It’s hard to make an impact on this world. You live and try to make the most of it, hopefully excelling in some way or another. And then maybe, at the end of the road, people will remember you as someone that changed the world – either for better or for worse.
Imagine how hard it is to have this kind of impact on the world if you’re never even alive! Well, these “people” managed to do that exact thing.
Barbie
Despite Barbie not being an actual person, she has shaped society’s image of girls and how girls should behave for decades. Heck, even her impossible figure has set the tone for what a girl’s body should look like.
Santa Claus
I mean, let’s be honest, Christmas isn’t really about Jesus being born anymore, is it? It’s about a fat, bearded man climbing through your chimney to give you presents if you’ve been nice. And if you haven’t been nice or don’t own a house with a chimney, you’re pretty much screwed.
Rosie The Riveter
Women weren’t allowed in the army, but that didn’t mean that women couldn’t fight the war! Rosie gave American women that small push they needed to take up jobs in the factories to keep the economy going while their men were off to war.
Big Brother
Despite there not being an actual Big Brother that we know of, Big Brother is the symbol of a totalitarian government where your every move is being watched and anyone that goes against the government does so at the risk of their own life. The rise of AI and computer technology has made the fear of Big Brother all that more relevant now.
Romeo And Juliet
They didn’t actually exist, but their story did inspire millions of women across the world into thinking they need to wait for the perfect man that’s willing to give his life for them. Sadly, those same women usually grow up realizing that the perfect man doesn’t exist. You can swap the genders around in this story, since Romeo and Juliet pretty much screws it up for everyone.
The Marlboro Man
Well, the man in the ad did exist, but there was no such thing as a “Marlboro Man”. This ad managed to turn smoking, which was a feminine thing at the time, into one of the most manly things on the planet – even now.
Robin Hood
An argument could be made that Robin Hood was based on someone that actually lived in about the same area at about the same time that did about the same things, but the Robin Hood we all know right now is a lot less … barbaric than the real version.
