Wonder Woman Overcame Her Origin Story to Become a Feminist Icon.docx

Wonder Woman Overcame Her Origin Story to Become a
Feminist Icon
Graeme McMillan
5 June 2017
Wired
THIRTY-THREE YEARS. IT'S been thirty-three years since a
female superhero has anchored her own movie—
1984's Supergirl being the most recent example1. (Catwoman
and Elektra? Both antiheroes. Don't @ me.) And as comic
books' first female hero, Wonder Woman was long overdue for
her full-length feature adaptation, which dominated theaters this
weekend. But despite Diana of Themyscira's legacy of
empowerment and independence, it wasn't either of those things
that gave us she of the golden lasso and the invisible jet—it was
a crush gone wild. In fact, her entire comic-book career has
been a frustrating slow march to heroism, beset throughout by a
series of story constraints that conspired to make both her
power and her character the product of other people's decisions.
Wonder Woman's first appearance, 1941's All-Star Comics#8,
recounts why she came to America in the first place. To save
the world, right? you guess. Nope! Wonder Woman came to
America as a lovestruck teenager. Captivated by dreamy
American soldier Steve Trevor, who crash-landed on her home
island, Diana enters a contest to demonstrate that she is "the
strongest and wisest of the Amazons." If she wins, she gets to
accompany Trevor back to his home country in "Man's World."
Her mother, Queen Hippolyta, is not so into this whole contest
thing, but Diana is so busy being a heart-eyed emoji that she
doesn't care. "I must see him!" she exclaims to her mother, arms
outstretched. "I must know who he is, how he got here! And
why he must leave? I—I love him!"

HARRY G PETER/DC ENTERTAINMENT
And win she does, which leads to Diana's adoption of her heroic
moniker. Again, though, outside forces dictate her path; it's not
Diana who chooses the title, but her mother. "In America you'll
indeed be a 'Wonder Woman,' for I have taught you well,"
Hippolyta explains. Diana gets no credit: Not only is she doing
everything because of a man she literally has just met, but she's
using an identity given to her by her mother.
It gets weirder, though. According to 1959's Wonder
Woman#105, baby Diana was visited—and gifted—by a
pantheon of mythological beings. Aphrodite gave her "all the
beauty of goodness," Athena, "all the wisdom of the planets,"
and Mercury and Hercules granted her speed and strength
(respectively) greater than even their own. In other words, she's
smarter, faster and stronger than everyone else; looking back at
her first appearance, her ruse to win a contest reads more and
more like a lovesick girl abusing her abilities to spend more
time with her first crush.
ROSS ANDRU/DC ENTERTAINMENT
The bedrock of Wonder Woman's character didn't change, in
fact, until George Perez rebooted her mythos in 1986. The first
issue of Perez's Wonder Woman Vol. 2 #1 (written with Greg
Potter) rewrites the hero's origin significantly: Instead of
leaving the island of the Amazons to follow Steve Trevor, Diana
emerges as a champion to battle Ares, a god whose philosophy
of brute force has corrupted the outside world. So much for
Diana's lovestruck ambitions—here, she simply wants to do
good, for its own sake.
GEORGE PEREZ/DC ENTERTAINMENT
Still, even this rewritten version of events doesn't let Diana

stand on her own two boots. Not only are her powers literally
god-given, but even her rebellion against her mother (who
forbade her to compete) is approved and encouraged by Athena.
Diana's destiny is a matter not of decision, but of fate. True
agency was still another 30 years away.
That's when the "Year One" storyline began in the
current Wonder Woman comic book. Writers Greg Rucka and
Nicola Scott, both longtime fans of the character, managed to
synthesize the Wonder Woman's various origins into a complete
whole—one that grants Diana the power to make her own
decisions and standing up for herself. Steve Trevor is back in
the "Year One" origin, once again showing up on the shores of
Themyscira. He's still dreamy, but this time it's not a crush that
motivates Diana to become champion of the Amazons—it's a
competitive streak. She wants to be the best she could be in her
own right. Compare 1941's "I love him!" to the exchange to the
left below.
Does she win the contest? She's Wonder Woman; of course she
does. However, this time around, the gods don't grant her
powers until she's already left the island—she excelled purely
because of her own efforts. And while there is divine
intervention in his version of Wonder Woman's past, it's of the
distant prophecy kind rather than the gods-put-their-finger-on-
the-scale variety.
The current version of Wonder Woman's origin, then,
recognizes what makes her an inspirational figure and reshapes
her to be an aspirational figure as well: a hero whose struggles
are central to her identity. (Tellingly, perhaps, "Wonder
Woman" is a name given to her by the media after she arrives in
America.) It's been a long time coming, but finally, comic-book
Wonder Woman is an icon of strength and self-determination—
and is truly worthy of her name.
What Makes Risk Takers Tempt Fate?

Kelley McMillan Manley
15 August 2016
National Geographic
Moments before hurling herself off a thousand-foot cliff,
professional climber, wingsuiter and BASE jumper Steph
Davis feels a surge of fear and excitement. Her heart rate spikes
and her insides rumble. As she pushes away from edge, those
electric feelings give way to an intense rush, then deep focus.
She must position her body just so for her wingsuit to fill with
air. Then, she must deploy her parachute at precisely the right
moment and nail her landing, often within the span of 60
seconds.
She’s jumped off thousands of cliffs and understands the risks
inherent to her sport. In 2013, her husband Mario Richard died
while they were wingsuiting together in the Dolomites. Two
years later, her ex-husband Dean Potter died in a wingsuiting
accident in Yosemite Valley, California. Just this week, fellow
wingsuiter and BASE jumper Cameron Minni died when he tried
to jump from Ha Ling Peak outside of Canmore, Alberta.
According to a study by the University of Colorado School of
Medicine, 76 percent of fliers have experienced a close call.
Despite the danger, Davis tries to BASE jump or wingsuit
almost every day of the year.
In the face of such devastating consequences, why are some
people drawn to risky endeavors—to surfing waves 10 stories
high, launching off cliffs on skis, or sailing through the air in a
wingsuit? The answer may lie in a complex mix of genetic,
psychological, and environmental factors.
Even before we’re born, our appetite for risk may be mapped
out in our DNA. “Certain individuals may be driven to take
risks in order to reap the rewards, the rush—and this may be in
part due to their genetic make up,” says Cynthia Thomson, PhD,

the researcher behind a 2014 study from the University of
British Columbia that suggests that risk-taking behavior is, at
least in part, genetic. Thomson’s study was the first to look at
the genetic factors that might make someone predisposed to
participating in extreme sports, which are typically defined as
activities where death or severe injury is a very real possibility.
Think sky-diving, skiing potentially fatal slopes, or rock
climbing without a rope.
For her research, Thomson, an avid skier and climber, headed to
Whistler’s Telus World Ski and Snowboard Festival. She
recruited 386 volunteers—many of whom were professional
skiers and snowboarders—to study a variant of the DRD4
receptor, the so-called “adventure gene.”
After analyzing her volunteers’ DNA, Thomson’s results
suggested that individuals drawn to riskier sports may have a
genetic predisposition to do so. “I found that individuals who
reported riskier behaviors were more commonly of a certain
type of genotype,” explains Thomson. In other words, risk
takers shared a similar genetic constitution.
Though scientists are still trying to understand how this genetic
variant may affect one’s physiology, it’s believed that it
influences how the body processes dopamine, a neurotransmitter
involved in pleasure-seeking and reward-motivated behaviors.
Dopamine is behind the high one feels when charging down a
spicy backcountry slope or climbing a sheer rock face—or when
using drugs. In fact, the neurotransmitter is linked to drug
addiction.
Researchers believe that people with this genetic variant
produce more dopamine receptors, which affects them in two
ways. First, it could mean that someone with more receptors
needs more dopamine to reach a stimulated state, “so they need
to seek out intense situations to bring up their dopamine

levels,” says Thomson.
Another idea is that a person with more of these receptors
experiences a greater burst of dopamine during intense
situations, making the rush feel that much better than that of
some with an average number of receptors. This exaggerated
sensation could reinforce the behavior and make that individual
more likely to do it again because it feels so good.
Severalstudies suggest that our taste for adventure may be
linked to our earliest experiences in the womb and how much
testosterone we’re exposed to in utero. In addition to the levels
of testosterone naturally present in the mother’s body, the fetus
also produces the hormone. The fetal production of testosterone
is determined by genetics—a male fetus produces more of the
hormone. It’s believed that prenatal testosterone alters the brain
structures that govern fear and reward processing. As the theory
goes, the more testosterone you’re exposed to as a fetus, which
men naturally are due to their Y chromosome, the more
adventure you’ll crave.
That’s because testosterone plays a role in the masculinization
of the brain during fetal development. The more prenatal
testosterone in the womb, the more masculinized the brain
becomes, which means the fetus will go on to exhibit more
male-typical behavior after birth—such as rough-and-tumble
play in early years and risk-taking behavior as an adult.
An analysis of existing research in 2011 found that higher
exposure to prenatal and pubertal testosterone was associated
with a propensity for financial risk-taking, and might predict a
person's susceptibility to gambling addiction.
A 2011 study led by Eric Stenstrom, a professor at Miami
University’s Farmer School of Business, studied the effects of
prenatal testosterone on recreational, financial, and social risk
taking. By studying the ratio between the second and fourth

fingers, a common marker for prenatal testosterone exposure,
Stenstrom and his colleagues were able to determine that a
lower ratio between the two digits, which is typical of men, was
predictive of greater risk-taking in social and recreational
domains, things like whitewater rafting and skiing.
“Greater testosterone exposure in utero leads to taking greater
risks in adulthood in various realms of life, from the board
room to the ski hill,” says Stenstrom. “It’s likely that extreme
athletes were exposed to higher than average levels of prenatal
testosterone, albeit our research hasn’t measured this directly.”
However, most scientists agree that personality is an intricate
mix of environmental and genetic influences. When it comes to
environmental factors, several studies have shown that risk-
taking behavior is linked to the earliest bonds we form with our
primary caretakers.
While no study has looked directly at the role of parental
attachment as it pertains to extreme sports, several studies have
examined its affect on other risky behaviors—promiscuous sex,
gambling, drugs—and determined that those with less secure
attachments are more likely to engage in dangerous activities.
And then there’s the common perception that extreme sports
enthusiasts are chasing thrills, but Tim Woodman, a sports
psychology professor at the Bangor University in Wales,
suggests that it's about something altogether different:
emotional regulation. In his view, people who partake in high-
risk sports often have difficulty experiencing emotions, a
condition called alexithymia. They seek out extreme sports as a
way to actually feel.
“These activities force emotion out of them and that primary
emotion is fear. So the person who has difficulty with emotions,
goes into an environment to feel their emotions,” Woodman

says.
If a person has difficulty experiencing and expressing emotions
in everyday life, then risk-taking activities become an exercise
in empowerment in which he or she is able to conquer the most
primal emotion of them all: fear. “It is rewarding because they
have moved from a feeling of inadequacy to a sense of
achievement,” says Woodman.
Some of the most interesting research into risk-taking behavior
in recent years has debunked the notion that daredevils are
reckless thrill seekers.
After Thomson’s 2014 study, she headed to the adventure sports
capital of Chamonix, France, where she carried out a
psychology study on a broader group of high-risk sports
participants, which included not only skiers and snowboarders,
but also ice climbers, ski mountaineers, and paragliders.
She compared the high-risk sports group to low-risk sports
participants—runners and yoga enthusiasts—to determine the
prevalence of the psychological trait of impulsivity, or the
tendency to act with little or no forethought or consideration of
consequences.
“The media portrays high-risk sports people as being reckless,
as being adrenaline junkies who are out to get a high no matter
what,” says Thomson. “But what I found is that my high-risk
sports group, they’re not impulsive. They’re not reckless.
Compared to my low risk group, I found no difference in
impulsivity.”
Her findings suggest that, contrary to the commonly held
stereotype, extreme athletes don’t carelessly risk their lives in
pursuit of thrills. Instead, they’re highly skilled masters of their
discipline who take a very thoughtful approach to their sports.

Thomson builds on the work of psychologist Eric Brymer, a
researcher for Queenstown University of Technology in
Brisbane, Australia, who has spent years studying extreme
athletes.
"They’re actually extremely well-prepared, careful, intelligent,
and thoughtful athletes with high levels of self-awareness and a
deep knowledge of the environment and of the activity,” says
Brymer.
For years, professional skiers, BASE jumpers, and climbers
have argued that they’re not reckless, death-wish-having
cowboys. Now, recent research suggests they’re right.
“What participants get from extreme sports is deeply
transformational, a sense of connecting with a deep sense of self
and being authentic, a powerful relationship with the natural
world, a sense of freedom,” says Brymer. “They get a strong
sense of living life to its fullest as if touching their full
potential. Extreme sports participation is about a life wish.”
When it comes to her own appetite for risk, Steph Davis isn’t
quite sure where it came from. Her parents were teachers, and
they expected her to take a more traditional path in life—one
defined, she says, by “academic success.”
“I’m sure it’s all those things—environmental, genetic, things
that happen to you in life, because people are so different and
there can never be one thing that causes things in people,” says
Davis, whose brother, interestingly enough, is also a wingsuiter,
BASE jumper and climber.
“For me, I think I just got put into a situation where there was
something I really felt passionate about, and was completely
opposed to everything I had been brought up to do. I think I was
forced to make that decision in a dramatic way. As a result of
doing that, it sent me down this path of jumping completely into

a place you never thought of doing before and it working out,”
she says.
Davis has made peace with the fact that she could die at any
moment. But for her, as Brymer noted, wingsuiting isn’t about
dying. It’s about squeezing the most out of every precious
moment she’s got left.
What Makes a Hero?
Philip Zimbardo
18 January 2011
What makes us good? What makes us evil?
Research has uncovered many answers to the second question:
Evil can be fostered by dehumanization, diffusion of
responsibility, obedience to authority, unjust systems, group
pressure, moral disengagement, and anonymity, to name a few.
But when we ask why people become heroic, research doesn’t
yet have an answer. It could be that heroes have more
compassion or empathy; maybe there’s a hero gene; maybe it’s
because of their levels of oxytocin—research by
neuroeconomist Paul Zak has shown that this “love hormone” in
the brain increases the likelihood you’ll demonstrate altruism.
We don’t know for sure.
I believe that heroism is different than altruism and compassion.
For the last five years, my colleagues and I have been exploring
the nature and roots of heroism, studying exemplary cases of
heroism and surveying thousands of people about their choices
to act (or not act) heroically. In that time, we’ve come to define
heroism as an activity with several parts.
First, it’s performed in service to others in need—whether that’s

a person, group, or community—or in defense of certain ideals.
Second, it’s engaged in voluntarily, even in military contexts,
as heroism remains an act that goes beyond something required
by military duty. Third, a heroic act is one performed with
recognition of possible risks and costs, be they to one’s
physical health or personal reputation, in which the actor is
willing to accept anticipated sacrifice. Finally, it is performed
without external gain anticipated at the time of the act.
Simply put, then, the key to heroism is a concern for other
people in need—a concern to defend a moral cause, knowing
there is a personal risk, done without expectation of reward.
By that definition, then, altruism is heroism light—it doesn’t
always involve a serious risk. Compassion is a virtue that may
lead to heroism, but we don’t know that it does. We’re just now
starting to scientifically distinguish heroism from these other
concepts and zero in on what makes a hero.
My work on heroism follows 35 years of research in which I
studied the psychology of evil, including my work on the
infamous Stanford Prison Experiment. The two lines of research
aren’t as different as they might seem; they’re actually two
sides of the same coin.
A key insight from research on heroism so far is that the very
same situations that inflame the hostile imagination in some
people, making them villains, can also instill the heroic
imagination in other people, prompting them to perform heroic
deeds.
Take the Holocaust. Christians who helped Jews were in the
same situation as other civilians who helped imprison or kill
Jews, or ignored their suffering. The situation provided the
impetus to act heroically or malevolently. Why did some people
choose one path or the other?

Some people argue humans are born good or born bad; I think
that’s nonsense. We are all born with this tremendous capacity
to be anything, and we get shaped by our circumstances—by the
family or the culture or the time period in which we happen to
grow up, which are accidents of birth; whether we grow up in a
war zone versus peace; if we grow up in poverty rather than
prosperity.
So each of us may possess the capacity to do terrible things. But
we also possess an inner hero; if stirred to action, that inner
hero is capable of performing tremendous goodness for others.
Another conclusion from my research is that few people do evil
and fewer act heroically. Between these extremes in the bell
curve of humanity are the masses—the general population who
do nothing, who I call the “reluctant heroes”—those who refuse
the call to action and, by doing nothing, often implicitly support
the perpetrators of evil.
So on this bell curve of humanity, villains and heroes are the
outliers. The reluctant heroes are the rest. What we need to
discover is how to give a call to service to this general
population. How do we make them aware of the evil that exists?
How do we prevent them from getting seduced to the dark side?
We don’t yet have a recipe for creating heroes, but we have
some clues, based on the stories of some inspiring heroes.
I love the story of a wonderful nine-year-old Chinese boy, who
I call a dutiful hero. In 2008, there was a massive earthquake in
China’s Szechuan province. The ceiling fell down on a school,
killing almost all the kids in it. This kid escaped, and as he was
running away he noticed two other kids struggling to get out.
He ran back and saved them. He was later asked, “Why did you
do that?” He replied, “I was the hall monitor! It was my duty, it
was my job to look after my classmates!” This perfectly
illustrates what I call the “heroic imagination,” a focus on one’s
duty to help and protect others. For him, it was cultivated by

being assigned this role of hall monitor.
Another story: Irena Sendler was a Polish hero, a Catholic
woman who saved at least 2,500 Jewish kids who were holed up
in the Warsaw ghetto that the Nazis had erected. She was able
to convince the parents of these kids to allow her to smuggle
them out of the ghetto to safety. To do this, she organized a
network. That is a key principle of heroism: Heroes are most
effective not alone but in a network. It’s through forming a
network that people have the resources to bring their heroic
impulses to life.
What these stories suggest is that every one of us can be a hero.
Through my work on heroism, I’ve become even more
convinced that acts of heroism don’t just arrive from truly
exceptional people but from people placed in the right
circumstance, given the necessary tools to transform
compassion into heroic action.
Here are a few key insights from research we’ve done surveying
4,000 Americans from across the country. Each of these
statements is valid after controlling for all demographic
variables, such as education and socioeconomic status.
Heroes surround us. One in five—20 percent—qualify as heroes,
based on the definition of heroism I provide above. Seventy-two
percent report helping another person in a dangerous
emergency. Sixteen percent report whistle blowing on an
injustice. Six percent report sacrificing for a non-relative or
stranger. Fifteen percent report defying an unjust authority. And
not one of these people has been formally recognized as a hero.
Opportunity matters. Most acts of heroism occur in urban areas,
where there are more people and more people in need. You’re
not going to be a hero if you live in the suburbs. Nothing ever
happens in the suburbs!

Education matters. The more educated you are, the more likely
you are to be a hero, I think because you are more aware of
situations.
Volunteering matters. One third of all the sample who were
heroes also had volunteered significantly, up to 59 hours a
week.
Gender matters. Males reported performing acts of heroism
more than females. I think this is because women tend not to
regard a lot of their heroic actions as heroic. It’s just what they
think they’re supposed to do for their family or a friend.
Race matters. Blacks were eight times more likely than whites
to qualify as heroes. We think that’s in part due to the rate of
opportunity. (In our next survey, we’re going to track responses
by area code to see if in fact these heroes are coming from inner
cities.
Personal history matters. Having survived a disaster or personal
trauma makes you three times more likely to be a hero and a
volunteer.
Based on these insights into heroism, we’ve put together a
toolkit for potential heroes, especially young heroes in training,
who already have opportunities to act heroically when they’re
kids, such as by opposing bullying. A first step is to take the
“hero pledge,” a public declaration on our website that says
you’re willing to be a hero in waiting. It’s a pledge “to act when
confronted with a situation where I feel something is wrong,”
“to develop my heroic abilities,” and “to believe in the heroic
capacities within myself and others, so I can build and refine
them.”
You can also take our four-week “Hero Challenge” mini-course

online to help you develop your heroic muscles. The challenge
may not require you to do anything heroic, but it’s training you
to be heroic. And we offer more rigorous, research-based
education and training programs for middle and high schools,
corporations, and the millitary that make people aware of the
social factors that produce passivity, inspire them to take
positive civic action, and encourage the skills needed to
consistently translate heroic impulses into action.
We’re also in the process of creating an Encyclopedia of
Heroes, a collection of hero stories from all over the world. Not
just all the classic ones and fictional ones, but ones that people
from around the world are going to send in, so they can
nominate ordinary heroes with a picture and a story. It will be
searchable, so you can find heroes by age, gender, city and
country. These are the unsung, quiet heroes—they do their own
thing, put themselves in danger, defend a moral cause, help
someone in need. And we want to highlight them. We want them
to be inspirational to other people just like them.
Essentially, we’re trying to build the social habits of heroes, to
build a focus on the other, shifting away from the “me” and
toward the “we.” As the poet John Donne wrote: “No man [or
woman] is an island entire of itself; every man is a piece of the
continent, a part of the main; … any man’s death diminishes
me, because I am involved in mankind. And therefore never
send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.”
So every person is part of humanity. Each person’s pulse is part
of humanity’s heartbeat. Heroes circulate the life force of
goodness in our veins. And what the world needs now is more
heroes—you. It’s time to take action against evil.
Thesis statement AND HOOK (FIRST PARGARPAH): A person
could seat in a gambling table with very little money to his
name and walk away as millioners. Gambling has been around

for many centuries, and it has made many men rich, and even
more poorer. Gambling is a risk people can take that can
contribute to bad things such as financial issues and mental
issues, but it can also contribute good to the economy. The
negative of taking risk when gambling overweight the positives.
Main Ideas:
1- Mental issues – Addiction Destroying Families
2- Financial issues – Lose money (debt)/ making rich more rich
and poor poorer
3- Contribute to the economy – Building Cities (Las Vegas)/
Tax
Risk-Takers: What Makes Them Tick?
David Crary
September 8, 2007
Steve Fossett's wealth made his epic adventures possible, but
his relentless willingness to take risks is shared by other on-the-
edge thrill-seekers whose exploits and setbacks have long
fascinated psychologists as well as the public at large.
What prompts climbers to return to the mountains after losing
toes to frostbite and partners to fatal falls? What prompts
daredevil Alain Robert, the self-proclaimed "Spiderman," to
scale scores of the world's tallest structures with bare hands and
no safety net?
"When you get to the very bottom of people who take risks, it's
the thrill of it," said Temple University psychologist Frank
Farley. "It can be a physical thrill, it can be a mental thrill, or it
can be both."

While the search for Fossett and his missing plane continues,
friends and colleagues have described him as a careful planner
who meticulously prepared his adventures _ whether by balloon,
glider or sailboat _ to minimize danger. Some have insisted
"daredevil" is a misnomer for him, even as he was hatching
plans to break the world's land speed record.
But Michael Dunn, whose friendship with Fossett dates back to
an early 1980s climbing expedition in Antarctica, described him
as "the quintessential adventurer" and said risk was always part
of the equation.
"You fully understand that there's a possibility that you might
not come out of this," said Dunn, who was at the Minden, Nev.,
airport where the search for Fossett was being run.
"Is the risk worth the reward? In my opinion it isn't even a
question," he said. "You have to be willing to risk the
possibility of failure."
Farley is a past president of the American Psychological
Association who has extensively studied risk-taking. He says it
is an aspect of human nature with both positive and negative
sides. For example, he said a significant amount of crime is
motivated by thrill-seeking impulses.
"But Steve Fossett was on the constructive side," Farley said.
"He embodies an incredibly important spirit in humanity."
"Often the people who are not the thrill seekers look at that
behavior and say, 'They're crazy,'" Farley added. "In fact, it's
the impulse that created the modern world _ it's the force of
inventiveness, creativity, individuality, change and survival."
Farley says researchers who categorize people at Type A or
Type B personalities should add a third category _ Type T _ for
thrill-seekers.
Many psychologists have linked contemporary risk-taking to
patterns of social change. Those who perceive today's world as
too predictable and safe may be tempted to seek an outlet in the
form of extreme sports such as parachuting off cliffs or
snowmobiling on avalanche-prone mountainsides.
Others take risks in a quest to set records _ to be the youngest,

oldest or first of a certain category to accomplish a particular
feat, such as circumnavigating the globe alone.
"In our modern world, we've eliminated a lot of risks and
threats that our ancestors faced," said Daniel Kruger, a research
scientist at the University of Michigan's School of Public
Health. "People might seek these thrills because their current
environment is so safe it's not giving them the same
stimulation."
For some of these risk-takers, there can be an almost addictive
reaction, Kruger said. "Because they're continually seeking the
thrill that they felt before, they need to do more and more to
recapture that same sensation."
Both Kruger and Farley suggested that risk-taking, in its
positive form, can correlate with business and financial success.
For Fossett, who funded his adventures with a fortune amassed
as a commodities broker, success was a matter of personal
achievement, not of publicity and fame, according to Dunn.
"He's a very low-key, understated person who does the things
that he likes to do for the passion of it," Dunn said.
Recalling a talk with Fossett about adventuring, Dunn
summarized his friend's attitude: "If you do these kinds of
things and you do them well, it's the same sort of philosophy
you need to succeed in business or to succeed in life or to
succeed in marriage or to succeed in anything, because you have
the tenacity and you have the focus and you have the direction
to do that."
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Hero as the Cultural Ideal
Luigi Kapaj
4 February 2010
The concept of heroism reflects values intrinsic to a culture. A
hero embodies the values that adults admire in others and teach
to their children. The literature of various cultures across Asia
contributes much to the concept of a hero and sometimes varies
widely in the virtues portrayed through them.
The most obvious form of hero is in the warrior. This type of
hero is put directly in harm's way and is expected to exhibit
great virtues of heroism. But what exactly those virtues are
differs from culture to culture, even within a given region where
cultures had direct contact and influence upon one another.
Warriors come in many varieties and are presented in forms
romanticized by the respective cultures as with the Indic
Demigods, Japanese Samurai, and the Mongol Baatar.
The ancient Indic epic Mahabharata paints a picture of a hero
that is duty bound to support the role in life into which the hero
was born. The heroes are the children of deities and are imbued
with qualities that reflect their respective deities. A certain
level of detachment is necessary for them to fulfill their duties
as emotions cloud their judgment. Heroic virtues are displayed
by their ability to detach themselves from the misery of warfare,
and fulfill their destined role in life.
The Samurai in the Japanese Tale of Heike shows a hero who is
loyal to his Daimyo and stays with him through good times and
bad, victory and defeat, without running away. This hero is also
cultured and emotional. Whether musical or religious, to a
Samurai, having talents and interests other than just fighting are
crucial attributes, and they do not fear expressing their feelings
about a situation.

The Baatar of The Secret History of the Mongols demonstrate
qualities of loyalty and strength as well as cunning and a
survival instinct. They are caring of their families and show that
the men respect and heed the advice of their wives and mothers.
Mongol Baatar are always masters of the three manly skills of
horsemanship, wrestling and archery.
All these forms of heroes show some common traits in being
warriors. Their strength and skill with weapons, as well as their
ability to win a battle are critical. But the similarities tend to
end there. What defines the hero are the values of the culture
and these cultures vary greatly in many respects. The Indic
demigods reflect the Hindu beliefs of caste and destiny, where
neither of the other culture's heroes show a need to emphasize
the importance of their birth station nor are they players in a
greater cosmic prearranged plan.
One drastic contrast between the Mongolian idea of a Baatar
and the ideal heroes of other culture's warriors, such as a
Samurai, is the importance of survival. In the historical epic of
Chinggis Khaan's life, The Secret History of the Mongols, the
young Temujin is shown to have used stealth to escape
imprisonment, run from a stronger enemy, and hide in the
woods to avoid a fight he could not win. Only when he was in a
position of strength did he return to fight and defeat his enemy.
His ability to survive in a situation that would have overcome a
weaker man is hailed as a heroic quality. This virtue of survival
is expressed in the Mongol proverb "A man can tumble seven
times, but he will rise once." The opposite of this notion, where
a vain aversion to cowardice is considered more important than
survival, is shown in the Japanese Tale of Heike where a young
Samurai named Atsumori is dragged into a losing fight by a
verbal challenge when he could have survived by ignoring the
taunts of his enemy and continuing to avoid the fight. Perhaps it
is the product of the harsh environment in which the Mongol
culture lives, where temperatures can be below freezing and the
ground covered in icy snow for six straight months, that pushes
basic survival into a prominent role. In Japanese culture, the

emphasis is on ritual and etiquette which explains the
importance of the Samurai's behavior over whether or not he
survives the fight.
The material culture is also expressed through the
accoutrements of the culture's heroes. Indic heroes are colorful,
either their skin or clothes, and show their prowess fighting on
a chariot with various weapons from as simple as a club to as
high tech as a bow. Samurai are adorned with elaborate armor
and silk clothes with their fighting skill demonstrated through
use of a sword. Mongol Baatar are typically riding a horse and
proficient with a bow. All these types of heroes represent their
respective cultures in their tools and dress.
The modern day may know many heroes of another sort,
philosophers, statesmen and idealists who exhibit great virtues
admired by society, but what are the classic heroes of this
genre? Literature out of Asia also shows us this other form of
heroism. A culture's virtues and aspirations are not always well
expressed through warriors, but at times through teachers.
These philosopher heroes face challenges no sword can beat, but
rather they overcome challenges of a more intellectual nature.
Considered unusual, but none the less an important player in
the Mahabharata, is the matriarchal Draupadi. She does not play
a submissive role, but rather takes a stand for her rights as a
person. Her defiance, coupled with a well argued and intelligent
defense of her position, is rewarded with her freedom and the
freedom of her five husbands. She displays a strong minded and
independent virtue that is inspiration not only to women seeking
equality, but to anyone resisting any form of oppression. Two
millennia ago, these were qualities to be admired in a woman
and the story is retold today to again promote such virtues as
important to the modern culture.
The Chinese philosopher Confucius presented his own idea of
what a hero of society should be like, revealed to us through
the Analects, the collected notes of his students. His ideal is
introduced as one who enjoys learning and teaching,
interpersonal relationships with other people, and behaves as a

gentleman. A deeper reading showing that to be a good person,
one must do good deeds. A critical trait that makes this sort of
character into heroic proportion is the desire to do good on a
grand scale, to improve his society as a whole. The Confucian
scholar feels the weight of the world on his shoulders and the
need to be a catalyst in improving society.
An interesting correlation among this sort of heroism is the
placement within the governing administration of society. The
philosophical heroes do their work from within the system they
wish to improve, and to do so for the betterment of other
people, not just themselves. They influence leaders and laws in
their society. Their approach does differ in that Confucius was
obsessed with ordering everything into a proper place and
function, while Draupadi defied what she saw as a corrupt
order.
Here is presented two different sorts of heroes. They share a
common role in literature of expressing a culture's virtues and
giving examples for people to strive to live up to. They face
great opposition, be it death or persecution, which must be
overcome. The weapons, and the paths chosen, carefully reflect
important issues in a culture.
These forms of heroes are not exclusive to ancient Asia, but can
also be found in the heroes of American legend. Equally
respected among the founding fathers are the warrior George
Washington and the statesman Benjamin Franklin. Both embody
virtues respected in American society.
Heroes not only do great deeds, but also serve a function of
being a model through which a society's moral values can be
demonstrated and taught. Through reading about the epic heroes
of a culture, one can learn much about that culture and the
qualities it values most.
Works Cited
Cleaves, Francis W., Trans. The Secret History of the Mongols.
Harvard University Press: Cambridge, Massachusetts. 1982
Lau, D. C., Trans. "Analects". The Norton Anthology of World
Literature. Sarah Lawall, Ed. W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.:

New York. 2002
McCullough, Helen C., Trans. "The Tale of Heike". The Norton
Anthology of World Literature. Sarah Lawall, Ed. W. W. Norton
& Company, Inc.: New York. 2002
Miller, Barbara S., Trans. "The Bhagavad-Gita". The Norton
Narasimhan, C. V., Trans."The Mahabharata". The Norton
How Does Time Shape Our View of Heroes?
Khalid Husain
19 November 2013
Often heroes are seen as the harbingers of crucial change in
societies. While heroes may have a profound impact on society,
the converse is also possible: that society alters and shapes
heroes in turn.
These changes may be larger than first realized, sometimes
completely morphing a hero’s core ideals into something
negative. Other times, heroes are created by society,
transforming their core ideals for the better.
No one can be a hero without others thinking they are — it is a
status granted to the hero by the collective, an
acknowledgement of their good deeds or actions. According to
the Merriam Webster Online Dictionary, the very definition of a
hero is “a person … who is admired for courage or noble
qualities.” The word “admiration” indicates that society as a
whole agrees about the hero’s status. For example, today we
view firefighters, police officers, and emergency responders as
heroes because they are courageous and selfless, qualities that
we esteem. Courage has been an admirable characteristic
throughout all of history.

There are certain qualities that make a person heroic which
evolve over time, to fit the characteristics most admired by a
particular culture at that moment in history. Christopher
Columbus is an example of such a hero, specific to a particular
culture and time, who has now has become a controversial
historical figure. King Ferdinand, the Spanish monarch who
funded Columbus’s explorations, viewed the venture as heroic.
After his second voyage, when natives from the Caribbean
Islands were transported to Spain as slaves, Columbus wrote,
“Let us in the name of the Holy Trinity go on sending all the
slaves that can be sold.” This ideology of slavery was also
lauded by many cultures, including some of those of Europe at
that time. While many believed Columbus was heroic for what
he did for the ‘good of the country,’ today the idea of slavery
and oppression is scorned by most cultures and societies,
making Columbus a more ambiguous heroic figure.
In order to be considered a hero a person must meet all the
criteria, both timeless and specific, of his or her society. If the
hero fails to meet society’s changing standards, they will fall
from their former echelon of prestige and respect. A historical
figure whose situation exemplifies this idea was Thomas
Jefferson. Jefferson was the principal author of the Declaration
of Independence and in his first presidential term, he was
lauded for his purchase of the Louisiana territory, upholding the
American doctrine of Manifest Destiny. However, when he
failed to meet the public’s expectations, and as overseas
political tensions grew worse, he fell out of favor with the
public. More specifically, Jefferson wanted the United States to
be a neutral party in the ongoing war between Great Britain and
France, and to continue trade with both countries; both Britain
and France thought trading with the other was an act of war and
refused to acknowledge America as a neutral party. To ease
these tensions, Jefferson proposed a commercial solution,
ending trade with both countries. He hoped this would give the
U.S. greater leverage because of the demand for American
goods, and would force countries to allow the U.S. its neutral

status. However, the Embargo Act of 1807 backfired instead,
eroding the US economy while doing little to chasten Great
Britain and France, and Jefferson lost his popular standing. Of
course, while he lost prestige in the nineteenth century, he is
remembered today as one of the Founding Fathers, a great man
who was influential during the country’s nascence.
The Vietnam War, which began in 1955 and ended in 1975,
demonstrates society’s fickleness about heroes on a much
grander, sadder scale. While the courage of our soldiers was
much admired in World War I and II, towards the later years of
the Vietnam War, the public held a negative opinion of soldiers
fighting that war. The public began to protest the high number
of American casualties, the military draft, military abuses such
as the massacre at My Lai in 1968, and the illegality of
invasions by the U.S. government into neighboring
countries. Vietnam veterans were shunned when they returned
home — cast down from the heroic stature because of the war’s
unpopularity. The admirable qualities of courage, selflessness,
and patriotism were not bestowed upon the veterans of the
Vietnam War until a decade later, when, in the 1980’s, the
Vietnam Memorial was built to honor the fallen heroes of that
war.
Sometimes a shift in societal ideals facilitates the rise of a hero,
rather than causing the downfall of a current one. One example
is Abraham Lincoln, whose actions drastically changed
American history. Though remembered today as an abolitionist,
he was not always against slavery — he refrained from
supporting anti-slavery measures throughout his early life and
even the beginning of his presidency. During his presidency,
however, as popular views shifted and support for the Union
army grew, Lincoln’s own abolitionist activity grew, until his
enactment of the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863, an act
that elevated him even higher in his heroic status because it
made the ending of slavery one of the central goals of the north
in the Civil War.
Heroes who have a great impact on their society are still

influenced, to a certain degree, by the populace and social
conditions around them. For example, Martin Luther King, Jr.,
is a hero we consider to have greatly influenced society rather
than society having influenced him. Through his leadership in
the civil rights movement and through his political protests, he
forever altered American society. Dr. King was not immune to
the influences of society around him, as he, and the civil rights
movement he led, were affected by the racism and prejudice that
was endemic in America at the time. He was educated at
Morehouse College, during a period of separate but equal
education and before schools were integrated in the south. Dr.
King went on to study at Crozer Seminary and eventually earned
a Ph.D. at Boston University in 1955. During his studies, King
attended classes at other prestigious institutions such as the
University of Pennsylvania and Harvard. The degree of pre-
existing societal discrimination demonstrated in America,
coupled with Dr. King’s education, helped facilitate his rise to
the status of hero. His ability to motivate people to embrace the
ideals he preached, and to transform society, was dictated and
provided by the specific conditions of the society around him.
Heroes such as Martin Luther King, Jr. and Abraham Lincoln
have had a great impact on culture and society. These are
people we look up to and individuals whose values we admire.
Yet, society simultaneously shapes and impacts their cause and
their course. If an individual’s actions or beliefs coincide with,
or exemplify, the values of a given time, society will champion
that person as a hero. In this way, changes in social, political,
and economic conditions, and a shift in societal views, such as
those at the time of the Vietnam War, can facilitate the rise or
downfall of a hero. Cultures and societies essentially determine
what is heroic, and who is a hero, and thus have a profound
impact on those they elevate to that status.

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