English annotation writing #2

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

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:

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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

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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

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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

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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.]

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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:

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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

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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.’

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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.

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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.

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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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