Feminism and Health in The Hunger Games

This post originally appeared on my blog Writing Not Raging about a year ago.
I was inspired to write this post by a chapter in  Cyberfeminism 2.0 – “Beyond Democratization and Subversion: Rethinking Feminist Analytical Approaches to Girls’ Cultural Production on the Internet” by Rosalind Sibielski. Sibielski, talking specifically about the production of fan videos by girls recreating Twilight (if you haven’t heard of this series, time to break up that rock your living under), argues that such cultural production falls outside of normal feminist analysis. Because the girls are recreating content that is inherently not feminist, their cultural production online cannot said to be subversion – even though such production, in general, is often treated by feminist analysis as inherently subversive.

The inherently not feminist Twilight made me think of the more recent YA series-turned-blockbuster-film: The Hunger Games. (Don’t know it? See my note above about that rock, and note – I’m assuming you’re familiar with the storyline). Though not an amateur cultural production like the the videos Sibielski is discussing, I think her conclusion can apply. The Hunger Games (the book) is a prime example of what shouldn’t be assumed to be feminist simply because it has a female creator and female protagonist. That being said, feminist interpretations of The Hunger Games abound. Whether or not the book(s) are feminist has been discussed to death, and I’ll let feminist readers decide for themselves. I tend to think yes (overall) – and I especially love these posts: “Katniss Everdeen: Feminist on Fire” “Why Katniss is a Feminist Character” and “What We Hunger For“. If you’re looking for guidance to make up your own mind, check out this round-up of feminist analyses, this post entitled ‘Feminist or Not‘, and/or watch this video:

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8428XSejp0]

In these many analyses, the issue of health is often touched upon. The health politics of the novel seem both feminism in some cases and more ambiguous in others – contributing to the controversy over whether or not the novel is feminist but also perhaps reflecting the complicated real world interplay of feminism and health politics.

Very early in the novel, we find out that Katniss doesn’t want to have children, and there seems to be a direct connection between this conviction and the fact that she doesn’t want to get married. Though it is never dicussed, there is an apparent lack of reproductive options for women in Katniss’ society – further implied by the fact that Gale’s mother has had many more children than any family in their society can realistically support. Why is there no government-sanctioned birth control method – is it a means of further oppression by the fascist central government? Why aren’t alternative methods used – are they unknown? (Doubtful) Forbidden by the Capitol? (perhaps, depending on the answer to the first question) Morally unacceptable? (More unacceptable than having children you can’t feed?). The answers to these questions about a fictional world are not as important as the fact that Collins problematically (and probably purposely given the controversy over women’s reproductive rights) avoids answering them. Indeed, “the complete erasure of sexuality is problematic,” as Roxane Gay writes in “What We Hunger For.”

However, Katniss’s mother and younger sister Prim are both healers. Katniss’s mother in particular is a respected woman in her community given her health expertise, and this community around health mimics that which existed in our own society before the medicalization movement – women were authorities on their own bodies (with the exception, perhaps, of reproduction, as discussed above) and held positions power at least locally. Katniss herself ends up taking on the role of healer (in the arena with Peeta) – without losing her power and identity as a “hunter”. Medicalization does exist in this fictional world, but only in the Capitol, the center of the oppressive government, and as such, is portrayed with nuance – they have the useful knowledge and ability to cure the physical damage Katniss and other central characters undergo, but there is also an abudance of extravagant cosmetic surgery. Attempts to perform such surgery on Katniss (specifically, breast augmentation) are portrayed negatively (and ultimately Katniss is able to circumvent them).

What do you think of the health politics of The Hunter Games? Of The Hunger Games in general? Is this feminist?

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