The myth of heroes

Debbie Jacob
Debbie Jacob

IN THE END, basketball legend Kobe Bryant’s greatest legacy might be his part in making us all rethink our concept of heroes. His life story should make us all stop and think.

While basketball fans mourned Bryant’s untimely death at 41 along with his 13-year-old daughter Gianna in a helicopter crash, others were quick to recall the basketball star’s rape charges from July 2003, which were dropped after immense pressure and a victim-shaming campaign from Bryant’s lawyers.

In an awkward press conference a few months after the charges, Bryant, with wife Vanessa by his side, apologised while Vanessa stroked his arm. He dismissed rape allegations, and admitted adultery. Then, Vanessa began sporting an expensive purple diamond. Even as Bryant became a champion for women’s sports those rape charged loomed large over his life.

So the question is what do we do with our heroes when we discover they have – or might have – committed a horrible act?

Yvette Dionne’s article for the January 28 Time magazine is the best story on the dilemma of dealing with fallen heroes – better than any other story I have come across. She wrote, “It is irresponsible to excuse or gloss over Bryant’s treatment of this woman (the alleged rape victim) or his complicity in a legal strategy that upended her life. But it is also reductive to focus only on this behavior when reflecting on his life and death.”

She pointed out that in later years “Bryant, aged and matured, (and) became an official ambassador for women’s sport, coached his daughter’s basketball team and took pride in being a ‘girl dad.’” But, Dionne points out, none of those achievements “negate his culpability.”

I wonder when our concept of heroes evolved to such unreal, one-dimenstional proportions. How did we start thinking of heroes as flawless people or comic-book-style superheroes? Heroes in ancient mythology had flaws. The ancient Sumerian king, Gilgamesh, was a flawed individual who struggled for immortality, but couldn’t achieve it.

Gilgamesh’s story, written on clay tablets, was our first written glimpse of complicated heroes. In Greek mythology the hero Hercules killed his wife and children. Greek gods possessed many flaws: greed, unfairness, spite and anger. Yet they survived virtually unscathed.

Many internet stories have pointed out that Bryant might not have fared so well in the #MeToo movement that saw the downfall of comedian Bill Cosby. Who knows? Harvey Weinstein isn’t behind bars in spite of about 45 women going on record charging him with rape. The MeToo movement finally caught up with R&B singer R Kelly who has at least as many allegations as Weinstein.

Even one rape charge is far too many, but does it require us to throw Bryant in that mix with the likes of that nefarious trio above?

Bryant’s narrative is complex. There is the bizarre press conference, which served as the modern era of public shaming. With his beautiful, innocent wife holding his hand when he denied rape charges, Bryant offered an important statement that we must not forget even today.

“I’m a human being,” he said, licking his dry lips.

Just a few years ago, he managed to look comfortable and even smile through an interview with Graham Bensinger about his rape charges.

“I had to do some soul-searching,” he said. “I had to try to figure a way through all of this mess, and the only thing you can do is put one foot in front of the other.”

Bryant appeared haughty on the basketball court, but four daughters seemed to soften the rough edges off the court. He appeared to be a devoted father. He and Vanessa filed for divorce, but Vanessa announced a reconciliation two years later, and they had two more children after that reconciliation.

And still that allegation of rape always loomed large. Did his support for girls and women’s sports when he retired offer anything remotely close to redemption?

There are so many important questions we need to talk about. How do we define a hero in this digital age? Where do we place heroes after they tumble from the pedestal we put them on? Do we teach our children that heroes may fall or that heroes are likely to have faults, and how do we teach children to process that information and make fair judgments about people?

Kobe Bryant’s death raises many questions about heroes – how we perceive them; how we honour them; how we destroy them, and how we remember them.

Maybe it’s time to have a new definition for heroes.

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