Unfortunately males tend to mentally undress females. Maybe we are hard-wired that way to ensure procreation?. Males can easily be turned on by visual stimuli alone, hence we describe what we see. Being sexually attracted to a woman based on visual cues alone, cant be conducive to equality, I realize this. No amount of bra-burning will change this.
Women like to be treated as equal, yet they still like it when a guy holds the door open for them.. I guess when ancient hard-wiring meets modern idealism, conflict ensues.. Women like to be treated as people, individuals, and men like to be treated like individuals as well.
The fact that you are generalisng all men and all women based on your own expereince is another reason why we still need feminism. Feminism is about equality for all, regardless of sex — it is about being seen as a person before a sex. Some men only see boobs, luckily some have ears as well. And that animal instinct stuff is bull. Look at some tribes where women are topless just like the men — the men still manage to go about thier business without jumping on the women, because sexualisation is to do with society, not nature.
Your inability to see beyond the entertainment value in either movie is disturbing and you can only speak for you. Extremely awesome but slightly scary at the same time.
To those who are confused to exactly what The Hunger Games depicts, let me outline the political spectrum for you. Government power decreases to the right, increases to the left. They just tend to be used with the same forms of government. Whereas Republics rule of the law , Democracies rule of the majority , and governments of that nature are on the right, as the government has less power. The United States, for example, was supposed to be a Capitalistic Republic as formed by the Founding Fathers, however, it is now morphing into more of a Socialistic Democracy.
So, the theme in the Hunger Games is an authoritative Utopian government, which is far left-wing on the political spectrum. Although this post is very old and no one will probably read my reply, I feel I have to correct this extremely inaccurate post. Government power does not determine right or left. The modern view has authoritarianism vs. There are libertarian liberals and authoritarian conservatives. In fact, historically, conservatives were more inclined to support state power and liberals opposed to it.
Monarchy and despotism are classical conservative forms of government, whereas anarchy is historically connected with liberals. Fundamentally, conservatism is about maintaining the status quo or returning to an earlier status quo and keeping power and control where it is. Respect for authority and obedience to authority figures are a central part of conservative philosophy. American conservatives display a bit of a split personality by claiming to be the anti-government party while maintaining respect for traditional authoritarian institutions such as the police, the military and the church.
Liberalism is about questioning authority and the traditional approaches. Liberals are willing to experiment and make changes in institutions and social structures with a goal of improving life for ordinary people.
As with all experiments, the results is not always success, but the point is to keep an open mind and an optimistic attitude. It was this spirit of liberalism which created the United States. Yep, in the movies. In the USA, to looks like the relentless rich and their blind sheep are the only survivors. Love the article! I often felt that the message went hand in hand with the political but maybe I was approaching the trilogy all wrong. No one really wins when there is war in the first place.
For me, what makes a great literature or art is that ability to open any dialogue about any issue. The divine vs. After reading the entire Hunger Games trilogy, I see Katniss character faced with this question of divine vs.
Throughout the series, Katniss needs both to survive- as we all basically do. There are even desparate points where Katniss questions needing either of them. In the end, when her life-threatening struggles are over and she is left with just how to cope with horrible memories and the rest of her life, she is able to finally accept that divine love Peeta and even dare to hope by bringing her own children into the world.
Politics, war, power, greed — result in human suffering and loss of innocent life. Humanity depends on a combination of basic survival skills and unconditional love for each other. Its the progressive end game is what it is. Peace keepers, social elitism, class controls, food regulation, regulation on every form of existence, powerful central goverment. And lots and lots of distractions with pop culture. Movie was ok.
Pretty predictable. Only slightly a parody of our world, though. My children are in their twenties. Sometimes I envy that.
Maybe I care too much? The heroes of the Hunger Games were the marketing department. The director did a great job as usual considering the material and talent. The addition of Woody in the movie only added to the inability of the leads to control a scene. Politically speaking if either party connects with the film via self interest of a wagging finger, it only goes to show nothing truly ignorant happens until after the sale. I taught the book to high school students and we discussed it pretty closely.
Nobody, myself included, thought it had much to do with current politics. The book, far more than the movie, focuses very closely on the ways power can be abused. For the power elite, the danger is that Katniss will undermine an effective divide and conquer strategy. Honestly, health insurance, religion, taxation, ethnic minorities, economic redistribution — these hot button topics from real life American debate — seem pretty far removed from the storyline.
I think taxation and income inequality are pretty central themes to the books. I understood the central problem behind this movie, and all the dystopian young adult novels in existence.
It is bread and circuses…hot teen girls having sex in a chaste way, of course and facing danger that they never really have to confront directly. And like most movies about Evil Empires the Star Wars films included , there is no explanation as to why so many people support the Dark Side or Darkseid, the empire or its supreme leader, because that might muddy the simplistic melodrama of it all.
Oh please to define the story as nothing more than sexualized encouragement and to go as far as saying danger they never have to confront directly are you serious, they have no choice but to confront nothing but danger! Anyone who was paying any attention could see that Katniss regularly exhibits both conservative and liberal tendencies she has an affinity for hunting, she abhors the torture perpetrated by the Capitol, she is self-sufficient and responsible, but she still sacrifices for Prim, Rue, and Peeta , perhaps it is not as simple as you all are arguing.
As I see it, there are two major motivators in The Hunger Games. The first is clearly an exploration of gender, and what that means. Katniss assumes the fatherly role by providing and protecting for her family.
She is juxtaposed with an emotional, and mostly weak, character in Peeta. In almost every way Peeta falls into the damsel-in-distress character seen in every fantasy movie ever. Katniss literally has to help him walk, all while doing everything else and making sure both of them survive.
This is a take on the female condition and how every detail and every move is judged and criticized. Think of a woman picking her clothes, doing her nails, her make-up, her shoes, etc. Only in this case Katniss plays them like a fiddle, not the other way around. But on the other hand she is completely committed to her family and will do anything for them. Desperation has forced her to become a survivor, but in the midst of awful hunger and poverty she still clings to the things that make us human.
This is in staunch contrast to the people of the Capitol who represent the exact opposite, a pampered and leisurely society that has no conception of desperation. The Capitol is not described in any detail about its procedures or political alignment, because it is irrelevant to the story.
Katniss is the story, the Capitol is just what motivates her, hence why the book is written and told from her perspective.
The book and the movie explore the human condition in these two very different worlds. In the end, this is not some cheap political diatribe. The Capitol is not a description of the privileged 1st world and the districts are the developing world. It is not an overbearing, yet somehow socialist, dictatorship trying to symbolize the evils of liberalism. So seriously, give it a rest. Very interesting. This movie appears to unwittingly express that same theme: no idea who the real enemy is.
Maybe all of USA faction wars will soon inherit a little bit of hell when the entire globe weighs in. The author kept politics out of her books? Early in the 1st book there is the discussion of the electrified fence surrounding each District. The electrified fence was supposedly there to keep the people from harm from the outside.
However the people in the book looked at the fence as a joke meaning they could starve to death in safety. In the US we have a powerful military to defend our country but we have trouble getting health care and other help to the people who need it. One of the last lines in the movie A Few Good Men is spoken by one of the Marines that were on trial. He says that they forgot who they were supposed to protect, meaning that they were supposed to protect the weak.
I think another possible interesting reading of the political implications of the work would be to run it through Foucault, and look at how power is exercised in this world through the panoptic effects of the media.
It seemed to me that the critique of the media was maybe the most contemporary and pointed. If my kids were watching these movies, there would be an outcry about it not doing them any favors. Totally objective and unbiased…not.
On another note: Personal failure in fame and fortune is not that bad when you consider the dictatorship that some people are living under the foot of-unless you are the foot?
Silent, fearful, and afraid to stand up for yourself and your family is no way to live. It is the response. This movie transcends age as far as young adult VS adult of all the movies that inspire well nothing but product placement and worse that the state of things is as it should be completely ignores the story!
I have not read the book, but enjoyed the first move a lot more than I expected when it popped up free on Netflix streaming. Maybe the books and the movies are just entertainment and not intended to have a political message for one side or the other. I much preferred Battle Royale actually. Deliciously satirical and combining that classic Japanese teen emotion with graphic but cartoonish violence.
The film seemed like quite a profound statement on being a teenager to me. Reading all these comments. One thing comes into mind: One of the signs of good literature is that it allows a variety of equally valid interpretations.
I never read the books, but I did watch the movies. But I did watch the movies again searching for political undertones. What a load of rubbish. The Hunger Games is the only teenage novel written in the Twenty-first century that is politically minded! I think you should be more open minded and read more, I can list plenty of teenage works that engage with political concepts. Get off your high horse! I aboslutely adore the Hunger Games and appreciate the films and novels as great art.
I have watched the Hunger Games series a dozen times and never really have seen the environmental aspect of it. The world is becoming corrupt in the image that each country is perfect in their own way.
Money and control will never disappear, the need of it will only grow. Being a college student myself, I can see the need to be successful to be able to live well and provide the best future for your children. These issue in the world that the Hunger Games represents are very well incorporated into a way that adolescents can imagine this in our World right now. It makes it understandable. Social media is a growing thing that we are never going to be able to avoid.
I have seen places like China and Saudi Arabia that will ban YouTube and certain media from their people to avoid them from learning about other cultures and potentially causing a rebellion for change. The World is crazy and complex but Hunger Games gives us a creepy realization of what could happen to us in the future.
While they are an awesome dystopia, there is so much more to them. I had not thought of Katniss in quite the light you discuss her as but I do agree she is both a feminist ideal- both sexes are in the games with equal opportunities which was something I thought was well done but also under the patriarchal rule of the Capital.
Very nice. Although it can be read as a critique of both left and right, overall Katniss is a feminist heroine who is fighting political oppression and media exploitation. Wow, this article was fabulous. I think your information is very highly correct. Loved the article! Much of the publicity is about Team Gale or Team Peeta. Interesting look into our society…. Exactly because media sees people as product so in a silly effort to stop critical thinking and make direct action sound silly and bring it back to more easily exploitable aspects!
Part of what I love about the series is how it subverts the typical hero journey. Katniss is for a large part of the series a passive and unknowing participant in the rebellion.
In the first book, Katniss is only concerned with saving herself and her family. In the second book, Katniss wants only to save Peeta in the Quarter Quell—she unknowingly becomes the symbol of rebellion. She had no idea about the rebellion working beyond the scenes Haymitch—her mentor, and other victors already know about the plan. And in third book, Katniss is a manipulated figure head of the rebellion.
She largely only agrees because she is trying to save Peeta. Collins emphasizes this passivity by having Katniss knocked out or unconscious during key moments. Katniss is not an extraordinary hero though she is extraordinary , she is an accidental rebellion leader—driven there by circumstance and necessity. Thresh's cannon signifying his death fires while Peeta and Katniss are trapped in their cave due to the bad weather.
Foxface is killed after she steals and eats nightlock berries that Peeta collected, not knowing that they were deadly. On the final day of the games, the river that runs near their cave runs dry. They see this as a sign that the Gamemakers are gathering the three remaining tributes to the lake near the Cornucopia.
This is where they find a frantic Cato running from giant Capitol muttations, human-like wolves who turn out to be in some form that resemble the dead tributes. The final showdown on top of the Cornicopia has Cato trying to use Peeta to stop Katniss from killing him. He ultimately fails as Katniss pierces his hand and falls down to the muttations below the Cornucopia.
He does not die and is merely tortured continuously by the muttations because of his armor which most likely came from his district pack. Cato is severely wounded by the mutts and finally killed by Katniss with an arrow through the head. His cannon fires, and Katniss and Peeta are unsure why they are not being announced victors. Claudius Templesmith then announces that there can only be one victor, revoking the previously placed rule.
As a way to defy the Gamemakers, Katniss introduces the idea of suicide with the nightlock berries to Peeta, in the hope that the Capitol would rather have 2 victors than none. Peeta agrees, and just as they are about to consume the berries, they are hastily declared the winners. However, the Capitol becomes angry with Katniss and claims she was sparking rebellion by "outsmarting" the Gamemakers and therefore defying the Capitol. When Haymitch tells Katniss this, she sees it as her job to reverse it to save the ones she loves so she layers the madly-in love act very thick in order to convince them that she did this for her future with Peeta.
Upon going home, Peeta and Katniss start drifting apart when she tells him she knew when Haymitch would send her sponsorship gifts and survived most of the Games that way.
Katniss' thoughts are in turmoil; she is conflicted about her feelings for Peeta and is incapable of sorting out what felt real and what didn't. Peeta offers his hand to Katniss, conveying his hurt by saying "One more time? For the audience? After writing the novel, Collins signed a six-figure deal for three books with Scholastic in The first book originally had a 50, first printing which was then increased, twice, to , copies.
The novel has been criticized for its similarities to the Japanese novel Battle Royale , which is about junior high school students forced to fight to the death by a repressive government in an alternate timeline.
Suzanne Collins said in a statement, "I had not heard of Battle Royale until my book was turned into Scholastic. The story continues in Catching Fire , which follows Katniss and Peeta as they try to survive in and out of yet another deadly Hunger Games , the Quarter Quell.
The original black cover features an alternate version of the mockingjay pin designed by Tim O'Brien with the mockingjay holding an arrow in its beak. The Hunger Games Wiki Explore. Victors Gamemaker Rebels The Covey. Songs Songs from District Hunger Games film. Panem The Capitol Academy University.
District 1 District 2 District 4. Songbirds and Snakes portal Policy Blog policy Image policy. Explore Wikis Community Central. Register Don't have an account? The Hunger Games. View source. History Talk For other uses, see The Hunger Games disambiguation. This section is in need of clean up and improvement.
You can help The Hunger Games Wiki by editing it. I couldn't stop reading. The story kept me up for several nights in a row, because even after I was finished, I just lay in bed wide awake thinking about it. The Hunger Games is amazing. Sellers June 9, Publisher's Weekly. Retrieved on December 19, The New York Times November 2, Children's Chapter Books. The New York Times. Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved on Decemebr 19, September 17, Archived from the original on October 26, Scary New World.
New York Times. ABC News March 22, Sellers The Latest on 'The Hunger Games'. Publishers Weekly. Retrieved on Fernandez and Borys Kit Lionsgate picks up 'Hunger Games'. Fans can only hope director Gary Ross doesn't soften the book, because the twists and turns will make for an edge-of-your-seat thriller.
At this rate, the film is set to have more passion than "Twilight" and more action than "Harry Potter. When Lionsgate announced that Jennifer Lawrence had been cast to play Katniss, both f ans and critics questioned the choice , believing she was too old, too blond and too pretty to play a ruthless warrior. However, if her success in "Winter's Bone" and "X-Men: First Class" is any indication of her range, Lawrence has the potential to nail this role and pave the way for kick-butt female heroines.
The movie's lead male stars will likely rise to instant fame , just as Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner did with "Twilight. The cast and crew wrapped filming earlier this month after an day shoot, and a recently released teaser trailer has given fans a taste of what's to come.
The hype may have escalated the budget, but the film may still exceed all expectations -- and be one lucrative franchise that reaches audiences of all ages.
Now, with only a few months until the first film's release, you still have plenty of time to pick up the book if you haven't read it.
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