Here is what Wikipedia has to say about Cultural Icon...
A cultural icon can be a symbol, logo, picture, name, face, person, building or other image. It is easily recognized and generally represents an object or idea with great cultural significance to a wide cultural group. It has a special status as representing, or important to, or loved by, a particular group of people, a place, or a period in history.
In this Foolishness...Or Is It? I will address Cultural Icon Persons. They influence us. We want to be like them. They are inspirational... Or are they?
Need some examples about what it is that I am talking about? Here are a few... Marlon Brando, Arthur Conan Doyle, Francis Ford Coppola, Dalai Lama, Walt Disney, William Faulkner, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Mahatma Gandhi, Stephen Hawking, Ernest Hemingway, Alfred Hitchcock, Vladimir Horowitz, Steve Jobs, Luciano Pavarotti, Mr. Rogers, Peter Sellers, William Shakespeare, Spiderman, Mark Twain, Orson Welles
Did you object to any of these Cultural Icons? If you did, that’s understandable. We are all entitled to our own stupid opinion.
In my own stupid opinion, one of these ought to have jumped off the screen at you. Did you just say you experienced no jumping? Did you not see, take note of and wonder why a Fictional Comic Book Character was in the list. Did you not cringe when you saw Spiderman there? If not, I am disappointed in you.
As I was kicking this Blog Posting around in my head, I happened across a young Spiderman devotee and decided to ask him about my thoughts about this Blog Posting I had simmering within me.
When I found him he was standing facing into bright sunlight in his Spiderman Costume with his baseball cap on backwards and holding his hand up to his forehead to shade his eyes so he could better see into the bright sunlight. I knew immediately I was in the presence of a mental midget.
When I brought up the subject of Spiderman being on my Cultural Icon List, he readily agreed that Spiderman belonged there and he added he thought Spiderman was probably the most iconic of the icons.
He said he admired the way Spiderman could shoot out his sticky web strings and latch onto buildings, planes, busses, and evil villains. He said one day he hoped to do the same heroic feats of strength and agility just like Spiderman.
Have you ever been looked at like you were a Complete Idiot? Well, this was my turn to be looked at this way because I told him Spiderman could not do what Spiderman does because Spiderman was a Fictional Comic Book Character and he did not exist.
That’s when it happened. That’s when he looked at me in disbelief, then shock and horror, then disgust and turned and walked away from me shaking his head surely thinking to himself that I was a Complete Idiot.
Despite that fact that some of you did not catch the presence of Spiderman on this Cultural Icon List, I do respect your opinions because you are smart enough to read my blog. Please tell me that I am right about all of this. I’m surrounded by so many who worship fictional characters and celebrities that I am beginning to doubt myself. Could it be that I am wrong?
Would I kid u?
Smartfella
(640)
Lagniappe: In order to prove my point, please read the article through the link below about the two 12 year old girls in Milwaukee who stabbed another 12 year old girl friend of theirs 19 times in order to impress Slenderman. You guessed it. Slenderman is a Tall Creepy Fictional Bogeyman whom they believe is real and who they greatly admire...
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-wisconsin-slenderman-stabbing-20140903-story.html
1 comment:
At least the Easter Bunny is real!
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