Heroes and Celebrities
Josh Dusenbery
Popular Culture HUMN 240
Professor Hamlin
October 21, 2011
Heroes and Celebrities
To start off my depiction of heroes and celebrities I am going to give a dictionary definition of both. Celebrity is defined as “a famous person or a renowned person” (The American Heritage Dictionary, 1994). I found a more in depth at what the word actually means in a book. “The contemporary celebrity will usually have emerged from the sports or entertainment industries; they will be highly visible through the media; and their private lives will attract greater public interest than their professional lives” (Turner, 2004, p.3).
The word hero is a little more complex and has a more in depth definition. The word hero is defined as “a person celebrated for his bold exploits” or “a person noted for feats of courage or nobility of purpose (The American Heritage Dictionary, 1994). The literal meaning of the word hero is protector, defender, or guardian, which I thought was really neat. The literal meaning of the word celebrity is basically celeb which sums up, in my eyes, the whole meaning of a celebrity; someone that is famous for being famous.
Most of the time there is a clear cut difference between a hero and a celebrity, but sometimes that line gets grayed a little. Very few people do become a celebrity from being considered a hero, but most heroes are not referred to as celebrities and sometimes not even recognized as heroes. The best example of a hero, to me, is any one that puts their own life in danger to protect others. The best example of a celebrity is Kim Kardashian who, like I said earlier, is famous for basically being famous.
Many people need use fictional heroes as teaching tools for young children. Usually in movies with a hero, the hero will defeat the villain but just as the villain is about to fall to his demise the hero tries to save him. As an adult we use heroes to show that there is good in the world and it gives us hope for the future. Without heroes people may look at life through eyes of not caring and might give up.
Many people are obsessed, for many different reasons, with celebrities. They watch smut television just to get the inside scoop or read the magazine in the checkout aisle of the grocery store just to see what the celebrity is going to do next. This is what I would refer to as cult of celebrity. The celebrity doesn’t create the cult. I believe that we, the cult members, create the cult by hanging on every word that comes out of the celebrity’s mouth. If we didn’t follow them then media would stop covering their stories and in a sense the cult would disperse.
Like I said in the previous paragraph; there are many different reasons people are obsessed with celebrities. Some people use them to escape their own lives. As we get older we lose touch with our imagination. By following a celebrity it starts thoughts in our heads like “if that were me I would do….” or “man if I had that kind of money I would buy….”. Other people may be obsessed for the simple reason that it gives them something to do. They may be bored and this provides a sense of entertainment to them.
We, as a society, need heroes and celebrities both in our lives. They provide entertainment, hope and sometimes help us teach our kids about right and wrong. If we see a hero on television we can tell our kids that they should strive to become more like them. With celebrities we can teach our kids to do what they have done because of how it can ruin your future. Whether or not we want them to; our kids use celebrities, sometimes heroes, as role models and want to emulate their lives. With this being said, celebrities and heroes play a huge part in our culture here in America
Reference
“celebrity.” Websters-online-dictionary.org. 2011. http://www.websters-online-/ dictionary.org/definitions/hero?cx=partner-pub-0939450753529744%3Av0qd01- tdlq&cof=FORID%3A9&ie=UTF-8&q=hero&sa=Search#906 (21 October 2011).
The American Heritage Dictionary (3rd ed.).(1994). New York , NY
Turner, G. (2004). Understanding celebrity. Retrieved from http://site.ebrary.com/lib/franklin/Doc?id=10080904&ppg=9
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