The politics of heroes through the prism of popular heroism

Abstract

In modern day Britain, the discourse of national heroification is routinely utilised by politicians, educationalists, and cultural industry professionals, whilst also being a popular concept to describe deserving 'do-gooders' who contribute to British society in a myriad of ways. We argue that although this heroification discourse is enacted as a discursive devise of encouraging politically and morally desirable behaviour, it is dissociated from the largely under-explored facets of contemporary popular heroism. To compensate for this gap, this paper explores public preferences for heroes using survey data representative of British adults. This analysis demonstrates a conceptual stretching in the understanding of heroism, and allows identifying age-and gender-linked dynamics which effect public choices of heroes. In particular, we demonstrate that age above all determines the preference for having a hero, but does not explain preferences for specific hero-types. The focus on gender illustrates that the landscape of popular heroism reproduces a male-dominated bias which exists in the wider political and cultural heroification discourse. Simultaneously, our study shows that if national heroificiation discourse in Britain remains male-centric, the landscape of popular heroism is characterised by a gendered trend towards privatisation of heroes being particularly prominent among women. In the conclusion, this paper argues for a conceptual revision and re-gendering of the national heroification discourse as a step towards both empirically grounded, and age-and gender sensitive politics of heroes and heroines.

Heroism and paramedic practice: A constructivist metasynthesis of qualitative research

“…Popular cultural, societal, and political heroism narratives may reflect a male-dominated bias ( Danilova and Kolpinskaya, 2020 ). Ambulance work and its culture are also often depicted as heroic and masculine ( Furness et al, 2021 ) despite marked workforce demographic changes in recent years.…”

Me? A Hero? Gendered Work and Attributions of Heroism among Volunteers during the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…Although Porpora (1996) encouraged greater attention to adults’ attributions of heroism over two decades ago, studies examining individuals’ assessments of heroism have continued to focus on children and adolescents ( Estrada et al, 2015 ; Gash and Bajd, 2005 ; Holub et al, 2008 ). This is especially true in respect to analyses of the gendered features of hero attribution ( Danilova and Kolpinskaya, 2020 ; Kinsella et al., 2015b ). The limited studies focusing on adults diverge from and parallel studies on youth.…”

“…The limited studies focusing on adults diverge from and parallel studies on youth. In contrast to children, adults regularly indicate that they either do not have a hero or express reservations about identifying one ( Danilova and Kolpinskaya, 2020 ; Porpora, 1996 ; Yair et al, 2014 ). Nevertheless, laboratory studies show that popular depictions of heroes can influence adults’ understandings of themselves ( Pennell and Behm-Morawitz, 2015 ) and whether men or women can be heroic ( Rankin and Eagly, 2008 ).…”

“…Nevertheless, laboratory studies show that popular depictions of heroes can influence adults’ understandings of themselves ( Pennell and Behm-Morawitz, 2015 ) and whether men or women can be heroic ( Rankin and Eagly, 2008 ). Echoing research on children, women are more likely than men to indicate that a woman is their hero ( Danilova and Kolpinskaya, 2020 ; Donoghue and Tranter, 2018 ; Rankin and Eagly, 2008 ). Nevertheless, overall, adults are more likely to identify men as heroes ( Danilova and Kolpinskaya, 2020 ; Donoghue and Tranter, 2018 ; Rankin and Eagly, 2008 ) or associate masculinized occupations such as ‘fireman’ with heroism ( Keczer et al, 2016 ).…”

“…Echoing research on children, women are more likely than men to indicate that a woman is their hero ( Danilova and Kolpinskaya, 2020 ; Donoghue and Tranter, 2018 ; Rankin and Eagly, 2008 ). Nevertheless, overall, adults are more likely to identify men as heroes ( Danilova and Kolpinskaya, 2020 ; Donoghue and Tranter, 2018 ; Rankin and Eagly, 2008 ) or associate masculinized occupations such as ‘fireman’ with heroism ( Keczer et al, 2016 ). Men and women also sometimes associate different characteristics with heroism.…”