Heroes and Celebrities
Josh Dusenbery
Popular Culture HUMN 240
Professor Hamlin
October 17, 2011
Heroes and Celebrities
This assignment really made me think about the difference of heroes and celebrities. The simplest definition that I could come up with is that celebrities are, most of the time, famous for being famous. They haven’t done anything that defines a hero but they are widely known and we care about the most trivial parts of their lives, which is where the cult term enters the picture. The best example that I can come up with is that if a war hero, in every sense of the term, started a twitter account he would have far less followers than someone like Lady Gaga.
In extreme sports there aren’t many heroes, per se, but it all depends on how much you are into the individual sport. People that are really into freestyle motocross would consider Travis Pastrana a hero and in many eyes he would be a hero to the sport because he basically laid the foundation for many to follow. In this case he would also be a celebrity because he is well known and people care about his daily life.
With celebrities we can become obsessed to the point of many people following the persons every move or hanging on their every word which in a sense would be termed a cult. The best example of the term “the cult of the celebrity” in extreme sports would be Rob Dyrdek. People watch the television show Fantasy Factory and also the new show Ridiculousness just because he’s in it and he’s the star. At the time of me writing this he has 1,407,109 twitter followers (http://twittercounter.com/robdyrdek) which I think is a perfect way to so how big a celebrity is. This guy does do things for the community so in a way you could say that he’s a hero to many but not in the way someone like a firefighter or a soldier would be.
I have learned a lot by doing this assignment but the biggest thing that I learned is the difference between a celebrity and a hero. To be a hero you need to have done something to help people, over come a challenge or something similar but you definitely don’t have to be famous and in most cases you aren’t. To be a celebrity you need to have money, be in the spotlight and in almost every case, be famous. So, in my eyes, the biggest difference between the two is that a celebrity is famous for being famous and a hero has done something to earn the title.
Reference
McCartin, J. (2006, March). The difference between heroes and celebrities. Seacoastonline.com. Retrieved from http://www.seacoastonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060321/LIFE/303219939
McCracken, B. (n.d.). The insidious cult of celebrity. Relevant Magazine. Retrieved from
Twitter. (2011, October 17). Twitter counter. Retrieved October 17, 2011, from http://twittercounter.com/robdyrdek
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