Self-Definition

I think this topic is interesting.  In my view, myths in monolithic urban cultures limit self-definition rather than enabling it.  In any culture, of course, myths create certain "types" that people are encouraged to model themselves after.  However, in a small village or tribal culture, a person has more opportunity to influence or change the culture's mythical foundation, or even invent a new story that will help define the future of the culture.

In a culture like ours, huge and urbanized, there is an enormous "myth-making industry" that tells the same stories over and over, and the social expectation is that we conform to them rather than write our own.  (If you don't believe me, I'll come to your next mythology class and tell everyone that the character I most identify with is one I'm writing myself -- tell me I won't get weird looks from most of the class.)  In an urbanized culture without a Hollywood industrial complex, they have a privileged priest class, which is essentially still a high-dollar myth creation industry.

I have heard people define themselves by the stories they tell and the songs they sing, and in our society, any stories or songs not sanctioned by the corporate story and song industries have a social stigma attached to them.  I know people who are more interested in celebrity gossip than the lives of their own friends, because only one of those stories is on TV.  I find that disturbing.

Even more disturbing to me than the myth industry itself is what our current myth industry puts out.  You basically get your choice between ridiculous and outdated gender rules, intentional and unrealistic complete reversals of these, and being ridiculously heartbroken or lovelorn.  About the only decent and believable role models I can seem to find in modern myth are Harry Potter, Ron Weasley and Hermoine Granger, and that only works if you're a kid.