Real Life Hero
Real Life Hero
A hero possesses most of these character traits: smartness, resilient, strength, charisma, selflessness, care, empathy and compassion, altruism and reliability. In other words, heroism entails exhibiting behavior and action for the benefit of others or a purely moral cause. It involves voluntary concern for those in need, done without expecting anything in return (Sabin, 2004). A hero is a person with exemplary deeds, especially in the interest of the larger society, as opposed to showing great ability. As Arthur Ashe once said, “True heroism is remarkably sober, very undramatic. It is not the urge to surpass all others at whatever cost, but the urge to serve others at whatever cost”(Allison & Goethals, 2011).
My real life hero is American television talk show host, actress, producer, and philanthropist Oprah Winfrey. She was born on January 29 1954 in Kosciusko, Mississippi. Winfrey grew up as a deprived American girl in a small poverty-stricken farming community. The famous Oprah Winfrey Show was launched as a nationally syndicated program in 1984, where Winfrey attracted great audience with her open, warm-hearted personal style (Sabin, 2004). Unlike majority of talk shows at the time, Winfrey appealed to more people by keeping off tabloid topics. Her largely intimate confessional type of media communication helped break the deep-rooted 20th century taboos that enabled LGBT people to venture into the mainstream. Winfrey’s strength and charisma was demonstrated when she told off a homophobic studio audience in a town in West Virginia that was gripped with AIDS paranoia due to the presence of a HIV-infected gay man in the town (Mansfield, 2011). In fact, Oprah Winfrey, more than any other Tabloid talk show host, gave more media visibility to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual, and transgendered people, making them to become more mainstream and socially acceptable relative to other developments in the 20th century (Jones, 2011).
Winfrey has also demonstrated heroism with her activism. In 1994, she successfully proposed a bill to Congress establishing a nationwide database for convicted child abusers. The bill was signed into law by President Clinton (Shillingford, 2010). Her concern for the less fortunate in society, especially children, is also evidenced by her several charitable programs through the “Oprah’s Angel Network” that has funded girls’ education in South Africa. In setting up The Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls in Johannesburg, Winfrey was setting a foundation that will change the trajectory of many African girls’ lives and by extension brighten the future of many if not all women in South Africa. Winfrey had the understanding that girls and women in women are doubly disadvantaged, having unequal opportunities and bedeviled by low expectations (Garson, 2011). She raised herself as a model for all females – and indeed all people – that a positive contribution or action of a single person can go a long way in making a difference in the lives of many others. This has also been evident with her relief contribution to the victims of Hurricane Katrina among others.
There is no argument that Oprah Winfrey is among the most persuasive persons in the world. Indeed her persuasiveness has effectively qualified her Oprah Winfrey Show as a group therapy session, where guests open up to a national TV audience in ways they would otherwise not ( Allison & Goethals, 2011). Winfrey has nurtured and unleashed the confession culture in society as evidenced by the recent high profile confession by the American cyclist and seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong to using performance-enhancing substances in his cycling career.
The heroic nature of Oprah Winfrey has also been demonstrated by the appeal of her brand itself. The Oprah Winfrey brand has over the years grown to claim its rightful place as a power of influence (Shillingford, 2010). “The Oprah effect” – Winfrey’s outright product mention or endorsement on air or print – has been influential on how people spend their money. She has successfully driven sales of many products such books, clothes, and appliances (Jones, 2011). Her influence has significantly contributed to blossoming of a host of other media personalities such as Dr. Phil and Rachael Ray. Winfrey has also contributed to history in America with her 2006-2008 campaign for Barrack Obama, which is estimated to have brought in over a million vote for the first African American president of the United States of America.
Aside from television activity, Winfrey successfully championed a weight loss campaign by shedding off as much as 90 pounds to attain her ideal weight of about 150 pounds, and participated in the Marines Corps Marathon held in Washington, DC in 1995. The icon’s disclosures about her weight inspired similar plus-sized women in media, the likes of Roseanne Barr, Starr Jones, and Rosie O’Donnell (Jones, 2011). This was a major fete for Winfrey considering that she was able to make fat sexy and elegant in a society where fat is despised while thin is exalted. Her weight loss success had the ripple effect of inspiring both Rosie Daley (Winfrey’s personal chef) and Bob Greene (her personal trainer) to publish best-selling books (Shillingford, 2010). Similarly, Winfrey has contributed significantly to the publishing world through her “Oprah Book Club”, a program that lifted many unknown authors to major heights of the bestseller lists and popularized pleasure reading among many people. This was also a time where over 47% (or 92 million adults) could neither read nor write well to have a above-average-poverty- job, while more than 40 percent of adults were functionally illiterate i.e. only able to read or write a few words (Feinstein, 2007).
As further testimony to her heroism, Winfrey has been acclaimed by most of the world’s reputable newspapers. In 1998, Winfrey effectively became both the first woman and first African American to be ranked top in Entertainment Weekly list of the 101 most powerful persons in the entertainment industry (Feinstein, 2007). In 2007, USA Today listed Oprah Winfrey as both the most influential woman and black person of the preceding quarter century. In the late 20th century, Life declared Winfrey as not only the most influential woman but also the most influential black person of her time (Sabin, 2004). She has been named as the most powerful celebrity by Forbes in 2005, 2007, 2008, and 2010. A more telling honor was 2010 Life magazine’s mention of Winfrey as one of the 100 people to have brought positive change to the world, alongside such revered characters as Jesus Christ, Elvis Presley as well as Lady Mary Wortley Montagu.
In Coining the term “Oprahfication”, The Wall Street Journal credited Winfrey with developing a new form of media communication called “rapport talk” which is different from the traditional “report talk”. It has to be admitted that Winfrey makes other people care like she cares (Allison & Goethals, 2011). The positive changes she introduced in talk show would continue to affect and shape the lives and cultures of many people around the world. It is for all these heroic attributes that I believe Oprah Winfrey deserves to be honored with the Real Life Hero Award.
References
Allison, S. T., & Goethals, G. R. (2011). Heroes: What they do & why we need them. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Feinstein, S. (2007). Oprah Winfrey. Berkeley Heights, NJ: Enslow Elementary.
Garson, H. S. (2011). Oprah Winfrey: A biography. Santa Barbara, Calif: Greenwood.
Jones, J. (2011). Oprah Winfrey: Celebrity with heart. Berkeley Heights, NJ: Enslow Publishers.
Mansfield, S. (2011). Where has Oprah taken us?: The religious influence of the world’s most famous woman. Nashville, Tenn: Thomas Nelson.
Sabin, E. (2004). The hero book: Learning lessons from the people you admire. S.l.: Watering Can Press.
Shillingford, R. (2010). The History of the World’s Greatest- entrepreneurs: Biographies of success. London: History of the World’s Greatest-.
