NOTE: I AM NOT THE AUTHOR OF THE ARTICLE. FOLLOWING IS A SUMMARY OF THE ARTICLE. YOU CAN FIND THE ORIGINAL ARTICLE USING GOOGLE.

Main points of: The Ambiguity of Panem: Capitalism, Nationalism and Sexuality in Suzanne Collins The Hunger Games series.

Reviewers note the character development, sophisticated motifs and cultural criticism in The Hunger Games.

Some noted similarities between the series and current American society.

The series projects and anti-oppression message.

Other things critics note in the series are messages of consumerism and material culture, our reality TV shows, overreaching government and the American brand of anything-goes capitalism.

Katniss is a strong female character.

She's a departure from the usual female characters.

The series has an ambiguous stance on capitalism, nationalism and feminism.

Katniss is an active, strong character.

At times she lacks autonomy and empowerment.

The Hunger Games is non-feminist in nature.

Katniss is a commodity to the rebels.

District 12 was fire-bombed by the Capitol for the defiance of Katniss and Peeta.

The sexualization of women of women goes almost undisputed in the series.

The Katniss-Peeta-Gale love triangle is anti-feminist.

The Hunger Games is marked for a 12-18 year old mainly female audience.

The books have received too much attention for the times they take a pro-feminist stance.

Dystopias present a bleak look of the future.

Sexually charged dialogue and actions are frequent in The Hunger Games.

(I wrote a note to myself as I was reading this paper. The author has a number of criticisms, such as the above, but doesn't really present enough specific instances in the books/movies to back up the criticisms, at least in my opinion.

First, as far as sexual actions goes, no one has sex. No one tries to initiate having sex, unless you consider the fact that at the end of the book Katniss and Peeta have two children but neither covers any actual sexual act to produce those children.

Are there some costumes that make women look attractive? Yes. As far as Katniss goes, those are strictly for the purpose of getting the audience to approve of her so she can get some sponsors during the games which might allow her to survive rather than die. That actually is Katniss and Haymitch using her attractiveness to bamboozle the audience and get something valuable from them. It could very well mean she would live when otherwise she could die.

As to sexually-charged dialogue, exactly what is meant by that? Any specific examples? No. I think some of this paper falls under the old saying 'you see what you want to see.')

There's a reference to girls being on constant display. (In the movie Katniss gets out of the fancy costumes as quickly as she can. She doesn't like wearing those clothes and the only time she does is during the interviews.)

Another line has this: '...Collins glorifies coerced sexuality.' (This could maybe vaguely be used in reference to the use of the costumes, maybe, but as I noted above Katniss got out of those as soon as she could.'

The text is neutral on the issue of capitalism.

'Empoerment' in pop culture disempowers females.

Things like Buffy 'reinforce the notion that the only way for girls to achieve power is through the use of their looks and sexuality.

(I watched Buffy. All the way through. Plus the original movie. Were Buffy, Cordelia, Willow and Amber attractive. Yes. Did they use this attractiveness to fight against vampires? No, actually they used training and instruction on how to fight that evil. Can you get much stronger of a character fighting evil than Buffy? Hard to find someone that strong. Willow was a major witch. Don't forget how a major group of girls got together at the end to fight the invasion of Sunnydale from below ground. Buffy's power came from her dedication to what she was doing, even if she didn't really like being put in that position in the first place but she still did her best.)

Katniss never exercises control over her sexual activity (or lack thereof.) (This really puzzles me. How can you not have control over not having sex? As long as no one is forcing you to -figuratively or literally- then it's your choice not to have sex. The form of argument in the sentence boils down to you're damned if you do and you're damned if you don't, so there's no way Katniss can win on this approach. Also, she chooses not to have sex with Gale or Peeta as there happen to be a rather decent number of life-threatening things going on. She apparently did choose at some time to have sex with Peeta because they had two kids. She was still with him and it seems that their relationship was good.)

There was a sexual exploitation of victors. (Finnick, yep. Others? Which others specifically?)

Both Peeta and Katniss suffer PTSD after their expeiences in the games and the rebellion.

Gale's jealousness is an attempt to control Katniss' sexuality.

Katniss does not 'choose' either man since the result is by default. (Actually, there is no way at all that she would 'choose' Gale since he is one of the ones that made the bomb that killed Prim and others.)

Through the Hunger Games Katniss is anti-sexual. (She is in a desperate situation, having lost her father, her mother going into major depression, and Katniss having to become the food provider for the family. I don't think she's anti-sexual, I think she has no time to think about sexual matters. She immediately, then, gets thrust into a fight for her life in the games, a fight in the quarter quell, fights in the rebellion, so when does she have time to be sexual?)

There's a power imbalance between Cinna and Katniss. (Of course there is. He's in the Capitol and working for them.)

Finnick is the most hyper-sexualized character of the series. (Not through any fault of his own, of course, as he was forced to do what he did. )

Johanna is strongly sexualized.

She's the most feminine of all the women because she's not willing to let others control her choices.

The conventional perception of prostitutes is that they are lazy or sex-crazed women. (The only perceptions of them I am familiar with is that they are either being a prostitute because it's just a job to them or they're forced into it due to something else going on in their life, usually someone or something very, very bad that they can't get away from.)

Katniss was saved because of her value to the revolution, not her value as a human being.

She has no agency in her role as the Mockingjay.(Agency is a term that I was not familiar with in the beginning so I looked it up. It's definition runs like this: n the Social Sciences, having agency is defined as “the capacity of individuals to act independently and to make their own free choices”. Basically, it means their free will is taken from them.)

The tributes are used as political pawns.

Coin wants Katniss to be a martyr for the rebels. (What she really wants is Katniss dead since she could be a problem for her in the future.)

Nationalism is shown by district pride. (Which would apply only to those districts close to the Capitol.)

District 12 has around 8000 people.

Katniss ends up back in District 12 after all is over because 'the authorities cannot find a use for her.'

Communication and travel between districts is not allowed (before the revolution.)

Main Index