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Cultural icon

A cultural icon is a person or an artifact that is identified by members of a culture as representative of that culture. The process of identification is subjective, and "icons" are judged by the extent to which they can be seen as an authentic symbol of that culture. When individuals perceive a cultural icon, they relate it to their general perceptions of the cultural identity represented.[1] Cultural icons can also be identified as an authentic representation of the practices of one culture by another.[2]

In popular culture and elsewhere, the term "iconic" is used to describe a wide range of people, places, and things. Some commentators believe that the word "iconic" is overused.

Criticism[edit]

Describing something as iconic or as an icon has become very common in the popular media. This has drawn criticism from some.[13] For example, a writer in Liverpool Daily Post calls "iconic" "a word that makes my flesh creep", a word "pressed into service to describe almost anything."[14] Mark Larson of the Christian Examiner labeled "iconic" as an overused word, finding over 18,000 uses of "iconic" in news stories alone, with another 30,000 for "icon".[15]

Architectural icon

Gay icon

Pop icon

Biedermann, Hans (1994). Dictionary of Symbolism: Cultural Icons and the Meanings Behind Them. Meridan.

Brooker, Will (2001). Batman Unmasked: Analysing a Cultural Icon. Continuum.

Edwards, Peter; Enenkel, Karl; Graham, Elspeth, eds. (2011). The Horse as Cultural Icon: The Real and the Symbolic Horse in the Early Modern World. Brill.

Foudy, Julie; Leslie Heywood; Shari L Dworkin (2003). Built to Win: The Female Athlete as Cultural Icon. University of Minnesota Press.

Gilbert, Erik (2008). The Dhow as Cultural Icon. Boston University.* Heyer, Paul (2012). Titanic Century: Media, Myth, and the Making of a Cultural Icon. Praeger.

Heyer, Paul (2012). Titanic Century: Media, Myth, and the Making of a Cultural Icon. Praeger.

Meyer, Denis C. (2010). Cles Pour la France en 80 Icones Culturelles. Hachette.

Nelkin, Dorothy; M Susan Lindee (2004). The DNA Mystique: The Gene as a Cultural Icon. University of Michigan Press.

Reydams-Schils, Gretchen J (2003). Plato's Timaeus as Cultural Icon. University of Notre Dame Press.

by The Daily Telegraph

Our New Icons

by The Age

Nothing and no one are Off Limits in an Age of Iconomania

British Postal Museum & Archive: Icons of England

Culture24: Icons of England