The generally accepted concept of heroism has a broad meaning. Jennifer Lois in her book Heroic Efforts differentiates between risk-takers, emergency workers, and the heroes, volunteers taking risks. The initial motivation of the hero, the context of the events, the markedness of the action are the important factors for Lois’s definition of the concept of heroism. Developing her theory of heroism the sociologist links it with the sociological theories of gender roles, edgework, and emotional culture. Jennifer Lois views the concepts of heroism, heroes, and edgework through the perspective of Sociology, raising the questions of the heroes’ self-identity, emotional culture, and gender roles.
The act may be regarded heroic on the conditions that it was committed voluntarily, it was extraordinary, and it was performed in the life-and-death or close to its context. “Heroism symbolically represents an extreme conformity with the ideal of putting group interests ahead of one’s own” (Lois 2003:176). Only altruism and desire to help or save somebody’s life make heroes take risks. The motivation for performing the heroic acts may differ, as somebody may expect the public appreciation for the action, to another category belong, emergency workers, who are paid for saving people’s lives. But the motivation of the true heroes maybe only their altruistic views and the acts are to be performed voluntarily.
On the other hand, Lois does not identify altruism and heroism: “altruism differs from heroism because it must be socially recognized” (2005:10). Hereby the sociological character of the concept of heroism is introduced. Besides the question of motivation, the persons may be regarded heroes only on the condition that the community paid attention to their acts, appreciated them, and considered them to be heroic. In other words, heroes, as well as heroic acts, must be recognized by society.
The most important criteria for the public recognition of the heroic acts are their regular basis, markedness, and context. The person who committed a single act, which could be regarded as a heroic one, is not recognized as a hero. The markedness of the action presupposes its extraordinary character; the act which could be committed by the majority of the population may not be regarded as outstanding and heroic. The context of the action implies the death danger of the situation, the heroes are taking risks and prevent tragedies, the help or support may not be regarded as heroic. Thus, being a sociological phenomenon, heroism is to be recognized by society due to its altruistic motivation, voluntary basis, markedness, and life-and-death context.
Continuing to introduce the concept of heroism in the context of Sociology, Lois connects it with the theories of gender roles and edgework. “Men may have felt that their appropriate gender performance – their very masculinity – would be threatened if they were to display emotions associated with a feminized edgework performance” (Lois 2003:178). Regularly facing the death danger, putting the interests of others before one’s interests, the volunteers undergo enormous psychological pressure.
The heroes are not deprived of their gender roles, it means that men are expected to be reserved and demonstrate less emotion than women can afford themselves to demonstrate. In other words, the male volunteers faced additional restrictions as the public expectations, connected with their gender roles, and prevented them from reducing the stress.
The female volunteers were free to express their emotions, their gender roles allowed them to do it, and at this stage of the missions, they were more successful, than men. Special psychological techniques may be used during the preparation for the missions, which were aimed at suppressing the volunteers’ emotions, which could have negative effects on the mission outcome. One of the techniques is “denying responsibility”. “Members were often reminded that their first concern on a mission was to protect themselves; second, their teammates; and third the victim. This perspective helped members avoid feeling a sense of personal failure in the event of ‘failed missions’” (Lois 2003:110).
This statement contradicts Lois’s definition of heroism, according to which the hero considers the group interests to be before one’s interests (2003:176). But the fact that the person participates in the mission means that he/she will take risks voluntarily saving somebody’s life, this fact can not be denied, and the next step is the choice of the right perspective for the participants. The technique of denying the responsibility helped volunteers to concentrate on the mission and put aside its emotional side.
Another psychological technique is “to weigh the success more than failure” (Lois 2003:111). The percentage of the failed missions is inescapable, the aim is to make the participants concentrate on the positive results and use the experience of the failures in the future when the volunteers face the death danger again. “Edgework is negotiating the boundary between life and death during voluntary risk-taking” (Lyng 2005:117). Emphasizing the importance of the emotional state of the volunteers, Lyng besides the stages of preparation for the mission and its performance noted that the stages of emotional post-action, such as reflection on the participation and making sense of the actions are not less significant. The work with the psychological effects of the missions on the volunteers is one of the most important issues.
Fortunately, everyday life does not provide as many opportunities for committing heroic deeds, as the work of the emergency workers or the volunteers does. There was only one occasion when I faced the death danger and was to act immediately to save my friend’s life. We were swimming in the river, when the inflatable beach mattress, on which my friend was lying, my friend fell into the water and found himself under the mattress, preventing him from coming to the surface.
I did not lose my head and putting the mattress aside dived in the place where my friend fell. The river was rather deep and the current was rather strong at that place, my friend was shocked and felt panic, and started to catch me, pulling me to the bottom. I managed to buoy him up and put him to the shore. My friend names me a hero and says that I saved his life, but it is only his personal view and perception and this does not correspond to Lois’s sociological concept of heroism. Evaluating my action according to the criteria of heroism as the socially recognized action, it may be concluded that not all of the requirements were met.
First of all, it was a single act, while regularity is one of the criteria for considering the act heroic. The action was marked, as not everyone would have managed not to lose one’s head and take risks saving the friend’s life, though the majority would have tried to. As to the context, it is rather difficult to evaluate whether it was a life-to-death situation. There were no rescuer’s insights, but obviously, they were to be somewhere nearby.
The other vacationers were far and it is questionable that some of them could swim well enough and appeared to be a volunteer. As to the question of social recognition, my friend is grateful to me, but the community did not pay attention to the event and did not recognize it as heroic. The action from my personal experience may be regarded as an altruistic deed but lacks several characteristics for considering it heroic.
A famous example of the action that is regarded as heroic is depicted in the famous movie Titanic by James Cameron. Jack Dawson dies saving life of Rose. The famous scene at the end of the movie, in which the couple swims in the icy water and the character is dead when the rescuers come, strikes every spectator. The door on which Rose floats can support only one person and Jack puts Rose’s interests ahead of his own and sacrifices his life, from one side, according to his gender role, as the society expected men to save women and children and saving the person whom he loves, on the other hand. The fact that it was an act of altruism can not be denied.
The young man finds moral strengths for encouraging the young woman, he realizes that he is not going to survive, but saving Rose’s life is above all to him: “You’re going to get out of here, you’re going to go on, and make lots of babies. You’re going to die an old woman, warm in her bed” (Titanic). The markedness of the action is obvious, the behavior of the character is contrasted by the other men, who save themselves, sit in the rescue boats, leaving the women and children on board of sinking Titanic. There are very few people who could do the same in the situation of the overall panic. Jack’s ability to sacrifice his life consciously and encourage the woman, freezing in the icy water, strikes the audience.
The context is a brilliant example of the life-to-death situation. The tension is even stronger, as the hero not only takes risks but sacrifices his life; he is to choose between his life and the life of the woman whom he loves. His conscious choice makes him a hero. The missing criterion is the frequency of the heroic deeds. In my opinion, because of the character’s death, this criterion can be omitted, as it is impossible to predict the possible future of the dead hero. As to the social recognition of the heroic action, Rose tells everyone about Jack Dawson and he is recognized as his merit is obvious. Jack’s action is to be considered heroic even though his death prevented him from meeting one of the criteria of the sociological concept.
Heroic Efforts by Jennifer Lois defines the sociological concepts of heroism and heroes. Indicating the criteria for evaluating the acts, such as motivation, markedness, and context, the sociologist differentiates between heroism and altruism. Linking the concept of heroism to the sociological theories of gender roles and edgework and emphasizing the importance of social recognition, Lois makes it sociological phenomenon.
References
Cameron, James. 1997. Titanic. Lightstorm Entertainment.
Lois, Jennifer. 2003. Heroic Efforts: The Emotional Culture of Search and Rescue Volunteers. New York, NY: New York University Press.
Lyng, Stephen. 2005. Edgework: The Sociology of Risk-Taking. New York, NY: Routledge.