Atomic Fiend
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- Nov 16, 2007
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In 1993 Charles Barkley made a legendary shoe commercial.
Yes, that statement directed toward the young black youth about wanting to strive for more than athleticism or a lucrative hip hop career was initially a commercial for Air Nike's. However, the point stated in it stands and is very much amplified by that. I'm sure he had pre- and post-game interviews prior to making that commercial which he could have used as a platform, however he decided to use an Air Nike Commercial which would guarantee more air time because it'd play on more than ESPN and several news outlets, and would run around the clock for every show and network with Nike as a sponsor. However, I'm not saying it was a brilliant move or even intentional (I don't know if it was) but instead that it was always gonna be one of those three platforms where he said it, those were the only places he could have said it. Charles Barkley was only a basketball player, one who was paid millions upon millions of dollars for sure, but he knew that playing in the NBA was not a feasible goal for most kids. Even if he had African American kids in mind, (and I promise that it wasn't only demographic that idolized a person based on their athletic ability, especially a figure such as Barkleys) he knew that the pickings for famous role models for that demographic was especially at that time were...limited and controversial pickings at best. That video is a can of worms in of itself that I won't get into in this thread. That's just to drive the point home with what was going on at that time and who was in the limelight. Don't @ me about Eazy-E.
In fact the purpose of this thread isn't about Charles Barkley and the soap box that he got on which he happened to keep his Air Nike's in. it's to ask a simple question; Who is a role model?
We as humans model as a survival mechanism first. We learn by observing. That is the actual name for this practice in psychology in fact, Observation Learning AKA modeling. The short version in steps is someone pays attention to an action or behavior, remembers it an stores it, tries to reproduce it and will be motivated to repeat the behavior or action depending on the kind of reinforcement it receives. I bring this up because , generally speaking people seem to believe that more often times than not that people (children especially) actually choose who they model after. They don't. Everything that a small child does is modelled, with a few obvious exceptions (you don't need to teach an infant to cry to get your attention, but you do need to show them other ways to get your attention). They must model this is how they learn, grow. It's a survival mechanism. Role Models are people we do chose to model after because they have traits we want in ourselves or they are in a role we want to be in some point in the future.
It's generally expected that you'd model yourself after a parent, the parent of the same sex however that isn't an option for a great deal of children living in the states. I myself was raised in a single parent home, so I know what I'm talking about when I say not every child has models at home. Also consider that if you live in a single parent home it's very likely that parent is working quite a lot and not home as much as you'd like. Children raised in single parent schools spend more time with people at school then with one of them, and Teachers divide their time between 30 students, and change annually. There's also other cases where children's parents are present and abusive. 30% of children who witness it participate it in it the future, some believe that it's due to modelling of parents, as late as adulthood.
So, the people you're surrounded by and exposed to most are your peers. That's something kids will default to however other times they'll look to fiction.
In a 2013 TIME interview, when very contested author Stephenie Meyer was asked how the protagonist of The Host Melanie Stryder (The other novel she wrote) stacked up as a role model she famously replied "I don't really feel like we should be really be looking for our role models in fiction...", this was during a time where she managed to hit it big with her Twilight series, and their film adaptations which also had a protagonist many others claimed was a terrible role model herself. I have no opinion on that I've never read the books and only watched part of the first movie before falling asleep. While not meant to be a role model to anyone, regardless of authorial intent you can't really help what others do with your character in their minds after you send the book to the presses and people were going to model themselves after Bella, particularly young girls because she had something that the audience would want and aspire to, a hot boyfriend who can do anything for the sole purpose of her. (Also, if she wasn't meant to be imitated out of a kindred connection formed over shared self-perceived inadequacy with the reader why is does her name mean 'Beautiful Swan' as if making an ugly duckling analogy?) This is always going to be a byproduct of making a sympathetic character who doubles as a vehicle for wish fulfillment. The character fictional or not becomes something of a goal, and while that might be on a literal level for kids, modeling doesn't end at childhood, it just changes how it occurs. Kids want to be Batman because he has a cool suit and beats up criminals, and adults wanna be Batman because he's super intelligent, ridiculously rich, always prepared, in control of every situation and is built like a truck. The change goes from literal to symbolic.
This is a topic near to me because for two years I wore a shirt to work with Role Model in big bold print emblazoned on the back of it, while I reared strangers’ kids in a school setting. One of the first things the program director told me was, that the age group I was watching is absorbing everything I do and say like a sponge, and it will come out in how they behave. Snappy comments would return to you if you gave them, as would a bad attitude. This wasn't to say that if a child was vituperative it was your failing, rather it meant that if you were of poor character and shouldn't be working there it'd show in the students behavior and it'd be far worse for you in the long run. It's funny how many kids would sit down and 'chill' with me under a tree next to the basketball court because it was 'cool' and I was the 'cool' counselor, when in reality I just didn't want to stand on the black top for an hour in the hot Florida sun.
Yes, that statement directed toward the young black youth about wanting to strive for more than athleticism or a lucrative hip hop career was initially a commercial for Air Nike's. However, the point stated in it stands and is very much amplified by that. I'm sure he had pre- and post-game interviews prior to making that commercial which he could have used as a platform, however he decided to use an Air Nike Commercial which would guarantee more air time because it'd play on more than ESPN and several news outlets, and would run around the clock for every show and network with Nike as a sponsor. However, I'm not saying it was a brilliant move or even intentional (I don't know if it was) but instead that it was always gonna be one of those three platforms where he said it, those were the only places he could have said it. Charles Barkley was only a basketball player, one who was paid millions upon millions of dollars for sure, but he knew that playing in the NBA was not a feasible goal for most kids. Even if he had African American kids in mind, (and I promise that it wasn't only demographic that idolized a person based on their athletic ability, especially a figure such as Barkleys) he knew that the pickings for famous role models for that demographic was especially at that time were...limited and controversial pickings at best. That video is a can of worms in of itself that I won't get into in this thread. That's just to drive the point home with what was going on at that time and who was in the limelight. Don't @ me about Eazy-E.
In fact the purpose of this thread isn't about Charles Barkley and the soap box that he got on which he happened to keep his Air Nike's in. it's to ask a simple question; Who is a role model?
We as humans model as a survival mechanism first. We learn by observing. That is the actual name for this practice in psychology in fact, Observation Learning AKA modeling. The short version in steps is someone pays attention to an action or behavior, remembers it an stores it, tries to reproduce it and will be motivated to repeat the behavior or action depending on the kind of reinforcement it receives. I bring this up because , generally speaking people seem to believe that more often times than not that people (children especially) actually choose who they model after. They don't. Everything that a small child does is modelled, with a few obvious exceptions (you don't need to teach an infant to cry to get your attention, but you do need to show them other ways to get your attention). They must model this is how they learn, grow. It's a survival mechanism. Role Models are people we do chose to model after because they have traits we want in ourselves or they are in a role we want to be in some point in the future.
It's generally expected that you'd model yourself after a parent, the parent of the same sex however that isn't an option for a great deal of children living in the states. I myself was raised in a single parent home, so I know what I'm talking about when I say not every child has models at home. Also consider that if you live in a single parent home it's very likely that parent is working quite a lot and not home as much as you'd like. Children raised in single parent schools spend more time with people at school then with one of them, and Teachers divide their time between 30 students, and change annually. There's also other cases where children's parents are present and abusive. 30% of children who witness it participate it in it the future, some believe that it's due to modelling of parents, as late as adulthood.
The antisocial effects of observational learning are also worth mentioning. As you saw from the example of Claire at the beginning of this section, her daughter viewed Claire’s aggressive behavior and copied it. Research suggests that this may help to explain why abused children often grow up to be abusers themselves (Murrell, Christoff, & Henning, 2007). In fact, about 30% of abused children become abusive parents (U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, 2013). We tend to do what we know. Abused children, who grow up witnessing their parents deal with anger and frustration through violent and aggressive acts, often learn to behave in that manner themselves. Sadly, it’s a vicious cycle that’s difficult to break.
So, the people you're surrounded by and exposed to most are your peers. That's something kids will default to however other times they'll look to fiction.
In a 2013 TIME interview, when very contested author Stephenie Meyer was asked how the protagonist of The Host Melanie Stryder (The other novel she wrote) stacked up as a role model she famously replied "I don't really feel like we should be really be looking for our role models in fiction...", this was during a time where she managed to hit it big with her Twilight series, and their film adaptations which also had a protagonist many others claimed was a terrible role model herself. I have no opinion on that I've never read the books and only watched part of the first movie before falling asleep. While not meant to be a role model to anyone, regardless of authorial intent you can't really help what others do with your character in their minds after you send the book to the presses and people were going to model themselves after Bella, particularly young girls because she had something that the audience would want and aspire to, a hot boyfriend who can do anything for the sole purpose of her. (Also, if she wasn't meant to be imitated out of a kindred connection formed over shared self-perceived inadequacy with the reader why is does her name mean 'Beautiful Swan' as if making an ugly duckling analogy?) This is always going to be a byproduct of making a sympathetic character who doubles as a vehicle for wish fulfillment. The character fictional or not becomes something of a goal, and while that might be on a literal level for kids, modeling doesn't end at childhood, it just changes how it occurs. Kids want to be Batman because he has a cool suit and beats up criminals, and adults wanna be Batman because he's super intelligent, ridiculously rich, always prepared, in control of every situation and is built like a truck. The change goes from literal to symbolic.
This is a topic near to me because for two years I wore a shirt to work with Role Model in big bold print emblazoned on the back of it, while I reared strangers’ kids in a school setting. One of the first things the program director told me was, that the age group I was watching is absorbing everything I do and say like a sponge, and it will come out in how they behave. Snappy comments would return to you if you gave them, as would a bad attitude. This wasn't to say that if a child was vituperative it was your failing, rather it meant that if you were of poor character and shouldn't be working there it'd show in the students behavior and it'd be far worse for you in the long run. It's funny how many kids would sit down and 'chill' with me under a tree next to the basketball court because it was 'cool' and I was the 'cool' counselor, when in reality I just didn't want to stand on the black top for an hour in the hot Florida sun.