Don’t Clap Your Hands For Katniss Just Yet:Examining Gender Relations In The Hunger Games Trilogy

Katniss Everdeen, the cold and violent female protagonist of the Hunger Games trilogy, has been reaping popularity and critically acclaim as a true feminist heroine ever since the coming-out of the first book. A provider of family, warrior of Hunger Games, and symbolic leader of a rebellion, she has done a lot more than previous heroines in dystopian literature for young adults. Yet, does her violent skills and bread-winner identity qualify the name of a feminist heroine? Considering her gender relations with two male characters, will she still be as feminist as she appears to be?Through examinations on transformations of her gender display, by utilizing the theory of hegemonic masculinity and emphasized femininity to pinpoint the changing discourse of gender, this thesis aims to argue that she transforms from embodying hegemonic masculinity to emphasized femininity, that she eventually does not qualify to be a feminist heroine, for emphasized femininity only serves for patriarchy.Katniss Everdeen has been the first of her kind in the genre of dystopian literature for young adults for being a powerful female protagonist. Her popularity and critical merits as being supposedly feminist has only encouraged many similar heroines in dystopias to emerge. Yet it would be catastrophically misleading to the millions of youngsters around the globe if the only thing it takes to be a feminist heroine is to know her way around a weapon and be stereotypically masculine. It is high time we set the record straight and called for true feminist heroines to come.