Sex is the anatomy that a person is born with, while gender is the way each sex is expected to act in society. In “She Has No Idea. The Effect She Can Have”, Jessica Miller compares masculine and feminine gender roles in both modern society and Panem, and how these characteristics can shape great heros, warriors, and caretakers. Based on modern society's ideas of femininity and masculinity, we can see how characters in The Hunger Games ignore these social roles and benefit from taking on characteristics of the opposite gender. Katniss, for example is not described as a typical female character. She is tough, provides for her family, and seems uninterested in romance. The main duty typically associated with women is that of being a loving
The biological sex of a person, in most cases, today can still be considered one of the main identifying characteristics of an individual. In the past the sex of a person was more than an identifying characteristic, it was who they were. They were either men or women, there was no in between or changing it. Society today has come a long way in terms of gender identity and gender roles, but the concept of patriarchy still has the upper hand when it all boils down. Allan G. Johnson’s, The Gender Knot, provides for a more diverse outlook on the women’s expected roles in life, how they are expected to handle difficult situations in marriage, and how they demonstrate courage, in Mona Lisa Smile.
Gender can be defined as “sex roles” which are conditions that one considers to be for men or women. People tends to mistake it with sex or thinks that they are both the same. We discussed about the patterns of gender which how the authors of The Kaleidoscope of Gender describes it as “regularized, prepackaged ways of thinking, feeling, and acting” (Spade and Valentino,2017). It becomes an identity for us. We believe that there is and can only be two genders, being masculine for men and feminine for women. These roles has been forced onto us since birth: blue for boys, and pink for girls. You can see the roles being push onto a person throughout one’s life, but we don’t notice it since it’s “normal” to us.
Throughout the history of society, women and men both have faced the constricting roles forced upon them, from a young age; each gender is given specific social and cultural roles to play out throughout their lives. Little girls are given dolls and kitchen toys, little boys are given dinosaurs and power tool toys, if one was to step out of this specified role, social conflict would ensue. Contrast to popular belief, sex is a biological construct, and gender is a social construct specifying the roles men and women are to follow to be accepted into society as “normal”. The effects of gender roles have had on women have proved harmful over the decades. Although the woman’s involvement in society has improved throughout the decades,
Collins has given masculine qualities to her female character and feminine qualities to her male character to reinforce the need of equality in the current world and the need for change in the restricted gender norms in the mindset of the people. The Hunger Games can be rendered as a feminist novel as it breaks the restrictions of gender roles and emphasizes the need for it in the present-day society. The Hunger Games depict how reality could be if there were not solid or strong gender norms and roles in the
In the novel “The Hunger Games” Suzanne Collins conveys the qualities of a hero through the main character Katniss Everdeen. The novel is based around a dystopian nation, in which is placed in Panem. Through which a boy and a girl from each district must take part in ‘The Hunger Games’ where they have to fight to the death, until there is one survivor. Katniss subsequently evolves as a significant hero portraying the heroic qualities such as selflessness, identity change and intelligence. Selflessness is shown as she puts others before herself, her identity changes as she has to put up a brave face, and intelligence is displayed as her strategies progress in the games.
Society has created the concept of gender and how men and women have certain roles to follow. Some of these characteristics have been broken in today's society but many still exist. As people start to accept who they are and who they want to be, normal stereotypes do not stand out as much as they used to. By doing this, we are turning over a new leaf, where men and women are intermixing qualities and characteristics. Now a days, there are women who have become the providers and some men who have become the nurtures. Not being tied down by certain roles and expectations gives those who want to do more the chance to step out and be comfortable changing those said roles and expectations. In the novel The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, she portrays some characters as having opposite gender roles and expectations. Two characters who show this the most are Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark. Both of these main characters are portrayed in a unique way throughout the novel and portray traditional roles and break them throughout the Hunger Games.
The presence of true female bravery in many novels and films was very rare, however, the release of the series, ‘The Hunger Games’, has begun the start of the typical female protagonist, by introducing the confident character, Katniss Everdeen. The film focuses on the protagonist of the film, Katniss Everdeen, a 16 year old girl that lives in the poor District 12, which is located in the apocalyptic land Panem. This essay will analyse views towards film heroes, and the protagonist in the film, by recognising gender stereotypes, traditions, values, and beliefs to relate to modern society. In the typical western tradition, the heroes in the films are typically male and reinforce the values of the typical western society, the heroes in the films normally follow a set pattern, and this is relatable to Joseph Campbell’s
Increasingly more frequently, people are considering how important gender roles truly are, and if they have a beneficial impact on people’s lives. As Margaret Mead, a famous female anthropologist from the 1920’s recognizes in “Sex and Temperament,” countless individuals may suffer from strict standardization of gender roles and temperaments. These standardizations in America equate women to being “feminine;” beautiful, caring, soft, sweet, emotional, and dainty—the fairytale princess, while men are constantly expected to be strong, stoic, and aggressive much like a knight in shining armor. Although when women realize that they are not locked in towers guarded by dragons and they do not need to wait around for a prince to come and save their lives and bring them home to a kingdom to be queen, they have potential to do so much more and take whatever path they choose. Men also do not need to train their whole lives in order to save this damsel in distress’s life. Beyond that fantasy, in order to sustain lives in reality, there has obviously always been a need for certain roles in a family—one person to raise and take care of children, and one to go out and bring back provisions so life can continue here on Earth.
Moreover, Katniss is an individual who breaks away from the typical gender stereotypes that one would assume while reading. In fact, showing her feminine side to readers, Katniss is simply a nurturer because of how she takes care of others like Rue and Peeta
Persuade your reader that The Hunger Games either is or is not a feminist text Throughout history society has constructed the views of femininity to mean maternity, in the first few pages of The Hunger Games it is suggested that Katniss’ natural instincts are “protect Prim in every way I can” (18). Katniss’ voluntary tribute at the reaping was to protect Prim “re-defin[ing], consciously or unconsciously, a project concerning identifications and desire, or alternatively suffers the ‘fate of a disposable object’” (Fiorini, 60-1). Prim’s state of survival in District 11 was a projected concern for Katniss and the choice to sacrifice her life for Prim’s at the reaping shows Prim to be a precious object that Katniss will do anything to protect her, she is “the only person in the world I’m certain I love?”
For many years films have always been structured around the representation of gender roles. Up until recently, very few films have challenged the traditional stereotypes. However, with the increasing support of feminism and a heightened consciousness of the way the different genders are being labelled and stereotyped, many movies and novels now challenge traditional gender roles . ‘The Hunger Games’, a film adaptation of the novel by Suzanne Collins, is one of these movies. Released in 2012 and directed by Gary Ross, the film is the first of four movies based on the bestselling trilogy written from 2008-2010.
The history of the world is a complex arrangement of happenings and occurrences that have shaped the current state of civilization. At a fundamental level, history is the driving force behind every element of society that exists today. Within history, there are several factors that have and continue to determine the way in which our society functions. One of the most significant of these factors is gender. Today, conceptions, viewpoints and ideas surrounding gender are always changing. It is this fluidity of thought that ultimately allows society to progress forward and create change. However, gender has not always been as openly discussed. Tracing back through history, gender has consistently been a point of identity among humans.
Suzanne Collins, the author of The Hunger Games, decided to do something different with her main protagonists, Katniss and Peeta. In the book, they seem to have flipped gender roles that society does not see males and females in such a way. For example, women have often been seen as housewives by society, which has set certain occupations and responsibilities they must abide to. Furthermore, women were allowed to handle activities such as cooking, cleaning and caring for children and men. On another note, men have also had been told they are only capable of engaging in masculine activities. This was limited to working and providing for the family, nothing more. According to the book Handbook on Gender Roles: Conflicts, Attitudes and Behaviors by Amato and Booth, these gender roles are classified as traditional. In the book, Collins tends to switch what each societies gender norms; she challenges what each character is meant to do because of their sex. She wants to prove that men are capable of doing a woman’s job and a woman being capable of completing a man’s job. Katniss and Peeta both do not meet the expectations society has set them to do; in fact it is the total opposite.
Judith Butler questions the belief that behaviors of either sex are natural. She proposes a rather radical theory that gender is performative and that sex is constructed. When gender is being performed, it means that someone would take on a role, acting in such a way that gives society the idea of their gender and constructs part of their identity. To be performative means that we produce a series of effects.Gender is constructed and is not in any way connected ‘naturally’ to sex.
The representation of Katniss’s identity in The Hunger Games shows reasonably diversity. The physical change of Katniss denoted in the excerpt not only shows the body change aimed to make her look feminine, but also this change implies the transition of Katniss from being a miserable and masculine girl to being a feminine girl in an upper-class environment. As a girl coming from District Twelve where Katniss