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The hunger games gender roles
gender roles example in the hunger games
gender roles example in the hunger games
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For the past few decades, women’s positions improve significantly due to feminist movements, which can be presented through contemporary films. Instead of focusing on male-only heroes, an increasing number of filmmakers tend to create female heroines. Nevertheless, women have not yet achieved reproductive rights. In other words, different from men, who can freely express themselves, female’s actions are still limited by societal norm. Thus, female characters, as a reflection of contemporary females in society, demonstrate the fact that females are attempting to challenge gender stereotypes under societal pressures. Katniss, the heroine in Hunger Games, is presented as a role model. However, Marieme, the working class girl in Girlhood, seems …show more content…
From some perspective, Katniss indeed challenges gender stereotypes. After the death of Katniss’s father, she takes his role as a breadwinner. As a great hunter, she breaks the stereotypical roles that require female to be submissive and passive. Moreover, Katniss can be considered as aggressive comparing with her sweet sister due to her impatience; she has no tolerate of being disrespected, and can hardly control her emotion while being angry. When Haymitch Abernathy ignores her words, instead of patiently repeating one more time, she throws her knife to catch his attention. In addition, she does it again in the scene where she presents her abilities to the judges. These two scenes highlight the hegemonic masculinity within her, which challenge gender stereotypes that require females to be well …show more content…
Without being portrayed as a loving and caring girlfriend, Katniss can hardly survive. According to the film, the controllers set a fire purposely, which has large possibility of killing Katniss. If Katniss continues to be “boring”, which means she doesn’t kill anyone but hiding, it has large chance that the controllers would set another fire until they hear the term of “young love”. “In terms of narrative progression, this project of ‘feminization’, launched in part as a strategy to enhance Katniss’ chances of survival in the Games, is complete at series’ end where Katniss’ main role is that of wife and mother.”(Guanio-Uluru ,123) Therefore, she has to take advantage of her sexuality and behave in the way that others want to see. Even though she preciously fights with Peeta for putting her into a “weak spot”, she follows Haymitch’s advice and behaves like a little girl who is madly in love. “Katniss is put under pressure by several male characters to perform emphasized feminity and the male characters are not required in the same way to appear physically attractive to the audience, prevailing rather through displays of strength and physical prowess” (Connors, 150) Thus, regardless of the fact that Katniss’s dress on fire does somehow show their rebellion by not following the rule of dressing like their district, the most important purpose is to be remarkable and to impress
It is not often that a strong and significant female character is introduced in a movie and/or book as the main character. Pan’s Labyrinth, though not the typical fairy tale, introduces the viewer to three females that prove controversial and necessary to the plot, which passes the Bechdel Test, designed to identify gender bias in the media. There is Carmen, the loving mother, Ofelia, the supposed princess/innocent girl, and then there is Mercedes, Captain Vidal’s maid and rebel spy. These three women show different portrayals, different characterizations, of how women should defy the gender bias in films.
Katniss ideals and integrity stay true and strong that is what make her different from everyone else. She values everyone's life and she does not believe that innocent people have to die to make a point of a situation. For example, The Hunger Games she completely disagree about being socially acceptable to kill children and being broadcast as entertainment for people to have a tea party while children die. Which her actions leads to do things out of the ordinary, like try to die with Peeta instead betraying him to go back and win the games. Peeta tells her that it should be you to go home I have no one. She says, “No I need you”. Katniss tells Peeta hit her because she does not believe in killing when it is unfair and person is unarmed. Any
She was very well known for her independence, however, Katniss became dependent upon others. Lastly, Katniss developed by not only caring for her family, but also for people she barely knew. “To exist is to change, to change is to mature, to mature is to go on creating oneself endlessly” (Henri Bergson). To conclude, everyone is experiencing changes every day, being put in tough situations just quickens these changes. Just as we saw in Katniss over a small period of time she transformed into a whole other
Katniss seems to change a lot in all three books, there are many sides to Katniss some being agitated, angry, and gentle. Katniss has dark brown hair and Brown eyes. Throughout the book Katniss is almost always on a script when speaking aloud, she is creating videos or “propos” to bring down the capitol. She is mainly trying to get all the districts on her side when they battle the capitol. She uses President Snow’s words to bring him down, like when she tells all of the districts and possibly the capitol that President Snow told her that the capitol is very fragile (meaning that the districts provide the capitol with food, water, building materials, and Peacekeepers) without the districts the Capitol will either learn to farm and mine or they will die off completely. Katniss interacts with many of the characters as well as the third party (Random people throughout book that are given no descriptions and show up only once or twice). When she takes her trip to district 8 to meet all of the wounded from the bombing, she was told to literally see everybody in the hospital and “chat” with them.
Feminist of today are coined as third-wave feminists, which focus on abolishing gender roles through the actions of assertiveness, power and control of their own sexuality. Everywhere in pop culture women are hypersexualized and cast into their predisposed gender roles. At first glance, Games of Thrones appears to be one monopolistic fantasy after another, naked beautiful women and men holding all the power in society. Under the constant oppression of a society dominated by men, the women of the Seven Kingdoms have risen from their oppression and slowly began taking over power in the sixth season. From Arya Stark fending for herself to Daenerys Targaryen conquering city after city, the women of Game of Thrones are breaking through their gender confinements. The female characters in Game of Thrones represent modern day feminism and hold more power than men.
At the start of the story, Katniss`s passive political attitude is the result of years of the Capitols oppression. In one scene, Katniss is in the middle of the woods and her friend Gale starts to rant about how the Capitol is manipulating them. “His rage seems pointless to me, although I never say so. It`s not that I don’t agree with him. I do. But what good is yelling about the Capitol in the middle of the woods? It doesn’t change anything” (Collins 14). From this we can see that Katniss does have an opinion of the capitol but she finds no point in trying to act upon it. Her main goal in life is to provide for her sister Prim and her mother. However, later on while in the Games her mindset and attitude completely change. “It`s the Capitol I hate, for doing this to all of us. Gale`s voice is in my head his ravings against the Capitol no longer pointless,...
In a not-too-distant, some 74 years, into the future the United States of America has collapsed, weakened by drought, fire, famine, and war, to be replaced by Panem, a country divided into the Capitol and 13 districts. Each year, two young representatives from each district are selected by lottery to participate in The Hunger Games; these children are referred to as tributes (Collins, 2008). The Games are meant to be viewed as entertainment, but every citizen knows their purpose, as brutal intimidation of the subjugated districts. The televised games are broadcasted throughout Panem as the 24 participants are forced to eradicate their competitors, literally, with all citizens required to watch. The main character throughout the series is a 16-year-old girl from District 12 named Katniss Everdeen.
In our Society when you don't follow the rules, you become an outcast to the rest of the society. Suzanne Collins’ novel series, The Hunger Games criticizes our society and its demands for people of specific genders to act in certain ways and become certain things. Stereotypes concerning gender are prevalent in our society and all over the world. However, The Hunger Games gives a very refreshing tone of “mockery” to these stereotypes. Katniss Everdeen isn’t your typical 16 year old girl, and neither is Peeta Mellark a typical 16 year old boy, especially when they are fighting everyday just to survive. The Hunger Games is a work of social commentary, used to convince us that there can’t and shouldn’t be any defined “roles” based on gender. A mixture of “stereo-typical” gender roles within a person and their actions is what people need just to survive in our world that is changing every day.
Katniss’s first act that captures the Capitol’s attention as possible rebellion is her hunting in a forest that is illegal for trespassing. Katniss goes out to this field every day with her friend Gale. They kill different animals and then later sell or trade them in the black market. If the living conditions in District Twelve, where Katniss lives, were not so terrible then she would not have to perform these illegal acts to keep her family alive. Katniss’s father was killed in a mining accident and since then Katniss feels responsible for keeping her family alive. Katniss is the kind of girl who does not want to cause trou...
Katniss’s ability to boost the morale of her allies at times of weakness is one of the key reasons why her character plays a pivotal role throughout the entire film. On the contrary, her character is displayed as one that is unsuitable for making swift decisions, as in the case of Gale’s capture where he begged her to kill him. According to Peeta “Our lives were never ours, they belong to Snow and our deaths do too. But if you kill him, Katniss, all those deaths, they mean something.”(The Hunger Games: Mockinjay Part 2). The character of Peeta Mellark has been going back and forth like mood swings. However, there is huge support for Peeta as he tries really hard to recover his lost memories, displaying a strong and supportive character. Moreover the character of Finnick was refreshing and lovable, his character added a little humor to the intense plot. For instance, the scene in which our heroes initiate the infiltration Finnick says“Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the seventy-sixth Hunger Games.”(The Hunger Games Part 2) was humorous.
Every fan likes to praise the so-called ‘strong female characters’ in fiction, whether they’re wielding pistols in an action movie or twin daggers in a fantasy movie. These characters are often seen as the ‘solution’ to the damsel-in-distress trope because they can defend themselves, all while making sassy comments. But people should not praise these characters as feminist icons. While feminism seeks equal representation and appreciation for feminine and masculine qualities, film and television writers portray strong female characters as redeemable only for their masculine qualities, namely physical prowess. This comes from the misconception that since men are biologically stronger, then “masculine traits produce a strong character” (Stenberg
“Hope is the only thing stronger than fear” said by Haymitch because he knows that is the only way the government of Panama has power. The Hunger Games is about the government pick two teenagers from the age of 12-18 from each of the 12 districts fight to the death the winner becomes rich and famous but this is all for entertainment. The Hunger Games would be approved by the Puritan culture because of the strong family values, self reliance, and hard work.
...present powerful characters, while females represent unimportant characters. Unaware of the influence of society’s perception of the importance of sexes, literature and culture go unchanged. Although fairytales such as Sleeping Beauty produce charming entertainment for children, their remains a didactic message that lays hidden beneath the surface; teaching future generations to be submissive to the inequalities of their gender. Feminist critic the works of former literature, highlighting sexual discriminations, and broadcasting their own versions of former works, that paints a composite image of women’s oppression (Feminist Theory and Criticism). Women of the twenty-first century serge forward investigating, and highlighting the inequalities of their race in effort to organize a better social life for women of the future (Feminist Theory and Criticism).
Feminism is a movement that supports women equality within society. In relation to film, feminism is what pushes the equal representation of females in mainstream films. Laura Mulvey is a feminist theorist that is famous for touching on this particular issue of how men and women are represented in movies. Through her studies, she discovered that many films were portraying men and women very differently from reality. She came up with a theory that best described why there is such as huge misrepresentation of the social status quos of male and female characters. She believed that mainstream film is used to maintain the status quo and prevent the realization of gender equality. This is why films are continuously following the old tradition that males are dominant and females are submissive. This is the ideology that is always present when we watch a movie. This is evident in the films from the past but also currently. It is as if the film industry is still catering to the male viewers of each generation in the same way. Laura Mulvey points out that women are constantly being seen as sexual objects, whether it is the outfits they wear or do not wear or the way they behave, or secondary characters with no symbolic cause. She states that, “in traditional exhibitionist role women are simultaneously looked at and displayed, with their appearance coded for strong visual and erotic impact so that they can be said to connote it-be-looked-at-ness.”(Mulvey pg. 715). Thus, women are nevertheless displayed as nothing more than passive objects for the viewing pleasure of the audience. Mulvey also points out through her research that in every mainstream movie, there is ...
When women are little girls most of them wanted to be princesses, to be rescued by their handsome prince and be carried off to a land far, far away and live happily ever after; as women grow up and their idea of happy ever after changes so does their ideal heroine. Times changed with the suffrage of women and equal right movement so did everyone’s perception of the modern woman. Soon there was nothing females could not do; no dream to big, no star to high. These changes in attitude were also seen on the big screen. “Fictional characters are of great value in the ongoing process of creation and serve as building blocks for the development and expansion of our culture.” (Kurtz, 2013) Lead female roles took on a stronger action role; no longer are the princesses waiting in the tower now they are rescuing Prince Charming. Today’s female action heroine is nothing like her former incarnations. Even Rothman notes that Hollywood has gone “heroine chic” and today’s female action star is smarter and stronger than any “totalitarian regimes”. She is without fear, but is still a woman at heart who has to save humanity (2014, pg.52). She has goals and strives to reach past them; she is not willing to stand by holding the torch so the man can read the inscription. The new female leads in Hollywood are solving the mysteries, stopping the bad guy, and saving the world. Even though most of the earlier female heroines could not reach their full potential without their prince or some mystical source, today’s female heroine is more focused, more independent and even more popular than her predecessors.