"Heroes" and "Villains" in the Lives of Children and Young People

• In Event: Roundtable Session 56
  In Roundtable Session: It's More Than TV: Cultural Representation in Media Spaces

Abstract

This paper explores the responses of 1200 young people in Wales who were asked to identify which three famous people they most admired and most disliked. Their selections confirm the importance of celebrities for young people. Their choices are also highly gendered and ‘raced’. Of particular interest is the finding that someone’s ‘villain’ is more than likely to be someone else’s ‘hero’. This suggests that young people’s feelings about celebrities are less to do with the attributes of the famous person and more to do with how celebrities are ‘used’ to foster allegiances and affirm identities. The paper concludes by discussing the chasm between our young people’s ‘heroes’ and ‘villains’ and those which are ‘officially sanctioned’ within the school curriculum.

Authors

• Sally Anne Power, Cardiff University

• Kevin Smith, Cardiff University