kayarei [2014-12-27 18:42:13 +0000 UTC]

No human is my role model. 

Love from your neighborhood misanthrope.   

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JasonWolfe [2014-12-27 17:37:05 +0000 UTC]

Art imitates life, and vice versa. We create characters whose traits embody the the best and worst of us. Then others aspire to those lofty expectations.

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rachelillustrates [2014-12-27 16:55:39 +0000 UTC]

I actually think both are important - real people have realistic struggles we can relate to, while fictional characters can emobody ideals we aspire to in a more relatable way than a real person could. In my experience, this makes me think of "Sailor Moon" and her creator Naoko Takeuchi. Sailor Moon/Usagi Tsukino herself makes me believe in my heart and the strength of my kindness, while Naoko-san makes me believe that women have an awesome, valid, badass place in comics even though its still such a boy's world there sometimes.

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InAnOrdinaryWay [2014-12-27 16:42:01 +0000 UTC]

People preferring fictional heroes over real life ones isn't anything new. What do you think fables, fairy tales and legends are for. It's a hero's qualities that people want to emulate, not really the character themselves. So what if your role model is fictional if they're also brave, smart and kind. I would say the main influences in my life regards to shaping the person I am today we're the people surrounding me, characters in my favourite books and other artists. The idea that we need one isolated historical or modern day figure to aspire to be like is an outdated concept.

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Ask-WolfPrince [2014-12-27 16:30:45 +0000 UTC]

I must say I really like this topic, bringing up the heroes culture thats blooming these days. I dont have preference between the real life and fictional, because I dont like heroes who always at top of their game. I like the dissapointment effects, proving even if they're seen as heroes, they still have flaws. Nobody's perfect

Ahaha am I even making any sense? XD

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JavaBeanJohnny [2014-12-27 16:16:10 +0000 UTC]

I don't think it's as perfectly normal to believe you will become a James T. kirk or an Indiana Jones a as this post says, many people get that movies are movies, and the things that people do are more a result of their character than their massive wealth.

I could believe becoming a certain kind of person based on those characters, like Captain Kirk was a role model for a being a military commander or something. But the actual job they have tends to be blown into a proportion that is more exciting. What would Tony Stark be without all his tech? And Indiana Jones without his whip? This is movies people, of course they are exaggerated.

Now I do believe that parents with little ones should make sure to advise them or notify them on certain things. Little mids are so malleable that if a kid saw Interstellar he'll instantly want to see a black hole for real, completely missing the point that it's dangerous as hell. If a kid is left to fantasize like that and never told of reality, he may find himself heavily disappointed.

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ArtForger [2014-12-27 15:12:47 +0000 UTC]

To me it's just entertainment, and even if people are inspired by a fictional character, it doesn't mean that they want to copy them exactly.

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PeppermintSoda [2014-12-27 13:17:09 +0000 UTC]

1) It was always fictional characters. Even villains were my role models.

3) Doofenshmirtz (from Phineas and Ferb) FTW! I just find him cute.

5) Nope. Never in my life.

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jules-101 [2014-12-27 13:08:16 +0000 UTC]

Well, you certainly got a wide variety of responses here, some very emotional. I am not going to address this question in the detail it requires to comprehensively answer because I'd fill up the whole page & don't have the time or energy to do so right now.

I believe that there have always been fictional role models in existence, but technology, especially in the animated & special effects portions of the movie industry, have brought these characters to the forefront in vivid 3-D colors. I grew up loving Star Trek, but it never once occured to me to use any character as a hero or role model. I watched most of my parent's real life heroes get assassinated, JFK, MLK, etc. Surely that affected me & my ideas of hero worship & martyrdom.

So, there is no point in discussing technology's place in the world because it is an unstoppable force. The only statement I can make here is that the news is now sent to people in sound bites more suited to short attention spans. It is hard to find real heroes in today's world without looking for them. People rarely look long or hard enough to find them these days, or so I believe. If younger generations need fictional heroes, my response would be that there are not enough living human heroes being brought to the forefront of their lives, and certainly not as vividly. This is a societal issue & goes way beyond good hero, bad hero, fictional hero.

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Anastasia122 [2014-12-27 12:30:17 +0000 UTC]

Avatar is awesome movie. 

Well I think good model is Obi Wan Kenobi from Star Wars.

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AEIOUart [2014-12-27 11:18:09 +0000 UTC]

Nobody is perfect and all this comes off as is sounding like "durr hburr technology is bad fire is scary and thomas edison was a witch".
There are multitudes of positive role-models in sweeping media and to isolate a discussion like this to only two (really) characters is not only a complete strawman and ignoring the other arguments (and painting the main character of Avatar as somehow saintlike despite the fact that he did have a huge part in causing the films crisis in the first place [when not focusing on scientists of course - background characters whom people, most especially children, are far less likely to focus on]), but is a dichotic and unfair comparison.
There are role models in age-appropriate fiction everywhere you look, and many of them are being developed to be very real feeling people. Even things like Adventure Time, Steven Universe, and Gumball are all childrens shows with powerful and resonating messages and morals which can be identified by adults and children as good lessons. To focus on Iron Man as an example of bad, he appears in modern media strongly side by side with characters like The Hulk and Captain America, both of whom are excellent role models. Many of Starks behaviours are clearly painted as bad (even if they may seem awesome or hilarious at times) as well.

I tutor children. I work with them in my child development research and some of my therapy practicum as well. While this certainly isn't a common topic, many of them have brought up questions to me which pertain to modern day current events. I've had children tell me about Malala, and the Dalai Lama. The other day I had an eight year old say they think that the Ferguson protesters are very brave and are "doing the right thing, nobody should be treated different just because they look different". 

Any form of media, a real person or a fabrication, can be used as a cog in the propaganda machine. This journal here seems to miss that point by a long shot. That's the scary part of propaganda - it can show up anywhere and as anything. This is why advertisers are so aggressive, and product placement so pervasive. And even in this hypersaturated media sphere, we still have celebrities who while flawed, human, and imperfect, achieve many of the things you want. Two that immediately come to mind are Angelina Jolie, who looks at the privilege she has and says that there are so many people out there who if given the chances she was, could be in her shoes and Nikki Minaj, who always insists that her fans "stay in school" and "get an education" and without a beat will always tell them that they're valuable people who can achieve great things. Even social network culture has spawned bloggers and tweeters and facebook pages which are streams of love and encouragement and which I have seen dramatically change the behaviour of some people once they began to model themselves after those page admins. Hell, I've been told I'm one of them.

Point is, nothing and nobody is perfect. It's completely unnecessary to have written this up. You can have a fictional 'hero' who is a better person than most (or even all) 'real' heros.

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AlvaroMurga [2014-12-27 03:16:29 +0000 UTC]

All heroes are fictional. A real person will have defects and virtues, weakness and strengths. And with lives full of feats and sins. But the order of those actions can be in any order. 
How much we know about the persons than surround? We really know anybody or we only know a fiction We create an image of the people which surround us but there is always a part we don't know. When we are child our parents are perfect and they know everything. When we grow we discover than our parents are far from perfect: they are humans.  And all heroes we built upon us are not real people but the image we create.
I will share something personal: I admired what Pistorious reach in the paraOlympics and for his desire to compite as a equal with standar athletes. But then there was what happened with his wife. Is he still  a hero? Make his achievement less relevants? Can he still be admired by his determination? 
How do you know if that heroic fireman was a wife beater? If that  great scientist was a irresponsible father? The fighter for womens rights is more o less admirable is she is a racist? Are those defects, made them more o less admirable?
Fictional characters always will be perfect because they live in a preconceived world, born of human mind. There is no random events, no unaswered questions, no unexpected changes, all works inside their protected fictional universe.  Their creator can make them flawed but always capable of grow and that is what most we admire of the fictional characters.  But those changes are pre-stablished, as part of their narratives.  And if these characters do something than the readers/spectator consider off-character, will be never the character fault, but the writer will be guilty.
Real life is chaotic and random, the "good guy" can commit a crime, the "villian" can make a good deed.In real life there are no heroes, but people who make heroic acts.  And as in everything humans do, we do cherry picking, choosing the good and excusing the bad. Your favorite sports player was abandoned for his/her parents? Shameful parents; He/she don't attend his/her own  children? Hey, he/she has important things to do. And thus, humans create a hero, a fiction which we can aspire and if we fail, it will be not our fault.
Youth now choose fictional heroes over real life heros? Please, heroes always has been fictional. That isn't something new.  Never has been.

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KCKinny [2014-12-27 02:22:05 +0000 UTC]

I've never had a role model.  I started writing because there was a world of stories and people out there and not a damn one of them was interesting to me.
Also, I'm not too sure that fictional role models outweigh real life ones.  Celebrity worship is how many people and children get their roles to play.

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Wolflich [2014-12-26 17:44:43 +0000 UTC]

I'm not sure I'm convinced this is a new phenomenon, and I certainly don't think real role models are exempt from being portrayed unrealistically. Whatever the results of this might be, I estimate that we're already experiencing them and maybe always have been.


1. I take little bits from everything. If I like a saying, a mannerism, a way of dressing or even just cutting my hair, I'll just add it on either consciously or unconsciously. Sometimes the reverse also happens, and I decide to be unlike someone or something, or even take it to ridiculous extremes as a sort of parody.

2. As a result of that, there's no way I can really answer this. I don't even have specific life goals I can look to, see who else has done it, and aspire to be like them. While I can't deny that I reflect my environment in probably more ways than I even realize, there's no one person I can point to and say they've been the greatest influence on how I am.

3. Same as above. I do suspect that the ones I was exposed to early in life made bigger differences (for the most part), but only in that I didn't have as much freedom to 'browse' back then, and now that I have greater freedom to explore, a lot of those early influences have waned so much that they're not present or noticeable anymore.

4. It hasn't, really, for the reasons I've already stated. My identity has never been based so wholly on a small number of people that suddenly rejecting one of those people would make a dramatic difference to my life.

5. Not that I remember.

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Nefertiti69 [2014-12-26 17:04:07 +0000 UTC]

be your own role model....everything that inspires you,excites you about others envoke in yourself....don't follow or worship anyone or anything....everything that we need we already have...we just need to envision that....

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WorldBuildersInc [2014-12-26 16:27:31 +0000 UTC]

I like Avatar mainly for that reason. The scientists are portrayed as actual scientists: fascinated by the natural world but RESPECTFUL of it. I also love the portrayal of the natives; living in harmony with the natural world. That is exactly what James Cameron was trying to put across. (If you watch the bonus features, he explains that he was inspired to make Avatar by the crisis in the Amazon rainforest) Pandora was partly the inspiration for many of my worlds. Then with Rana (my newest), I decided to take that harmony to the next level: a race that has our technological level but has achieved environmental nirvana. In other words: they care more about their impact on the natural world than money or politics or anything else. Make sure to check out the Project Rana folder in my gallery.

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Sims9287 [2014-12-26 11:05:14 +0000 UTC]

It's an interesting article. I think people find it easier to emulate a character than a living real life person, because real life people inevitably come with real life flaws. Characters are what their creators make them and often their 'real-life' flaws are glossed over and minimized; therefore they represent a figure that's relatable but easy enough to admire because the everyday 'flaws' have been 'refined' for the purpose of a likeable and rounded character. It is also very true to say that a character will never 'die' and will always be there in some form, so in that sense they are a constant sense of security.

One of my favourite characters has been Mr Spock from Star Trek and although it is very rare for that admiration to pass over from a character to their actor, I also greatly admire Leonard Nimoy.
Mr Spock is shown as a clever, calm and somewhat inhuman character. But he is flawed, his entire journey is about him learning to accept his humanity and his flaws, to be less 'perfect' in the Vulcan sense.
His better qualities are his curiosity to learn, his admirable loyalty, his courage, his generally calm and logical nature, a subtle sense of humor and of course his brilliant mind.
Right from the start it is clear that Mr Spock is not an 'orindary' character and you see his internal struggles where he has to juggle his two halves and strike a balance; in the beginning he struggles with this and it is usually his 'Vulcan side' that wins out but the longer he is around humans, the more his 'Human side' emerges and you see this character changing throughout a lifetime. He's a character you can almost grow and learn with and it doesn't hurt that Star Trek in itself has always been about challenging conventions and breaking the 'comfort zone' morally and ethically. It makes us think and the character of Mr Spock makes us think.

In real life, Leonard Nimoy is an equally interesting man. The more you see of him, the more detailed and colourful his background becomes. He isn't your average or clear-cut actor.
He's a clever man, he has a witty sense of humor, he is very interested in learning and involving himself in the current happenings of the world. He can be serious or humorous, he doesn't seek glamour or fame, infact he often shies away from the media spotlight.
He is known to be a peaceful man with interests in nature, mythology, science and ecology, yet he has also served in the military and knows the grittier side of humanity.
Even though he is a figure with a great deal of respect and admiration, he is humble and genuine about it. He remains a very grounded and realistic man, able to share his flaws as well as his achievements and better qualities. What he has in the way of a following and influential weight, he uses as an opportunity to enlighten and educate people, his latest struggles with COPD and his own experience with smoking being a prime example.
You can see his own development throughout his career, starting from his childhood days and leading right up to his 'retirement' and he has taken this time to develop and find himself. With Leonard Nimoy there is no sense of 'giving face' or having an ego. He makes no presumptions about himself or others and in that sense he is a very likeable and relatable role model.

The day we lose him will be a very sad day, both for the fans of his roles and for his 'following' in real life. As I said earlier, he has a rare substance and quality that extends beyond his character roles and into real life, making it easy to admire both him as a person and the parts he plays.
He has definitely been a strong role model in my life and he was doing it before I even registered it, he was doing it before I even knew who he was because he was there in some of my childhood favourites, bringing characters, words and morals to life without us even seeing his face and then years later you go back and re-watch those moments of your childhood and those moments and lesson still jump out at you.

The characters he has represented will never die and they are (in part) his legacy. But I think there will be a great and very 'real' impact when he is no longer here. It will certainly be a grim day for me.

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TrololaJ [2014-12-26 09:56:41 +0000 UTC]

Awesome!

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lokiluvsme [2014-12-26 08:32:15 +0000 UTC]

Hey i just finished watching this movie

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