Entry Nine. Gender Relations and Roles in the Hunger Games

Hello all! It has been a while since last posted an entry for my journal, right?  Life keeps me busy, that is for sure. Anyway, happy Easter!



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Now to get down to brass tacks.  The Hunger Game series is very progressive with its depiction of  gender roles.  Both Katniss and Peeta have mixed traits of both sexes. Peeta is caring and somewhat sensitive while Katniss is the "man" in the relationship.  She hunts and provides for her family while he decorates cakes and is very artsy in general.  Peeta is more outgoing and friendly when compared to Katniss's stoic, brick like personality. Peeta is the one who secures their victory during their interviews with his charming personality. He knows how to work the crowd over by subtly manipulating them. Katniss on the other hand, is about charming as a graveyard.  She tries, I will give her that.  However, her defiant spirit is put to good use when she disrespects the judges during both of her runs in the hunger games.  She is the "brawn" of the relationship whereas Peeta is more likely to run and hide for strategic purposes labeling him the brain of the relationship. Katniss does the majority of the fighting especially during the two hunger games.  Peeta does kill, but he is much less likely to be seen engaged in active combat, instead of planning to manipulate his opponents.


Suzanne Collins defies the expectations of gender roles in the Hunger Games.  Sure, Katniss and Peeta are a bit more like their other genders, but they still are a woman and a man respectively.  Katniss still shows a motherly side especially to younger girls namely Prim and Rue.  Although Katniss is not what I would call a "motherly figure," she still has that instinct that to protect that is biologically prevalent in the female gender.  Katniss is a bit of anti-heroine in the fact that she is quite ruthless in her pursuits of the Capital in her desire to see it burn.  This sort of ruthlessness is typically thought of as being found in men.  In the film adaptions, she is dressed up quite sexily.  She wears alot of dresses for her TV interview.  Katniss typically is very beautiful looking, especially when she is wearing her Mockingjay outfit.  A heroine should be masculine, but not too manly. That would be a sexual turnoff.