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Women in literature
Gender stereotypes in the media
Women in literature
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In our Society when you don't follow the rules, you become an outcast to the rest of the society. Suzanne Collins’ novel series, The Hunger Games criticizes our society and its demands for people of specific genders to act in certain ways and become certain things. Stereotypes concerning gender are prevalent in our society and all over the world. However, The Hunger Games gives a very refreshing tone of “mockery” to these stereotypes. Katniss Everdeen isn’t your typical 16 year old girl, and neither is Peeta Mellark a typical 16 year old boy, especially when they are fighting everyday just to survive. The Hunger Games is a work of social commentary, used to convince us that there can’t and shouldn’t be any defined “roles” based on gender. A mixture of “stereo-typical” gender roles within a person and their actions is what people need just to survive in our world that is changing every day. Well what is gender and what do we mean by gender roles? “Gender describes the socially-constructed roles and responsibilities that societies consider appropriate for men and women” (World Health Organization). All people on earth are affected by gender and the stereotypes that surround it. A person should be able to choose who they want to be and not be scared. Things are changing. According to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, “same-sex sexual harassment extends to where the victim is singled out due to failure to conform to accepted gender stereotypes” (Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein LLP). This is very important for everyone to know and understand. It allows people the ability to express themselves in any way they choose, without the anxiety or fear of being harassed for their decisions because they are a certain gender. This has only o... ... middle of paper ... ...s can be switched in people and things still be okay. However I want to combine how having a mixture of each gender's traits is also good. Blankschaen, Bill. "The Hunger Games: Battleground for Gender Wars." FaithWalkers. N.p., 24 June 2012. Web. 8 Nov. 2013. Great article to read. Focused on the sexual reversal aspects of Katniss in The Hunger Games. It discusses how people relate to this topic in today's society (YA girls). However it is focused on the religious standpoint of this topic. Based on the websites title (Faith Walkers) one should expect the article to be biased. We however are also told Kate O'Brien is the original author in her own words. She is a teacher of literature and history at a Christian Academy. So she is accredited but may be biased. This was an easy article to read. It may be useful in explaining or understanding an opposing argument.
As an impoverished resident of District 12, the priorities that have shaped Katniss’ identity are those of survival. Whether is it in hunting the fields with her trusty bow and arrow, or trading her catch at the illegal hub, Katniss’ society has enabled her to hold many attributes and attitudes that would traditionally be considered as masculine. Her characteristic plait is done so for functional rather than fashionable purposes; she is a surrogate father over her sister Prim since his death in the coal mines; she is the main provider for her family; and her ‘romantic attachment’ to Gale has developed through his respect for stubborn and resilient nature rather that her looks or dependence upon
Gender is deeply embedded into our society. It is pretty much at every level; it is something complex that goes far beyond just being a male or female. Gender impacts what occupations individuals have access to do, what type of activities they can and can’t do and even what colors they can and cannot wear. As mentioned by Catherine G. Valentine, in The Prism of Gender, society has taught us that a real woman is feminine; a real man is masculine and heterosexual; and any deviation is unacceptable and unnatural (3). Therefore, we live in a society that is binary, and has taught us that there are only two acceptable genders, male and female, and as a result everything is shaped by that idea. Nonetheless, like stated by Kate Bornstein in Gender
There are various examples of people throughout history who had the upper hand over others and have abused the power they had to make a negative impact or control other people’s lives. Power being defined as the capacity or ability to direct or influence the behaviour of others or the course of events and abuse, meaning the use of something to badly effect or for a bad purpose . Suzanne Collins exemplifies power and abuse in various ways throughout her novel, ‘The Hunger Games’. This intense novel is set in a time period after a rebellion in North America left the country destroyed, divided into 12 districts and being controlled by the Capitol. Katniss Everdeen is the main protagonist and is from the poverty stricken district 12, completely opposite from the Capitol which is the place that is rich in wealth and power over the 12 districts. Every year a male and female between the ages of 12-18 from each district get chosen and sent to the Capitol to compete in the blood bath that is called ‘The Hunger Games’ to show that the Capitol is the one with the power and to stop a rebellion against them . This essay will explore the themes of power and abuse that are demonstrated throughout The Hunger Games.
The Hunger Games, a film based off of a novel written by Susan Collins, was released in March of 2012. The film, and the book it was based on, chronicles the struggles of a girl named Katniss Everdeen, a girl who lives in a poverty stricken province or “District”, until untimely circumstances forces her to play in the Hunger Games, a gladiatorial like contest where children between the ages of 12 and 18 are forced to fight to the death. A contest that was set up by an oppressive and authoritarian government, and has thus far been sustained via the forced obedience of the rebellious Districts, the brainwashing and conditioning of Districts 1 and 2, and the conditioning of the residents of its Capitol. The movie has a variety of messages, most especially in regards toward social control and social conditioning. With these ideas in mind, a case could very well be made that The Hunger Games, throughout its two hour long run time, shows a very realistic look at a socially conditioned society and what humanity can become with the right amount of conditioning and control by an authoritarian force.
In Suzanne Collins’s novel, The Hunger Games, the protagonist, Katniss Everdeen, undergoes several changes over the course of the story. This novel is about a nationally televised event called The Hunger Games. Every citizen must watch as the youth fight to death until only one remains, Katniss’ sister, Prim, is chosen as a tribute to fight in the games but Katniss refuses to let her sister fight and volunteers to take her spot. At the beginning of the novel, Katniss is fearful and unsure of herself. While she illustrates bravery when she volunteers as a tribute in place of her Prim, she has little confidence in her abilities.
Finally, in The Hunger Games, Katniss Everdeen volunteers in place of her sister and enters an overwhelmingly displeasing, deadly arena to fight for her life. Despite the fate of the victims of these social traditions, their greedy, self-centered societies still do nothing to save an innocent individual’s destiny. By blindly blending in with the crowd and its society’s traditions, people’s daily lives become impacted tremendously.
Viewing gender as something one must always adhere to and play the role of creates a view of set sexualities for people. For example, men are expected and allowed to be sexually promiscuous while women are not and face slut shaming, harassment,
The movie “The Hunger Games” has many similarities and relations to World Mythology. While it may not seem like this movie is as myth related as others, such as Troy and Thor, many of the themes and situations in the movie were inspired by the stories of the great myths and epics. The overall theme of the movie is courage, strength, and destiny.
In the past twenty years the way society looks at the word “gender” is a totally different perception than what they did years ago, according to the Webster’s dictionary, the word “gender” is the state of being male or female. The word gender use to mean male or female, but now it has become this word that people are taking “offensive”. For example, at schools all around there having to make things gender neutral because a group of people are taking things and twisting them to where it can seem offensive. Society is accepting to anything that’s different and not “how it’s supposed to be” because that equals more publicity. Everyone wants to make everything equal to whatever you want to
In 2012 the film The Hunger Games hit theatres and became a success. The success of the film was originally fueled by the fan base of the Suzanne Collins authored trilogy of the same name, but it soon gained popularity amongst those who had not read the trilogy as well. You could relate the movie to sociology in one of two ways. The first option would be to write about how the film became a cultural phenomenon or other theories relating to its success. This paper will be written using the other way, which is to write about the movie itself through a sociological point of view by writing about how culture, social control, and stratification are featured in the movie and how people with different sociological perspectives may view the film.
Gender roles are a set of societal norms that determine how a specific sex should think, speak and act. Society often portrays women as the housewife who nurtures the family while portraying men as the breadwinner who provides the family. Franz Kafka’s Metamorphosis and Suzanne Collins’ novel, The Hunger Games, both portray unconventional characters that defy the universally accepted gender roles. By allowing their characters to surpass the stereotypical expectations, Kafka and Collins challenge the ideas of traditional gender roles that have created certain requirements and restrictions on both men and women. Kafka and Collins illustrate the theme of role reversal to exemplify that there should not be any defined gender roles. They try to
In this article, Shaw and Lee describe how the action of labels on being “feminine” or “masculine” affect society. Shaw and Lee describe how gender is, “the social organization of sexual difference” (124). In biology gender is what sex a person is and in culture gender is how a person should act and portray themselves. They mention how gender is what we were taught to do in our daily lives from a young age so that it can become natural(Shaw, Lee 126). They speak on the process of gender socialization that teaches us how to act and think in accordance to what sex a person is. Shaw and Lee state that many people identify themselves as being transgendered, which involves a person, “resisting the social construction of gender into two distinct, categories, masculinity and femininity and working to break down these constraining and polarized categories” ( 129). They write about how in mainstream America masculinity and femininity are described with the masculine trait being the more dominant of the two. They define how this contributes to putting a higher value of one gender over the other gender called gender ranking (Shaw, Lee 137). They also speak about how in order for femininity to be viewed that other systems of inequality also need to be looked at first(Shaw,Lee 139).
With a massive marketing campaign, it’s no wonder The Hunger Games quickly became a world-wide sensation. But, I believe its popularity isn’t due to marketing alone. In The Hunger Games we find important, if overly-dramatic, depictions of social conditions that weigh on the minds of young people today: an uneven distribution of wealth leading to massive and ever-growing class stratification; power in the hands of a few elite members; social control through widespread propaganda; and fierce competition among social classes for resources. Films like The Hunger Games are helpful for young people by teaching them a new way to see the world, through the lens of social theories such as Karl Marx’s Conflict Theory.
In a not-too-distant, some 74 years, into the future the United States of America has collapsed, weakened by drought, fire, famine, and war, to be replaced by Panem, a country divided into the Capitol and 13 districts. Each year, two young representatives from each district are selected by lottery to participate in The Hunger Games; these children are referred to as tributes (Collins, 2008). The Games are meant to be viewed as entertainment, but every citizen knows their purpose, as brutal intimidation of the subjugated districts. The televised games are broadcasted throughout Panem as the 24 participants are forced to eradicate their competitors, literally, with all citizens required to watch. The main character throughout the series is a 16-year-old girl from District 12 named Katniss Everdeen.
When I began taking this class (GWS 1000) I knew very little about gender and the different positions it play in sociality today. Growing up you hear about many stereotypes that defines gender and women’s roles, putting them inside little boxes representing a fairy tale form shaped by the media. Gorham states that “Stereotypes give us highly edited and distorted images of groups that tend to support the way groups are treated in society”(2013). Social generalizations of minority groups, have a tendency to reflect the biases and the histories of the majority, with the end goal that the general population being stereotyped are reduced to a couple of attributes that are socially relevant for understanding that group 's placed in the public eye.