Why do we idolize superheroes, and should we? | Lawrence Raia | TEDxYouth@SRDS

Sharing personal stories of the impact that superheroes have had on his life, Lawrence Raia explores our cultural obsession with superheroes, and what role it plays in helping us to connect with real life heroes.

Lawrence is a junior who has a deep and unending passion for the beautiful world of comics. Self-identifying as the progeny of Batman, Lawrence will talk to you today about why we idolize superheroes. He will talk about why they are entirely necessary to our world.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx

(Music)

Up next is our last speaker, Lawrence,

a junior who will be telling us
why superheroes matter.

So, I hope you like it.

(Applause)

Thanks, Allen.

(Laughter)

When I was little
I thought my dad was Batman

until about five minutes ago,

as evidenced by my excellent
fifth grade birthday party invitation -

at fifth grade five years old,
this is going really well.

So, there's a reason for that.

He's 6'4". He has black hair.

He had a cool car
with Batman floor mats in it.

And there's a room in our house
that we could not go into.

It was a wine cellar
but it could've been a Batcave.

(Laughter)

And to top this all off,

when I was about six or seven
he came into my room,

and my parents were going
to a Halloween party

dressed as Batman and Batgirl.

The costume, as you can see,
had those awesome wings

and the wings were connected
to a rod in his arm.

So he walked
into my room, went,

" Whoosh! I'm Batman!

(Laughter)

And six-year-old me went,
"I fricking knew it!"

And then I told all my friends,

which is not what you're supposed
to do when your dad is a superhero,

so then I wasn't allowed to be Robin

or see the Batcave
which was created by him.

This also made me want
to dress up as Batman

for the next four or five Halloween's.

The same costume every year.

It really looked great
by the time I was 12.

It also made me have a love
and a deep appreciation for superheroes.

But not everyone really
has the same feelings that I do,

including my sister,

who never let me watch any
of the cartoons I wanted to on Saturdays.

I had to watch these horrendous shows
because she was bigger than me

for probably the last time.

So this talk today
is to educate all those people

who oppressed their younger siblings

and didn't let them watch
really great TV shows.

It's really deep and emotional.

So, the first reason is that superheroes
give us goals and something to strive,

for they show us essentially
the perfect model,

like what we can be.

And no one really embodies that
better than Superman.

But he wasn't always like this.

When Superman was first created
in 1938 by two guys in Ohio,

he could leap tall buildings
in a single bound,

run faster than a speeding bullet

and was a little bit stronger
than a regular guy.

It's about it.

Since then he has evolved
into a near godlike figure.

The whole point in the mid 80's
could think of new powers on the spot

and could pull a solar system

by attaching a rope
through a bunch of planets.

So, pretty different than 1938!

But he's evolved this way for a reason.

He's evolved this way to show us

to sort of never be satisfied
with who we are,

and that we can always make ourselves
and the world a better place.

That's why Superman
is one of the greatest heroes,

the greatest chairman
it's been done in the world.

But my favorite hero is Batman
for a different reason.

So Batman, as anyone who's seen
any Batman movie knows,

his parents were killed in front of him
when he was a little kid,

and this sort of broke him
and hardened him

and had made him
into a sort of shelled man.

He keeps himself together
by protecting his city

and making sure what happened to him
doesn't happen to anyone else ever.

But, unlike Superman,
Batman has no powers

aside from being really intelligent
and having a pretty great ninja training.

He is a rich kid with issues
and a cape, which never hurts.

Batman teaches us that it doesn't matter
where you start, it's where you end up.

He has a chip on his shoulder
just like every other superhero.

But he doesn't let the fact
that he has no powers keep him down.

He keeps fighting and he keeps
making himself into a better person.

That's why Batman is great, you know.

It doesn't matter where you start.

Another reason why superheroes
are great is that they give us hope

that the world is never really that bad,
everything is getting even better.

This doesn't really matter
for most of us in the audience

because we're doing pretty well,

but a lot of kids, especially
in pediatric hospitals units,

are dealing with some pretty rough stuff.

So what people do
is they dress up as superheroes,

go in and thank the kids for giving them
the strength to keep fighting.

And it makes the kids so happy

and gives them the faith,
hope and strength

to keep going through
whatever they are dealing with,

whatever bad hand they've been dealt.

It's really just amazing to see
what these fictional characters can do.

The nurses also do a small part in this

where they put the kid's
medicinal IV thing in a box,

with the superman
or superhero logo on the outside.

And it does the same thing, it lets
the kids feel close to their heroes

and feel like they're fighting
and making the world a better place too

and it gives them strength,
which is really great

when these kids are confined
to a room for most of the day.

Another thing that superheroes do

is they teach us to respect and love
the modern day heroes we have

like firefighters, soldiers
and police officers.

That's why the most commonly
bought costumes for little kids

are firefighters, soldiers,
police officers and superheroes.

They don't seem that similar.

They all wear uniforms not spandex,
that's more of a personal choice, though.

(Laughter)

But they're all making
the world a better place

and are all there to save us,

which is really great because, you know,
I thought my dad was Batman

and that made me want
to be a better person,

even though at six
there wasn't much I could do.

But I really wanted to be like my dad

who I apparently saw
every Saturday watching cartoons.

He was saving the world
so I wanted to save the world.

He was making the world
a better place, so was I.

It made me want
to be a better person,

so even though superheroes
aren't real so far,

they are still affecting the real
world in every way possible.

That's why I wanted to give this talk.

So thank you guys for listening.

(Applause)