someone has an eccentric taste or a differing opinion, that doesn’t mean that it is your responsibility to change their views to your liking. John Stuart Mill, an English political philosopher, wrote in his essay On Liberty that “[the] only freedom which deserves the name is that of pursuing our own good in our own way, so long as we do not attempt to deprive others of theirs, or impede their efforts to obtain it.” He is talking about this in the sense of society and the state, but it is also applicable to this argument about differing opinions on trivial things. You can argue your stance, but forcefully trying to prevent someone from listening to a certain genre of music or reading their favorite book series will only cause more problems. I’ve found that people who tend to argue with me more on why my tastes are wrong are those who I tend to criticize back, and over time, I develop strong objections to their interests. I consider myself to have been at both ends of this argument at different points in time: I am someone who is criticized by others for my wide-ranging taste in various mediums, yet I am also someone who tends to criticize others for their interests (or distastes) that I disagree with. It’s a fatal human flaw, and I am trying to better that aspect of me (and so should you, but I can’t be one to force you to do that. We’re being Millian here, aren’t we?). When people challenge our likes and beliefs, we will immediately defend them without putting ourselves in the shoes of others. We should realize that people may find value in things we do not.
At this point in your life, you may not be in a similar position as another person, and therefore, you will not be able to comprehend their favorite (or least-liked) works in the way that they do. Sometimes, you will experience things that will cause you to change your own opinion, and you may find similarities between you and another person in a media you used to have strong feelings about before.
And if you still do not understand a specific work later in life, well, then maybe it’s something that you will never comprehend because, simply put, it’s just not your style. And that’s completely okay to say.