Professional athletes and celebrities as role models Essay

Professional athletes and celebrities as role models - Essay Example 1). As contended by Shaw, Whitehead and Giles, â€Å"celebrities are meaningful figures in the lives of young people in particular, and elicit a much more complex set of responses than simple imitation (577). In this regard, one is firmly convinced that people are able to discern who among the professional athletes and celebrities could be good models and who are anti-role models whose influence could lead those emulating them into significantly disastrous consequences; as such, not all professional athletes and celebrities are good role models who must be imitated and revered. In a study conducted by Read, the author focused on â€Å"ways in which the gendered social construction of the ‘popular girl’ infuses girls’ ideas as to their role models: those representing who they would like to be when they ‘grow up’† (Read 1). Apparently, Read discovered that â€Å"young boys were not likely to consider either their male or female teachers to be r ole models – favouring instead sports or TV stars or male relatives and friends of their family† (Read 5). ... The reasons for selecting these personalities as role models vary. For girls, the reasons range from appearance, accomplishments, and personality (Read). â€Å"Many of the girls who cited aspects of appearance as reasons for choosing particular role models chose celebrities, especially pop singers, as their role models, often (but not always) choosing singers of the same ethnicity as themselves† (Read 7). Likewise, it was contended that the disparities between selecting professional athletes for boys and celebrities for girls stem from this theoretical framework: â€Å"boys have traditionally displayed an active posture and girls, a passive one †¦ girls’ behaviour has historically included a focus on relational and intimacy work, nurturance and emotional supportiveness, and a concern with developing feminine allure† (Adler, Kless, and Adler 170). Regrettably, at very young ages, the development of role models was recognizably premised on external appearances and the image that is projected on the outer facade. There could be danger of emulating celebrities with hidden vices and unconventional behavior. In an article written by Shaw, Whitehead and Giles, the authors explored the contention that â€Å"negative roles models, celebrated in the press, lead to the heightened risk that young people will themselves engage in health risk behaviours such as drug use† (Shaw, Whitehead and Giles 575). Their study focused specifically on Amy Winehouse, a talented singer-songwriter with publicly known image of drug abuse (Shaw, Whitehead and Giles). The authors cited a study written by Boon and Lomore study which disclosed that â€Å"the majority of participants claimed that their idols had a

Crtical response to Duane's Caught Inside Essay

Crtical response to Duane's Caught Inside - Essay Example In this way, bits and pieces of the aforementioned points are revealed in an almost imperceptible way so that the reader gains a more full and complete understanding of the lifestyle and world-view of the individuals involved in the actions of this book. As a means of understanding this unique approach, this author will focus upon Chapter 13 of Duane’s book and enumerate on some of the pertinent themes, sub-themes, and topics that are discussed as a means to outline and understand the level of approach and detail that the author gives to the reader. The material within this particular chapter is organized and presented by means of a journey. As the story teller meets with a friend and ventures to the house of a third party, a general discussion on the life of a surfer, what is important, what matters, traveling, relationships, danger, and the ever present worries over where the funding for the next adventure will come from are all discussed. In this way, the storyteller finds himself perennially comparing his own financial and personal situation to that of those that the story introduces. This is carried out by means of actual physical comparisons to the type and quality of the vehicles that are driven, and the niceties that present themselves within the house of the individual who is being visited. However, all of this description, discussion, and analysis serves as but a type of lead up to the action that is going to take place as the three men join together and embark on a rapid trip to the ocean side to engage in an afternoon full of surfing. The almost religious overtones, the writer describes the awe inspiring spiritual elements that surfing provides to the practitioner (Lanagan 283). Whereas doing this without the background story would not engage the reader and would prove to be nothing more than a very long winded soliloquy of the benefits of a particular type of lifestyle, by interweaving the information regarding this type of lifestyle and rel ying on other means of conveyance (rather than the speaker himself), the author is able to present a clear and well explicated set of reasons for why the particular lifestyle advocated and described is perhaps far superior to almost any other model that is currently in existence. Although this particular life is not for everyone, as the author notes, the benefits that it offers those who engage with it can never truly be understood or explained. Using the wife of the gentleman that is visited as an example, the author works to show the means by which even those that do not understand the lifestyle can at least appreciate the significance that it engenders within the lives of those that they love and respect. The approach that the author takes towards revealing the subject matter and discussing it within this particular chapter is necessarily experiential. Although no model of research can attempt to capture the attention of an individual in the same way that a firsthand account of a dventure and excitement can, the author works to bring out the experiential factors that have encouraged countless others in the past to pursue their dreams at the expense of some semblance of