Search Results

Throughout the animal kingdom, sexual behaviors are conducted in the service of reproductive goals that will enhance the survival of the species. In modern developed nations, the urgency of the reproductive goal has been minimized. Our entertainment industry provides a vicarious experience of reproductive urgency in the television series The Walking Dead. This chapter focuses on the heroic self-sacrifice of bringing children into the post-apocalyptic world of lawlessness, hunger, and brutality. The decision to reproduce illustrates heroism and heroic leadership at two different levels of analysis. First, the choice to have children in the post-apocalyptic world reflects heroic self-sacrifice on the part of the individual decision maker. A woman who chooses to have a child in a world with no formal healthcare system risks her own physical wellbeing. Second, the choice to repopulate the broken world of The Walking Dead also reflects a systemwide societal drive toward regeneration and restoration. The decision to reproduce thus reflects the heroic embodiment of human society as an organism intent on surviving and even flourishing.

Partnered social dancing (such as swing, salsa, and waltz) represents a form of serious leisure that has a close connection to issues at the intersection of leadership and sexuality. Within the tradition of social dance, roles as lead or follow are assigned purely on the basis of biological sex, with men leading and women following. Conformity to these roles represents an at least tacit acceptance of gender stereotypes, with men perceived as agentic and decisive and women perceived as perceptive and accommodating. Despite the close contact inherent in social dancing, many dancers adhere to the belief that dancing, while intimate, does not possess a covert, let alone an overt, sexual component. In this analysis we explore the plausibility of this belief and examine its implications with regard to the romantic and social lives of dancers.

This chapter explores what it means for a person to show maturity as a leader. We describe the defining characteristics of mature leadership and the developmental stages required to demonstrate it. After providing an overview of psychological, developmental, and spiritual definitions of human maturity, we propose two central defining characteristics of mature leadership. We argue that rites of passage provide essential fuel for growth and maturity in all human cultures. Drawing from theory and research in heroism science, we identify heroic transforming leadership as the pinnacle of mature leadership. We also explore the Jungian archetype of the puer aeternus, or “eternal boy,” referring to the immaturity that characterizes leaders who are stuck at early stages of social, psychological, and spiritual development. We show how Donald Trump’s behavior as a leader represents a striking instantiation of the puer aeternus, and we discuss implications for mature leadership.