The Hunger Games and TV
There were a lot of pieces of technology that I felt I could relate to the Hunter Games, but the one that jumped out at me the most, of course, was television. The Hunger Games was aired on TV so that everyone could watch, and included a lot of elements that actually apply to television today. In the Hunger Games, the culture of the Capitol thrives on looking at people and what they do, similar to what’s on TV today. A very popular genre of TV currently is reality television. Everyone loves watching what people do in their lives, examining and placing judgment on their relationships, their friendships, their jobs, and everything else. In Panem, the Hunger Games is one gigantic reality TV competition. Residents of the Capitol are excited to watch the interviews of contestants in a quick talk-show type format where they can discover what the tributes are like and feel as if they really know them. The contestants are paraded around in various outfits, all in preparation for the main attraction: the Games themselves. The Games are absolutely horrible because everyone watches a selection of teenagers prepare to kill each other. It’s clearly much worse than the dance shows and talent shows of today, but perhaps Suzanne Collins is using the Games to critique these reality shows, and the culture we have today. We love to watch the lives of others, but it is for our own entertainment. We don’t really necessarily care about the people we see on TV – but we watch them anyway.
One difference I think that was in the Hunger Games favor, though, was that I noticed that the Games were not very gendered. There was one male and one female tribute chosen from each district, and they were treated basically the same regardless of gender. This is very different from television we experience, where big topics of conversation are regarding the outward physical appearance of women, where women and people of color are not represented, and where sexist and racist jokes are considered to be an acceptable form of comedy.
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2 Comments
Sophia
September 26, 2013I think the parallel you’ve drawn between the Hunger Games competition and reality television, both of which exploit their participants for the public’s entertainment, is spot on. And I think a lot of contemporary reality television is not much less grotesque than the Hunger Games. So much of the former is based on “cut-throat” competition, just as in the latter, except the “cut-throat” competitiveness is much more literal.
On the other hand, I disagree that the Hunger Games lack strong gender roles. After all, Katniss and Peeta are convinced to portray a budding love story between a young man and a young women. While both genders in the Capitol dress absurdly, there are still distinctions in the outfits of men and women there. Masculinity and femininity are still strong themes in their society. For example, Katniss and Peeta’s mentor Haymitch perfectly embodies the masculine stoicism. Whereas, in the movie at least, the only characters who cry are females.
Kaitlyn O'Hagan
October 6, 2013I agree with Sophia’s comment–though it seems there is greater gender equality in the society that Collins has created, it is still highly gendered. If it wasn’t, wouldn’t they pick two tributes from each district regardless of gender?
In fact, I wonder if Collins’ portrayal of a society with gender equality but still gender difference that is, I think we would all agree, overall a worse society than our own, could actually be read as a critique of the narrow focus on gender equity as a political/socioeconomic goal in and of itself (i.e. gender equity is a good thing, but it is not the be-all-end-all, nor will it solve all our problems).