Israeli Youth Views on Heroes and Celebrities

Between my mother and the big brother: Israeli adolescents’
views of
heroes and celebrities
Yaron Girsh*
Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Hebrew University
of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
(Received 9 April 2013; accepted 7 January 2014)
Sociological interest in popular culture has contributed much to
our understanding of
heroes and celebrities as promoted by the media in a macro-
cultural sense. However,
knowledge of how individuals interpret these processes and the
characters promoted
thereby is lacking. Based on 44 group interviews with Jewish
adolescents in 12 Israeli
high schools, this study explores youth attitudes toward heroes
and celebrities,
including how they are differentiated from one another, and the
cultural, social, and
personal meanings associated with them. In contrast to
prevalent social conceptions,
and offering a differing focus from that of previous research,
this article argues that the
characters promoted by the media have little meaning for
adolescents. Moreover,
adolescents view celebrity worship as a phenomenon that
threatens one’s identity. A
few celebrities do gain the title of hero, however, thus shifting

the traditional
dichotomy between hero and celebrity toward a more nuanced
position on the
continuum. These findings undermine the moral panic
accompanying celebrity
worship and the place of celebrities in adolescents’ lives, and
challenge the analytical
hero-celebrity dichotomy.
Keywords: adolescence; celebrity; expressive individualism;
heroes; popular culture;
youth
Introduction
Celebrity is a modern idea, described as a symptom of the
secular malaise of an age
devoid of heroes. Based on 44 semi-structured interviews with
132 Israeli-Jewish
adolescents from various religious, socioeconomic, and
geographical backgrounds, this
study attempts to sketch their attitudes and ideas regarding
heroes and celebrities, and to
question their place, influence, and the possible meanings in
their lives.
The study contributes to the sociology of youth and the
sociology of culture by
expanding our knowledge of how adolescents in late modernity
craft their identity in the
context of popular consumer culture and the models and values
that it offers. I begin by
illustrating the research sample and the method used for
analyzing the data. I then review
the literature concerned with the concepts of heroes and
celebrities, and debate on the

possible influences of media and celebrities. Israeli youth is
briefly profiled in order to fix
the specific cultural and social arena in which the study takes
place. The Results section
highlights the main themes arising from the interviews,
followed by a Conclusion
presenting the key implications of the study.
*Email: [email protected]
Journal of Youth Studies, 2014
Vol. 17, No. 7, 916–929,
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13676261.2014.881984
© 2014 Taylor & Francis
mailto:[email protected]
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13676261.2014.881984
Methodology
The research sample includes 132 pupils from 12 high schools
in Israel. The schools
selected represent the broad educational and social diversities
of the Israeli-Jewish
population, including state secular and state Orthodox schools,
urban and rural settings,
and schools in both large cities and outlying areas. Gender was
split roughly down the
middle. Forty-four semi-structured interviews were conducted
with 10th–12th graders
(aged 15–18). Data were collected during two school years
(2010–2012). Interviews
lasted 45–60 minutes. All interviews were fully transcribed.
According to ethics
procedures, interviews with students were approved by the

Israeli Education Ministry
and participants took part voluntarily. All names have been
changed to protect
participants’ anonymity. Interviews involved groups of three
pupils, serving as a small
focus group. We began by asking the pupils to define the word
hero, and moved to
general questions about exceptional figures and role models. We
then asked a series of
questions about personal and collective models and heroes and
their roles in pupils’ lives.
Essentially, the questions aimed to expose the criteria that
pupils use in defining heroes
and assessing their role models.
Focus group is defined as ‘a research technique that collects
data through group
interaction on a topic determined by the researcher’ (Morgan
1996, 130). Sociologists use
this method to expose various issues in social relations and
individuals’ perceptions
(Stewart, Shamdasani, and Rook 2007). This method helps to
enlighten dominant values
and social norms, and areas of consensus as well as
disagreement (Kitzinger 1994);
therefore, it is particularly suitable for this research. However,
the possible effect of a
group interview on interviewees’ responses should be taken into
account. I considered the
prospect of silencing or excluding voices not accepted as
normative, to be a key issue
regarding this research group. Yet interpretive studies such as
this one, that deal with
everyday views and the knowledge of its participants, are
valuable for developing
grounded theory (Glaser and Strauss 1967), whereby the

researcher gives priority to the
respondents’ own language and ideas. Hence, I engaged in
systematic analysis, coding
segments of information (e.g., sentences, paragraphs) into
concepts, families, and codes.
Heroes and celebrities in changing times
Every nation and every age have their heroes. Heroes are the
anchors of culture, a human
personification of society’s beliefs and values. Hero figures
serve as a source of authority
and legitimacy, functioning as role models in socialization
(Bromnick and Swallow 1999;
White and O’Brien 1999). They hold a vital place in the social
structure (Pleiss and
Feldhausen 1995), represent dominant values, and transcend our
mundane traits, thus
symbolizing the search and the journey, the genius, and the
virtuosic (Shuart 2004).
The destiny of heroes in the modern world has been tied to the
disenchantment of the
world, the historical social process famously described by Max
Weber (Gerth and Mills
1946). The modern era is associated with macro-processes such
as secularization and
industrialism, as well as revolutionary political, economic, and
technological develop-
ments (Giddens 1998). Campbell (1956) ties the disappearance
of the mythic hero to the
rise of secular concepts such as science, democracy, and the
industrial revolution. Mass
culture, a central pillar of the twentieth century, is often
associated with the trivialization
of the heroic, described as shallow, lacking in morals and ideals

(Porpora 1996, 2003).
Boorstin’s well-known claim established a long-lived consensus
regarding the dichotomy
between the two terms:
Journal of Youth Studies 917
The hero was distinguished by his achievements; the celebrity
by his image or trademark.
The hero created himself; the celebrity is created by the media.
The hero was a big man; the
celebrity is a big name. (1978, 61)
Campbell and Boorstin alike witnessed the rise of the celebrity
cult as part of the
emerging popular culture and were terrified thereby. According
to them, celebrities
represent a consumerist culture. They are morally neutral and
therefore do not symbolize
anything but themselves, an empty vessel into which we cast
our own lack of meaning
(Porpora 2003).
However, others have offered critique and a more nuanced
analysis of these
phenomena, challenging the hero/celebrity, high/low cultural
dichotomy. Since the
1960s, the distinction between elite and popular culture has
been continually challenged
sociologically and politically (North, Bland, and Ellis 2005).
Media studies argue for a
complex relationship between heroism, communications
technology, and fame (Cathcart
1994, 37). Allan (2010) suggested that the media is undergoing

a process of
tabloidization, in which ‘real news’ is being popularized,
softened, and meshed with
entertainment content (infotainment). Others question the actual
responsibility of the
media for the de-mythification of the heroic and its replacement
by celebrities (Drucker
and Cathcart 1994). Post-modernist theorists such as McRobbie
(1994) and Muggleton
(2000) point to the blurring of these terms. Muggleton (2006)
proposed that a more
comprehensive understanding of popular culture from the
standpoint of the social agents
themselves is needed.
Recent empirical work has made an important contribution to
the understanding of
what heroes and celebrities mean to young people and how they
define them. These
differences can be defined thus: a hero is someone who is
responsible for creating ideas
or actions with a substantial impact on society over the long
term, and he may be known
or unknown (Dong and Cheung 2000). On the opposite pole is
the celebrity, who is well-
known but creates ideas or objects of low (or no) impact on
society (North, Bland, and
Ellis 2005; Chia and Poo 2009). Nonetheless, these clear
definitions leave us with a
binary understanding of the distinctions, rather than offering us
a more complex view of
heroes and celebrities. In adding to these studies’ powerful
descriptive contributions to
the field, I seek here to complement them with analytical
reasoning based on explanations
garnered from in-depth interviews with a wide selection of

individuals. Following Shuart
(2004), I ask: How does one distinguish between a hero and a
celebrity? What does each
mean for young people, and how does one gage their possible
and varied effects on
society?
Popular culture, celebrities, and their influence on adolescents
Popular culture became a central theme of social scientific
research during the twentieth
century. The increasing strength of popular culture and youth is
directly tied to an era
defined as high or late modernity (Giddens 1998; Furlong and
Cartmel 2007). Following
the Second World War, the western world saw profound
changes, specifically the
combination of a new market economy, technological
developments, demographic shifts,
and a new cultural imagery (Heilbronner 2008). Indeed, leisure
and consumption, the
backbone of popular culture, closely accorded with the cultural
conceptualization of
youth, who in turn became its representatives (Kjeldgaard and
Askegaard 2006). Cultural
sociologist Motti Regev (2011) asserts that celebrities are the
most visible face of this
918 Y. Girsh
consumer society, a distillation of Western popular culture.
Today, in the early twenty-
first century, youth wield enormous consumer power,
constituting a highly coveted

market for advertisers (Valkenburg 2000). They are seen as
innovative and as cultural
trendsetters, also for populations older and younger than they
(Bush, Martin, and Bush
2004; Gavish, Shoham, and Ruvio 2008). As McRobbie (1994)
claimed, youth culture
and popular culture are intertwined in post-industrial
capitalism. The effort to define
one as symbolically authentic and the other as consumer-based
and exploitative misses
the complex connection between the two.
One of the main issues that occupy scholars of media exposure
is the potential effect
that on-screen characters might have on youth as role models
(Giles and Maltby 2004).
Characters created by the media offer up the cultural matter
from which gender,
vocational, and ethnic identities are molded, as well as values
and beliefs (Chia and Poo
2009). For adolescents experiencing a challenging period of
shifts in values and
identities, celebrities play the role of ideal characters against
which they can measure
themselves and express their secret desires without feeling
threatened (Raviv et al. 1996).
Research has pointed to the various effects of celebrities on
adolescents, such as lifestyle
and consumption patterns (Martin and Bush 2000; Valkenburg
2000). In certain cases,
these effects in turn lead to major financial and emotional
expenditure and other risk
behaviors (Chia and Poo 2009; Reeves, Baker, and Turluck
2012). Accordingly, many
researchers, policy-makers, and practitioners are troubled by the
unwanted effects of

celebrity worship.
Nevertheless, as suggested by the academic evidence surveyed
above, there is no
consensus on how advertising affects children and adolescents
(Anderson and Cavallaro
2002). While it has been suggested quite convincingly that
celebrities influence consumer
behavior, do they penetrate deeper? Uses and gratification
theory offers an understanding
of adolescents as critical viewers who choose the content and
messages that they
consume (Arnett 1995). Others argue that the generation that
grew up in such an
individualistic and consumerist society opposes advertising
more strongly than did their
predecessors (Bush, Martin, and Bush 2004). Studies that have
described the decline of
celebrity worship during late adolescence have not paid
sufficient attention to the
complexities in attitudes toward such characters. Presenting
celebrity worship as a
deviation associated with youth has created an image that
ignores central aspects of the
construction of meaning and identity by individuals, namely,
their power as social agents
and interpreters of reality.
Adolescents and youth in Israel
Existing studies on adolescents and youth have focused mainly
on youth in the USA and
Western Europe, neglecting young people in other social and
cultural settings (Gibbons
and Stiles 2004; Helve and Holm 2005). The study of
adolescence has an essential

contribution to make to Israeli society, a society that sanctifies
its young members and is
intensely preoccupied with them. On the one hand, present-day
Israeli youth culture is
global, i.e., influenced by the global fashions of music and
movies (Harman 1995). On
the other hand, Israeli society is still characterized by collective
values and a shared
culture, to a much greater extent than its West European and
North American
counterparts. Israeli youth, for instance, have a clear propensity
toward conformity and
conservative values (Mayseless and Salomon 2003). Given the
increased influence of
global culture, the outlooks of Israeli adolescents can teach us
about how this culture is
experienced and understood, and how it influences youth
cultures in local contexts.
The case of Israeli youth raises a number of questions about
their diverging
characteristics, and about those characteristics that are
nationally and globally prevalent.
The current study strives to broaden our knowledge of the
possible adoption of characters
from the global culture into the identity-driven, value-laden
world of Jewish-Israeli
adolescents, and the possible influences they might have. In
order to present a generalized
profile of Israeli youth, I have decided to overlook minor
distinctions between students

from different schools (for example, there were more references
to religious characters
who appeared in reality shows among religious schools; there
were slightly more
references to figures from the global culture in schools with
students from higher
socioeconomic backgrounds). This, I believe, does not detract
from the strength of the
results and the conclusions reached.
Results
Despite the documented behavioral and emotional influences of
popular culture on young
people, the results indicate that celebrities are neither heroes
nor role models for Israeli
adolescents. In fact, the hero figures most mentioned by
participants were their parents
and Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers, both of whom
represent heroism based on
altruistic behavior and purity of motive. Most students
expressed disrespect toward
famous figures from the media. Celebrity worship and
emulation were seen not only as
ignorant, but as dangerous in that they threaten one’s genuine
identity. This result
reinforces the expectation that famous and glorified celebrities
are expected to be their
‘true selves.’ An intermediate image arose between true heroes
and the typical celebrity,
with a small group of figures being attributed with personal and
social virtues. By
utilizing their fame and wealth for the benefit of others, the
celebrities in this group came
closer to the adolescents’ definitions of a hero.

Parents as personal heroes: ‘They’re the ones that make you
who you are’
The family plays a major role in the lives of Israeli youth (Tatar
1998; Mayseless and
Salomon 2003). Even so, stating that parents and older siblings
are personal heroes by
most students was a surprising finding. Yet, it was common
among all participants,
indicating how central parents and the family unit are to Israeli
adolescents. Fifteen-year-
old Ruth described her parents as follows:
I believe my parents to be heroes, because first of all they’re
always there, and know how to
listen, and help, and support when needed. And I always know
they have my back, and that I
have someone to go to if something happens. And in my opinion
that’s the most heroic you
can be.
Parents are viewed as heroes or role models mainly because of
the plethora of areas they
are invested in, such as maintaining good relations among
family members and helping to
tackle the complexities of life. In the words of the interviewees,
their parents do this in
order to give their children a better and more comfortable life.
Lily, 16, described what
she understood as heroic about her parents: ‘I believe that my
parents are like the biggest
heroes. Because … you don’t always value what they do for you
… like, they just do
everything. They support the family, and they’re … caring …
tough stuff….’ These
920 Y. Girsh

quotes were characteristic of both genders. Parents grant values
and love and they work
hard, in contrast to schools and the media, which are perceived
as having negligible
impact. It is parents who teach their children how to behave and
think, and it is parents
who teach them about morality, society, and what is important
in life. For this, the title of
personal heroes is bestowed upon them almost unanimously.
The parents’ significant role
stands in sharp contrast to that of the school, as a student from
Tel-Aviv suggested:
I don’t think a person gets his values from school. At least from
what I’ve seen and from
others, the values they [school’s staff] try to teach are quite
banal … values that a person
doesn’t need school for: ‘accepting the other,’ ‘equality’ and
such…. (degrading tone).
Teachers who take a clear moral standpoint, who ‘bring
themselves’ and not just what
they teach, are the exceptions rather than the norm.
Soldiers as collective heroes: ‘they fought for us to be able to
be here, in this
country’
The second group of hero figures the interviewees acknowledge
is comprised of IDF
soldiers. From its advent, Israeli society has emphasized
contribution to the collective as a
core value (Lebel 2006). Until the 1970s, the education system
urged pupils to revere

figures who represented sacrifice for the state, as heroes in
whose footsteps one should
follow (Sheffi 2002; Shimony 2003). In a society in which
security threats are still a core
issue in public debate, the army and especially its soldiers are
portrayed as the saviors of
society. Although Lebel (2006) points to a general decrease in
the IDF’s unchallenged
status in times of relative tranquility, youth’s consensual
identification of soldiers as
heroes suggests that their place in the cultural imagery holds
steady.
However, given recent changes in the discourse on contribution
versus individualism,
consumption, and leisure, this same identification is present in a
stronger way than might
have been assumed. As Gaya said:
It’s not one person … but in my view, heroes … our soldiers are
… going off to battle and
willing to die for us. To defend us. To protect our country. In
my eyes they are heroes who go
out to the battlefield and they are vulnerable … those are
people, like, really, to worship.
Though most state and state religious Jewish schools promote
army service as a desirable
goal, the high levels of identification with, and sense of
obligation to, soldiers is to be
understood as a dominant feature in Israeli society, rather than
as a consequence of
educational goals. Interestingly, most students did not mention
specific names of soldiers,
and found it difficult to do so when asked. The use of plural
pronouns and the sense of

commitment to the community that were prominent in Gaya’s
response also appeared in
the comments of another respondent:
… we worked so hard to achieve, we worked so hard, like, the
generations before us …
worked so hard to get here. They went through the Holocaust.
It’s not … not something to
take lightly. We didn’t get this country like it was just waiting
for us … it wasn’t just waiting
for us. We got this country through blood and death, and we
fought for this country.
[emphasis mine, Y.G.]
Soldiers represent a general category symbolizing heroism,
while the most valued are
those who fell in battle. Adolescents adhere to the view that a
soldier serving in a combat
unit typifies valor: an individual acting altruistically on behalf
of the community while
renouncing individualistic interests, exposing himself to the
threat of physical harm and
even death. These findings suggest that self-sacrifice in the
name of the state and its
people still stands as a central pillar in the definition of heroism
in current Israeli society
and among its youth. The citing of heroes in this study points to
how the participants
understand heroism, their parents are their personal and private
heroes, while soldiers
stand for the strong collective values in Israeli society.
Contributing to the community

and the motives for doing so are the central standards by which
the question of what
constitutes a hero are measured. In the following section, I will
show how the
interviewees evaluate celebrities according to these individual
traits as categories of
moral judgment.
Celebrities are (someone else’s) heroes
For the adolescents who participated in this study, celebrities
are not heroes. They are not
even viewed as role models or figures to be idolized. As was
evident with the
interviewees’ choices of heroes, the primary criterion for
heroism is how much one
contributes to the collective. I argue that these standards
exclude most of the famous
people identified as celebrities. Celebrities are distinguished
from heroes in that the
former are viewed as hollow; some of them, students state, have
done nothing to gain
their fame and recognition. This viewpoint was expressed by
Jacky when asked to define
heroes and celebrities, giving Hollywood actors as an example:
I don’t believe a famous person who you see on TV is a hero.
There are lots of people I like
to watch … But I don’t think they’re heroes. Anyway, that’s
their job … they get money
for it.
Even though Jacky is not dismissive of celebrities – as most of
her peers were – they do
not meet the standards of heroism. Jacky’s definition
distinguishes between celebrities
and heroes in terms of the motives for their actions. According

to this logic, true heroes
are driven toward different goals than celebrities, the former do
their duty and do not
demand public recognition while forgoing self-interest, which is
seen as unworthy.
Celebrities are not exceptional in any admirable way, as Rosy, a
12th grader shared
her view on some of the ‘Big Brother’ contestants: ‘[It] is
possible that some of them are
talented people. But they aren’t people who in my view you can
follow… they haven’t
done anything meaningful. Trailblazers or something. [They’re]
just regular people….’
Reality shows arose quite often when students were asked to
define a celebrity. Shlomìt, a
religious student, described contestants in the Israeli talent
reality show ‘A Star is Born’:
‘… Listen. They’re cute, we adore them, like, because of their
voices and how good they
look, but not like heroes. Because they aren’t heroes. What?
What have they gone
through?! … What have they contributed?!’
These definitions create a sharp distinction between celebrities
and heroes. As prior
studies have noted (North, Bland, and Ellis 2005), heroes are
understood to be figures
who have contributed significantly to their fields, winning them
long-term reputations, in
contrast to celebrities, whose contributions are negligible and
whose fame is short-lived.
For many students, Justin Bieber epitomizes all that is appalling
about celebrity worship:
922 Y. Girsh

He is the stereotypical superficial, value-empty celebrity,
derided and sneered at: ‘he’s an
a__hole,’ ‘just a kid … that hasn’t done anything and will be
forgotten in a year,’ are but
a few of the more patronizing and dismissive quotes.
It is worth diverting discussion away from the negative impact
of the media and
toward adolescents’ understanding and interpretations of it.
Admitting to being a ‘Big
Brother’ fan (very popular in Israel), Hila put it as follows:
‘They’re nothing. In our view
they’re not role models … they made me laugh for a month and
a half, that’s it … next!!’
Hila stressed the marginal place of media-born figures and their
interchangeability, as
well as the role that television shows fulfill and their potential
influence on her values and
behavior. They offer adolescents momentary enjoyment, which
they do not experience as
having a direct impact on their lives. The students view
characters in the media with
much cynicism, recognizing the marketing mechanisms at play
around celebrities and the
arbitrariness of their success. They claim to be familiar with
and critical of the processes
by which these media personae are created, packaged, and
promoted. At the center of the
debate over popular culture and its representations is the
specific case of the category of
celebrity as an index of success. This is an important point in
understanding how Israeli
youth formulate their identity in the context of fame and fortune

as dominant cultural
values.
‘I celebrate myself’: individualism and identity work
Three traits that lie at the foundation of the American ethos –
individualism, economic
success, and competitiveness – have spread through Western
capitalist culture as a whole.
Sociologist Robert Bellah and his colleagues (1985) termed it
utilitarian individualism.
As these values were gaining dominance, critique was directed
at this interpretation of
self-fulfillment, particularly that it left too little room for
deeper expressions of the self.
Eighteenth-century writers were at the forefront of this critique,
contributing to the
emergence of what Bellah termed expressive individualism.
They urged people to march
to the beat of their ‘inner drummer,’ that which leads their
heart, expressing admiration
for non-conformism and rejecting traditional notions of success.
Authenticity as a
concept, however, should not be understood as independent of
other cultural dictums. In
fact, ‘authenticity’ is used by advertisers and, as Heike states,
‘sells quite well’ (2004).
Commensurately, Marshall (2006) pointed to celebrities’
essential statuses as ‘hyper-
individuals’ as contrasting with the foundation of consumer
culture, expressing identity
and individuality to the extreme.
Both analytical understandings of individualism were drawn
upon by the inter-
viewees, who referred to the centrality of true self. The
phenomenon of celebrity worship

received its share of criticism; in particular, it was seen as
being driven by fame and
materialism. In a heated conversation about a young female pop
singer’s haircut, a student
argued why one should not imitate others: ‘Cause you should try
to be yourself, don’t be
someone else….’ Imitation and idolization might also signal a
lack of certainty or even a
crisis of one’s self-identity. To use Muggleton’s
conceptualization, the media plays a role
in ‘both the self-construction of their authenticity and their
perception of other members
as inauthentic’ (2006, 12). When searching for self-identity,
adolescents must make
critical decisions about their present lives and who they want to
be when they grow up
(Furlong and Cartmel 1997; Kjeldgaard and Askegaard 2006).
Popular culture and its
representations are a central part of the shaping of the self, as
adolescents build their
identity through or counter to it. While attempts to adopt a
certain celebrity’s abilities or
qualities are accepted with resignation, much criticism is
leveled at those who try to
mimic their external appearance. Shachar stressed the
importance of inspiration and role
models, but drew a clear line:
I believe people shouldn’t just aspire to be someone else, [they
should] understand that they
are themselves and that they won’t be anyone else. And they can

draw inspiration from as
many people as they want, but they need to stay critical and
think about what they are doing,
and not do it blindly.
Changing one’s behavior, thoughts, or appearance strikes a blow
at individualism and free
will, as well as at the commitment to autonomously create one’s
identity. Gál made a
similar point:
I believe that what’s dangerous in idolization is that you try to
be like someone, and you
really lose yourself a bit, because you are trying to be like
someone all the time, but you miss
out on someone else you could have been.
The obligation to be true to one’s self reflects the power
expected of the individual, while
imitation creates the fear of losing independence and one’s
sense of criticism. These
concepts reinforce the importance of a hero character from
which one can learn worthy
values without losing one’s own self-image and independent
opinions.
Walt Whitman, who is quoted in the title for this section, urged
us to celebrate our
unique identities. Above all, freedom meant expressing oneself,
standing up to society’s
conventions and demands. This is how Sagi, 16, described these
ideas:
I am who I am. I don’t aspire to be anyone else… What I need
to fix in me, I will continue to
fix throughout my life, in due course… When I get there, I’ll be

me. I’ll act as per how I
believe.
This is a clear example of expressive individualism wherein the
individual sees standards
for what he values in himself. This is not egocentrism, or
freedom without responsibility,
an accusation widely laid at the doorstep of youth. On the
contrary, the ultimate use of
one’s freedom and independence is the exploration and
expression of the self, combined
with protection from adverse external influences.
Popular culture plays an important role in presenting these two
models of
individualism and marketing them both as legitimate and
dominant forms of self-
expression. As products of consumer society ourselves, we can
understand teenagers’
contempt for it, and opposition toward it, even as they use its
prevalent discourse.
Adolescents’ contempt for celebrities results from their having
adopting messages
communicated in the movies and music of that very same
popular culture (Bulman
2005). Thus, we have a struggle between the expressive
individualism displayed as a
result of the urge for authenticity among adolescents, and the
utilitarian individualism
typified by the success, wealth, and power personified in
celebrity figures.
The demand for authenticity, or acting according to worthy
motives, is also made of
the celebrities themselves and defines the level of esteem or
scorn in which they are held.

Esteem is aroused by personal investment, hard work, and the
pursuit of one’s dreams. In
contrast, a celebrity who is viewed as interested in fame alone,
or who has not earned her
position, is less valued. Adolescents emphasize the importance
of being true to oneself,
even in the aftermath of fame, and do not appreciate it when
success ‘goes to their heads.’
924 Y. Girsh
Israeli recording artist Eyal Golan, who emerged from a number
of youth polls as the
most idolized artist, arose in a conversation between three 10th-
grade girls, interrupting
each other:
Talia Let’s say Eyal Golan. In my eyes, the man really made it
… he didn’t start off for the
show, he started off ‘cause he loves it.
Noya And he’s not like that anymore. He got bad…
Talia He’s got money, he’s got stuff … he just got
commercialized … he only cares about
money…
Liron I like it when you do what you love and stay humble
about it…
Talia He’s only interested in how big his shows are, and that
they’ll be really big, and that’s
it… instead of singing songs, and making people happy.
Following Muggleton (2000), the respondents’ resistance to or
withdrawal from certain
celebrities must be understood as a choice made within
consumerist culture, not outside

it. Golan is perceived here as having fallen into the trap of fame
and materialism and as
having failed to adhere to the personal commitment to
‘remember where you came from.’
He has been given the worst label possible – ‘a sellout’ (Regev
2011) – someone who
submits to corporate interests, betraying both his fans and
himself. In contrast, one of the
interviewees mentioned John Lennon and the Beatles as artists
who did not sell out, and
did not say what others wanted them to. Lennon was one of just
a few celebrities who
were labeled as a role model, an authentic character who
represents worthy values. These
characters, which are a part of popular culture, are placed in a
separate category. They are
positioned between the lowly celebrity and the valued hero. The
next section will deal
with figures considered ‘worthy’ by the respondents.
Not only rich and famous: moving up the celebrity – hero ladder
As mentioned, most celebrities are accused of egotism and are
portrayed as being
promoted by others for their own material gain. In Israel, public
figures who did not serve
in the IDF are reviled in public opinion, regardless of their
success. This is a prevalent
discourse according to which contribution to the collective
deserves recognition and
social remuneration. While some members of the dominant
culture find their way into
adolescents’ moral landscape, very few respondents cited
famous figures as their personal
heroes.
Selecting family members and soldiers as heroes epitomizes,

each in their own way,
the importance given to two substantial characteristics that
celebrities lack: altruism
(benefiting others), and authenticity, which is defined as action
out of pure motives.
However, the few that did choose figures who could have been
celebrities solidifies how
alternative choices might be made. This is how Tahel described
Angelina Jolie, for
instance: Even though she is not a personal hero of Tahel’s,
Jolie does symbolize a
different category from the one with which she is usually
associated:
There are actors who do a lot… with their fame for other issues.
[Jolie] does a lot… she’s an
ambassador in Africa, and she adopts kids, and she cares, and
she gives a lot of money… and
she does lots of stuff… like she uses her fame for other things.
So she is kind of a hero,
‘cause she does other things. She doesn’t just appear in films.
She does something with it.
Jolie’s heroism lies in that ‘extra mile’: her financial
generosity, the time she invests, and
the selfless utilization of her fame for promoting worthwhile
goals push her along the
celebrity – hero continuum. Her actions define her moral worth
and her humanity beyond
the silver screen, as well as her seemingly sincere will to help
others. Meanwhile, Shiri
saw in John Lennon an exceptional artist who ‘swam against the

current,’ a typical heroic
aspect:
John Lennon is cool. The thing about him is that he had
opinions, he had values – how do I
put this? – He represented something more than his music and
his personal success –
values… He represented peace. He represented certain opinions,
and they were his own
opinions, he acted on them. In contrast to all kinds of
interchangeable pop stars today …
[who] sign onto some label and then do what their boss tells
them to. They’re characters
representing consumerism.
Shiri’s admiration for Lennon is attributed to the humanity that
she detects through his
celebrity image. Her words express well how others have
credited Lennon: His heroism is
built on perceptions of his authenticity – a singular trait among
artists – and on the fact
that he publicly declared what he stood for and fought for it. It
smoothly transfers him
over to the heroic end of the continuum. Lennon’s name was
mentioned a number of
times, if not for his political and social views, then for his
violent death, which is also part
and parcel of many true heroes. These figures show a departure
from social institutions
(i.e., family and the military) so strongly embedded in Israeli
society and culture.
Although rather exceptional, these choices suggests that some
students divert from the
mainstream, taking a more global and unconventional outlook.
Conclusion

This study shows that Israeli adolescents erect a hierarchical
moral scheme of figures
from their close and remote environments, based on their sensed
measure of altruism and
authenticity. The interviewees commonly designated their
parents as personal heroes and
role models, and IDF soldiers as collective heroes worthy of the
highest admiration. In
contrast, celebrities were portrayed as products of popular
culture with little importance in
shaping the respondents’ lives, viewed as a threat to their
authenticity. Finally, some of
the students proposed specific figures who meet the cultural
definition of celebrity, yet
whose actions and motives were deemed closer to those of
heroes.
The study highlights the interrelations between celebrity
culture, authenticity, and
young people’s identity development. The media and its offered
role models play two
different roles, as it symbolizes for youth something to oppose,
as well as an implicit
source assisting young people’s self-construction. I suggest that
Israeli adolescents’
traditional accounts on collective contribution still hold
strongly, alongside close familial
relationships. This, however, should not be understood as
unquestioning regurgitation of
traditional discourses. I am not arguing here that the consumer
culture or its ever-
changing, itinerant models do not have a significant influence
on our society and the
adolescents therein. On the contrary, it is impossible to study
these influences without

understanding their centrality to the molding of an individual’s
identity in the current era.
We need to grant 16- to 17-year-olds’ status as active agents,
negotiating a complex
relationship with existing, sometimes contradicting, narratives,
be they national or
cultural.
926 Y. Girsh
Future studies should take into account a deeper understanding
of the role that family
plays for young people in Israel, which is known to be a
familial society. Also, if we are
to portray young people’s influential figures of morality and
authority, the absence of
educational figures (from school and the community) calls for
more in-depth observation.
Finally, a cross-cultural perspective could fruitfully be explored
to study these issues in
local and global contexts.
Acknowledgments
I wish to thank Gad Yair for his comments and the delegates to
‘Celebrities: Exploring Critical
Issues,’ held in Lisbon, Portugal, 10–12/3/2013. This research
was supported by the Israeli Ministry
of Science and Technology.
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AbstractIntroductionMethodologyHeroes and celebrities in
changing timesPopular culture, celebrities, and their influence
on adolescentsAdolescents and youth in IsraelResultsParents as
personal heroes: 'They're the ones that make you who you
are'Soldiers as collective heroes: 'they fought for us to be able
to be here, in this country'Celebrities are (someone else's)
heroes'I celebrate myself': individualism and identity workNot
only rich and famous: moving up the celebrity - hero
ladderConclusionAcknowledgmentsReferences

The different colors are here to show you the five different parts
of each
annotation. Your annotations do not need color and should
simply be typed
in black.
Toto, Christian. “Donning The Uniform; Proponents give A+ To
Student Dress Code.”
Washington Times, 24 Mar. 2003, B01. Nexis Uni,
advance.lexis.com/api/permalink/
b01c400e-6695-48af-a924-271fdf1268c9/?context=1516831.
Accessed 3 Aug. 2017.
Christian Toto is a freelance reporter and an award-winning
journalist. He has been
writing for newspapers, magazines, and the Web for over ten
years, and his work has appeared in
People magazine, MovieMaker magazine, The Denver Post, The
Pittsburg Tribune-Review and
The Washington Times. He also provided movie commentary
for the Dennis Miller Show and
runs the blog, “What Would Toto Watch?” He is also a member
of the Broadcast Film Critics
Association, the Washington DC Area Film Critics Association,
and the Denver Film Critics

Society. He currently resides in Denver, Colorado and
frequently writes about popular culture
for The Washington Times. (“Topic-Christian Toto.” The
Washington Times, The Washington
Times, n.d. washingtontimes.com/topics/christian-toto/.
Accessed 3 Aug. 2017.)
Toto writes about the positive impact that school uniforms have
had in the Southeast.
Toto interviewed a mother whose four children attend schools
that require uniforms, and he
discusses the reasons uniforms are growing in popularity and
numbers across the nation. The
parents that he interviewed all said that uniforms have eased
their children’s lifestyle and
enhanced their performance in school. Toto writes that in
addition to unifying the population of
school, school uniforms have also helped with school safety
because no students have been
caught smuggling weapons and there is also significantly less
fighting among the students. Toto
also discusses the complaints about uniforms from parents; he
writes that the only complaint that

parents had was the high price of the uniforms. However, some
parents have donated uniforms
outgrown by their children to help those who cannot afford
them. Overall, he explains that the
students and parents have embraced the mandatory uniform
policy due to all the positive results,
from elevated mock SAT scores to significantly less brawls in
the school. This article will be
helpful in my essay because I can use the author’s research
about how school uniforms have
positively affected students’ performance in school to support
my argument that schools should
adopt a uniform policy. Another part of the article that I find
really helpful is that Toto offers a
solution to the complaints from the parents about the high
prices of uniforms. Toto’s article
extends some of the concerns from parents that my article by
Mark Johnson only briefly
mentions.
Vitale, Robert “Opinions overflow – Folks at a meeting about a
Hilltop Casino were split
between creating jobs or making a dumping ground.” Columbus
Dispatch, 6 Jan. 2010,

01A. Nexis Uni, advance.lexis.com/api/permalink/b01c400e-
6695-48af-a924-
271fdf1268c9/?context=1527720. 13 Aug. 2017.
Robert Vitale has been a reporter for The Columbus Dispatch
since 2004. He graduated
from Ball State University in 1987, and began his career as an
editor for The News Dispatch in
Michigan City, Indiana. For over 20 years, Vitale has extended
his reporting efforts with the
Lansing State Journal, The Sheboygan Press, and Thomson
Newspapers in Washington D.C.
(“Robert Vitale.” Facebook, Facebook, Inc., n.d.,
facebook.com/bob.vitale.1. Accessed 13 Aug.
2017.)
Vitale details the growing concerns local residents have about
Columbus’ decision for a
casino location. The public meetings that were held in 2010
gave casino developers and city
officials clearer insight on what the people on the West Side
wanted to gain as a result of the
casino being built in their neighborhood. Vitale writes about the
emotional pleas many lifelong

residents of the Hilltop area extended to the panel of leaders at
the Greater Hilltop Area
Commission meeting. This article shows the determination for a
positive change in an area of
Columbus that rarely gets any attention. This article will be
useful because of the predetermined
ideas and concerns that were voiced among area commissions
and city leaders. Vitale writes
about how Penn National, the current casino developer, needed
additional feedback as they
continued to map out plans for choosing the right location for
their building. This also will be a
great addition because I will be able to compare these predicted
concerns with those of
neighboring cities (as described in my other article by Corbin
Smith) that have already begun to
see the effects of constructing a casino in their city.
Appleby, Andrew D. "Pay at the Pump: How $11 per Gallon
Gasoline Can Solve the United
States' Most Pressing Challenges." Cumberland Law Review,
vol. 40, no. 1, Jan. 2009,
pp. 3-85. EBSCOhost,
cscc.ohionet.org/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.

aspx?direct=true&AuthType=cookie,ip,uid&db=a9h&AN=50467
181&site=ehost-live.
Accessed 18 Aug. 2017.
Andrew D. Appleby was a Graduate Tax Scholar in the LL.M. in
Taxation program at
Georgetown University Law Center in 2010. Prior to focusing
on tax law, he was an associate in
the Energy Infrastructure, Climate, & Technology Group of a
leading Atlanta-based law firm. He
has earned the following degrees: J.D. 2008, Wake Forest
University School of Law; M.B.A.
2004, University of Massachusetts-Amherst; B.S. 2003, Florida
State University. (“Andrew D.
Appleby.” Sutherland, Sutherland Asbill & Brennan LLP, n.d.,
us.eversheds-sutherland.com/
people/Andrew-D-Appleby. Accessed 29 July 2017. & “Andrew
D. Appleby.” Martindale,
Martindale-Hubbell, n.d., martindale.com/new-york/new-
york/andrew-d-appleby-44882691-a/.
Accessed 29 July 2017.)
Appleby determines that most of our country’s problems are a
result of our addiction and

over-consumption of foreign oil. His major points for change
revolve around national security,
climate change, and public health. He believes the solution to
the problem would be to greatly
increase the tax on gasoline so that most consumers would
literally be unable to afford it. This
would force the expansion of alternative energy solutions.
Basically, he predicts that if the price
of gas were to be raised to $11/gal, everyone would drive a
hybrid or electric car. He also shows
that new jobs could be created if the percentage of hybrid cars
would increase. I can use the
article because it has a lot of powerful examples and statistics
about hybrid cars and spending.
Appleby is a big hybrid car supporter. His theory seems so
much different than the simple ones
explained in my other articles. They just argue that people
should get hybrid cars, but Appleby
takes it a step further and suggests “making” people buy
hybrids.
Ferenchik, Mark. “Study: Casino to revitalize West Side.”
Columbus Dispatch, 14 July 2011,
1B. Nexis Uni, advance.lexis.com/api/permalink/b01c400e-
6695-48af-a924-

271fdf1268c9/ ?context=2834161. Accessed 2 Aug. 2017.
Mark Ferenchik has been a reporter for The Columbus Dispatch
since 1998. He graduated
from Kent State University in 1984 with a bachelor’s degree in
journalism. His career began by
working as a county court reporter for The Medina County
Gazette in Medina, Ohio. He also
continued his efforts as a county, city, and enterprise reporter
for The Repository in Canton,
Ohio. Currently, his writing and reporting focuses on urban
development, government issues and
sports writing. (“Mark Ferenchik.” linkedin.com, LinkedIn
Coporation, n.d., linkedin.com/in/
mark-ferenchik-9351b57. Accessed 1 Aug. 2017.)
Ferenchik writes about the city’s proposals and efforts to
expedite the construction
process of the casino development in Columbus. He details how
the changing demographics of
the city’s west side will impact how new businesses are
marketed to. For instance, he clarifies
that 26% of the people in the area are Latino and developers
will have to carefully determine

how to market to them. Marketing, Ferenchick explains, will
play a pivotal role for investors and
much attention will need to be given to the already vacant
business community. One study
indicated that an increase in annual visitors would ultimately
provide $450 million of revenue for
nearby businesses, restaurants and hotels. Ferenchick also
reports that the decision to develop a
casino and other new businesses on the West Side will motivate
land-developers into
constructing a multi-sport athletic center for AAU athletes,
including basketball, volleyball,
indoor track, soccer and mixed martial-arts competitions. This
article will be useful for my essay
because it gives insight on what city officials have in store for
the west side of Columbus. This
will also provide valid information regarding surrounding
business and the positive economic
outlook. Unlike some of my other articles— especially the one
by Smithson—this article looks at
the casino as a very positive addition to the community.

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