Girls on fire?
An examination of the agency of the heroine in the modern day action movie
Jolijn van Ginkel 10109765/6370888 info@jolijnvanginkel.nl
24 June 2016 Dr. F.A.M Laeven
Second reader: Dr. G.W. van der Pol Master Thesis
Film studies Professional track Media studies
University of Amsterdam (UvA) Words: 22935
Abstract
Some 'new' female movie protagonists are lauded by contemporary media as progressive role models when compared to normative gender patterns. Heroines Katniss Everdeen and Tris Prior from the movie franchises The Hunger Games and
Divergent are two examples of supposedly strong female characters. However, one could
critically question this assumption. Gender equality in the media, and especially in mainstream Hollywood, may be less advanced than can be expected after the efforts that have been put in promoting women’s emancipation in the last decades. This thesis will therefore examine the agency of heroines in the modern action movie, a genre that is still highly dominated by traditional gender constructions. Characters Katniss and Tris will be the objects of this research. The questions guiding of this thesis are: to what extent are these heroines actually displaying behaviour that is progressive when looking at traditional gender patterns? How much agency do they possess when their behaviour and the power relations affecting them are closely analysed? The goal of this thesis is to paint a more nuanced picture of of how progressive female protagonists are imagined in the action genre and to reveal the constructions that influence the agency of the heroines.
Key words
Normative gender patterns, male/female, masculine/feminine, action movie, Hollywood,
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Abstract ... i
INTRODUCTION ... 1
1. WOMEN IN A MEN’S WORLD ... 7
1.1 Women in the action genre ... 8
1.2 Masculine and feminine characteristics. ... 10
1.3 Agency ... 14
1.4 Coping mechanisms ... 16
1.5 Method ... 16
1.6 Summary ... 18
2. KATNISS AND TRIS: DECODING THE FEMALE PROTAGONISTS ... 19
2.1 Katniss and Tris and the worlds they live in ... 19
2.2 Katniss and Tris: masculine and feminine characteristics ... 20
2.2.1 Introduction of the protagonists in the films ... 20
2.2.2 Motives ... 26
2.2.3 Behaviour ... 28
2.3 Filmic commentary in The Hunger Games ... 31
2.4 Conclusion ... ...32
3. KATNISS AND TRIS: DECODING THEIR (POWER) RELATION (SHIPS); AUTONOMY AND AGENCY ... 33
3.1 Family and friends ... 33
3.2 Antagonists ... 38
3.3 Love interests ... 44
3.4 Katniss and the media ... 49
3.5 The ultimate coping mechanism ... 51
3.6 Conclusion ... 52
CONCLUSION AND DISCUSSION: GIRLS ON FIRE? ... 53
Are the girls on fire? ... 53
Further reflections ... 53
Final conclusions ... 56
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS... 58
FILMOGRAPHY ... 59
BIBLIOGRAPHY ... ...60
A.1 The Hunger Games and The Hunger Games: Catching Fire ... ...64
A.2 Divergent and Insurgent ... ...65
B.1 Masculine Characteristics ... 69
INTRODUCTION
A high-tech training center. A young woman walks inside, sets up a training program and steps on a platform in the middle of the room. Her bow rests loosely in her hand. The program starts; light rays are moving through the room and a close up shows a concentrated look on her face. The rays form the first holographic target, a human form. She aims her bow swiftly and shoots the target. Immediately, a new hologram approaches and she hits this target as well. Above her, another one appears. She follows it with the arrow on her bent bow, in expectation of the right moment, whereupon she shoots it. One hologram throws an axe. She dives, tumbles and shoots. At top speed she hits two more targets and the rays unwind. She has completed the level. While she is recovering from her effort, she glances at the room’s glass wall. Most of her fellow contestants are staring at her from outside, impressed by this skilled young woman who will become either a valuable ally or a hard to kill enemy.
In the years 2012 and 2013 it was hard to avoid Katniss Everdeen, ‘the girl on fire’, main character of the Lionsgate film The Hunger Games (2012) and the sequel The
Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013). The Hunger Games, based on the popular trilogy by
Susanne Collins, was a big box office success. Feminist critics applauded the skilled archer Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence). She was hailed as an active character, a true survivor with courage and fighting abilities and a new kind of heroine. Katniss was quickly labelled a ‘strong female character’. ‘Strong’ is here opposed to the more dependant female characters so often portrayed, especially in mainstream cinema. Many Hollywood films still follow the structure of the male hero who saves the damsel in distress; Hollywood is still a men’s world. ‘Yes, we know this by now,’ is what is often said when the subject of the representation of women in the media or even the emancipation of women in Western society in general, is up for discussion. It seems an unpopular subject to talk about, because, we have already come so far, haven’t we?
However, there still remains a lot to achieve when it comes to our perception of the categories ‘man/masculine’ and ‘woman/feminine.’Especially the normative consequences of this dichotomous way of thinking on society are gruesomely underestimated. During the launch of the United Nations’ campaign HeforShe1, actress
Emma Watson stated that there is still no country in the world where gender equality is
a fact. A look at the payment gap between men and women in Western society shows that substantial effort continues to be needed. In her speech, Watson declares to be a feminist. A word that, as she states, has become quite unpopular nowadays. Feminism is often wrongly associated with ‘man-hating’, while in fact it is nothing else than the aim for gender equality (Emma Watson). HeforShe is a campaign directed at men, since most people already involved in the aim for gender equality are women. In Watson’s words, the world cannot change “if only half of it is invited or feels welcome to participate.”
Gender inequality is clearly visible when taking a look at quantitative data concerning the representation of men and women in the media industry, especially in mainstream movies. In this industry, male roles still dominate and gender stereotypes are omnipresent. Of the 163 films examined for the Hollywood Diversity Report in 2014, only 25.8% had a female protagonist (Hunt, Ramón and Tran 11) and a lot of mainstream movies still do not make the Bechdel test.2 In November 2014, hackers
published confidential data belonging to Sony Pictures Entertainment. The released data, made accessible by Wikileaks, included e-mails between employees of Sony and information about salaries of executives and actors. It revealed, among other things, that male actors are estimated to be of more (economical) value than their female colleagues. Jennifer Lawrence and Amy Adams only received 7% of the profit of American Hustle (2013), while their male co-stars Christian Bale and Bradley Cooper received 9% (Roose; Needham). This is a payment difference of 28%. In another instance, Charlize Theron received a lot less for Snow white and the Huntsman (2012) than colleague Chris Hemsworth. Theron then demanded equal payment for participating in the sequel: "This is a good time for us to bring this to a place of fairness, and girls need to know that being a feminist is a good thing. It doesn't mean that you hate men. It means equal rights" (Charlize Theron wil gelijke beloning).
Because of the vast amount of existing scholarship concerning the representation of gender in the movie sector, some scholars may perceive the topic as outdated. However, as long as this gender inequality exists in the content of most films, it is an important subject to examine, because the movies we see have a big influence on the
2. The Bechdel Test is a way to measure the active presence of female characters in Hollywood films. It was accidently created by Allison Bechdel in her comic strip Dykes to
Watch Out For in 1985 and has three criteria: 1. Are there two women in a movie who
have names 2. Do these women talk to each other at any point and 3. Do they talk about something other than a man?
way weperceive our world. This is also outlined byBazzini et al. whom assert that:
Popular media images are reflections of a culture's attitudes, beliefs, and standards, as well as projections of desired realities. Whether accurate descriptions of daily living, or wishful thinking on the part of filmmakers, media tells a story that is eagerly received by consumers. To the extent that consumers digest such material as truth, rather than fiction, the depictions laid forth by the media can be influential in the propagation and maintenance of stereotypes. (532)
Fiction movies have a big influence on society, because they create a certain dream world, showing people which behaviours are deemed acceptable. Fiction stories contain some kind of blue print for the behaviour of men and women and project certain positions, which viewers can associate with and take on, according to Parsons. Because this ‘suitable’ behaviour is embedded and therefore hidden in the movie, one does not observe that it is constructed and repeated over and over again through the existing dominant ideas. It confirms the hegemonic masculinity in society. The repetition of these patterns or iteration, a term also present in the influential work of Judith Butler, ensures that the viewer experiences this discourse, concerning gender, as natural and legitimate. As a result, viewers identify themselves with characters which confirm what they already know through the dominant discourse (Parsons 135-136). There are a lot of mechanisms at work in the films of which we are not always consciously aware of, because they seem to fit perfectly in the world as we know it. The creators of the movies are also limited by their own worldview and they keep the dominant film structures alive. The world influences the movies and movies influence the world. It is an endless circle. If gender equality for men and women is the goal, movies need to reflect this endeavour and deviate from the standard patterns. It is therefore important to expose these mechanisms and monitor the developments in the representation of women. As Watson pointed out, it is important to have both men and women on board to achieve this. In this thesis, the role of women in actions movies is examined. This genre is traditionally a men’s genre. Big top-grossing blockbusters can often be placed in this category. Since these films are reaching millions of people all over the world, they are very influential in imaging. Therefore, it is important to examine the gender role patterns in this genre. “Due to the success and popularity of the action genre, which is disseminated to a broad audience (…) we need to be concerned with continued gender stereotypes set within a violent framework” (Gilpatric 744).
defeats the villain and gets the girl in the end. He is smart, strong, resolute and ingenious. She is beautiful and in trouble. Still, some remarkable female protagonists arose precisely in this predominantly masculine genre. Two that immediately come to mind are Lieutenant Ellen Ripley of Alien (1979) and Lara Croft from Lara Croft: Tomb
Raider (2001). Feminist writers and film scholars generally consider Ellen Ripley to be
the character that paved the way for a different female image and more active female characters in movies. She is the only one to survive the brutal alien. Not because of luck or the help she gets from others, but because of her own abilities and the fact that she acts when necessary. Lara Croft on the other hand, can count on a lot of criticism. Lara Croft displays pugnacity and fighting skills, combined with a highly sexualized appearance; a stereotype of an extremely masculine character in an extremely feminine body. She is a ‘strong’ and active female character in the sense that she fights, but also one that is made into an erotic object for the pleasure of the heterosexual male viewer, subjected to to-be-looked-at-ness (Mulvey) instead of being an emancipatory female character.
Just like Ripley, Katniss Everdeen seems to be heralding a new era for women in movies. She is an active female character, but not a highly sexualized fighting machine like Lara Croft. After the success of The Hunger Games, it seemed that studios started to slowly catch on to the idea that there actually is a market for films with feisty heroines. Oliver signals all kinds of fighting women in fiction movies these days which diverge from the fighting sex symbol (Hunting Girls). Summit Entertainment launched Divergent (2014), which follows a similar pattern as The Hunger Games at first sight: a book adaptation about a young fighting heroine who lives in a compartmented future society that emerged after a vicious war, set in North-America. The female protagonist in this case is Beatrice or Tris Prior3, who must learn how to fight when she enters a new
community where being tough and athletic are core values. Fighting is an activity that traditionally belongs to male characters in films. In that way, these fighting girls are different from most female characters. But to herald true gender equality, a slightly different version of the stereotypical female character is not enough. The necessary progressive female characters should possess the same kind of possibilities, skills and spirit the male characters usually have. Snow White (Kirsten Stewart) in Snow White and
3 When Beatrice is entering the faction of Dauntless, she changes her name in Tris. Therefore both names
the Huntsman shows us for instance that wielding a sword for a moment cannot make up
for the one and a half hours in which the viewer is presented with an incapable female, who apparently cannot even cross a small water pool on her own since the huntsman is physically supporting her. Therefore, I would like to examine how progressive the new ‘strong’ heroines actually are. Even when a character at first sight seems to challenge traditional gender patterns, under the surface the filmic structure might still confirm the hegemony. This examination exists of a close reading of the selected films, a qualitative analysis of the characters and the power relations they are a part of. What is the extent to which they possess agency? Agency is a term that is often used in analysing gender patterns in the media, but it is a slippery concept that lacks a hard definition. Most scholars do not address the possible meaning of the term in their articles. In this thesis, an attempt will be made to give a working definition of the term agency. Thus it can be used as a tool for investigating the supposed progressiveness of the analysed characters. ‘Progressive’ in this context describes the difference from the conservative feminine stereotypes.
This thesis will analyse the protagonists Katniss Everdeen of The Hunger Games and The Hunger Games: Catching Fire as well as Beatrice/Tris Prior of Divergent and
Insurgent (2015). Both female leads are hailed as strong female characters and heroines
by the media (Penny; Zwol; De Lange; De Jong). The four movies were all box office successes. Reverting back to Bazzini et al. and Parsons, one can state that they had a considerable amount of impact, which makes them interesting objects for our research. When the corpus was examined, only two Divergent films and three Hunger Games films had been released, of which the third was only a 'part one movie' instead of a completed part The choice was made to analyse the first two movies of both series. The The Hunger
Games and Divergent series are here classified as action movies, because the movies contain a
lot of the characteristics of traditional action movies. The idea of a genre is in our postmodern media world not as clear-cut as it maybe once was. Most films have a hybrid form when it comes to the idea of a genre division, “not all genre films relate to their genre in the same way or to the same extent” (Altman 12). Both film series are also answering to characteristics of the adventure genre and even to science fiction because of the dystopian futuristic aspect of both series.
Katniss and Tris seem to display something different than the traditional gender patterns at first sight, but the question is to which extent they actually challenge the
norm when they are reviewed more closely. This research will contain in depth content analysis and discourse analysis from a feminist perspective, whereby the progress of the female protagonists in challenging the normative gender patterns will be examined. When I first started with this research, I told my supervisor that I did not want to write a feminist thesis. For me too, as Watson suggested, the word had a negative connotation. This research has changed that. Now, looking at movies and other media products through these new glasses, I see that we still need a whole lot of feminism in this sector. This thesis started out of curiosity about the actual position of women in mainstream film, but finished with the intention to contribute to awareness on the subject and to further change in women’s roles.
In the first chapter, a theoretical framework will be provided as a base for the analysis of Katniss and Tris. This will include a discussion of the hegemonic, normative conception of traditional masculine and feminine characteristics that are often found in films. It appears that male characters are generally the more active ones and female characters are lower in the character hierarchy. Furthermore, in this chapter the ambiguous term ‘agency’ will be addressed. In the analysis agency will be used to determine to what extent Katniss and Tris challenge traditional gender patterns. In chapter two, the motivations, goals and behaviour of the protagonists will be analysed. However, there is more to a female character than just her own characteristics. Therefore chapter 3 will shed light on the power relationships these women are a part of. The relationships between the character and the ones surrounding him or her are very important in the way the viewer receives a character. To what extent do they define our heroines? Special attention will be paid to her male counterpart(s), her love interest(s). For Divergent, trainer Four is considered and for The Hunger Games, Katniss’ best friend Gale and Hunger Games contestant Peeta are inspected. Tris and Katniss are challenging the traditional patterns and deserve to be taken in account as interesting female role models. However, this thesis will show that it is important to look closely at the structures of the movies that influence the gender images, to see the kind of female image these films actually display. Are our feisty heroines really ‘girls on fire’ or has their progressive flame been extinguished before they have even started?
1. WOMEN IN A MEN’S WORLD
“The aim of feminist critical discourse studies therefore is to show up the complex, subtle,
and sometimes not so subtle, ways in which frequently taken-for-granted gendered assumptions and hegemonic power relations are discursively produced, sustained, negotiated, and challenged in different contexts and communities.” (Lazar 142)
This quote clarifies the goals of feminist critical discourse analysis and the goals of this thesis. It is very important to question assumptions that feel as a natural phenomenon and in that way examine how the power relations of gender work in the media. In this thesis the protagonists of the popular action series The Hunger Games and Divergent will be analysed to consider the extent to which they are progressive female characters, in comparison to conservative movie role patterns. ‘Progressive’ here is dependent on the scope of agency the characters display and the degree to which they challenge traditional gender patterns. It is crucial to look at the characters themselves and the power relations in which they play a part to arrive at the extent to which taken-for-granted gender assumptions are determining this characters.
One of the key elements of cultural studies is that a text has no fixed meaning and that the receiver has influence on the received message. Because of one’s own expectations and references, there indeed is always an individual component to this process. The receiver imposes his or her own frame of mind on the text and creates a personal understanding of it. However there is a duality in the reception. The viewer is also guided by the text, because every viewer is handed the same cues. Because of that, a part of the process will be intersubjective (Van der Pol 5; ch. 1). Therefore it remains important to analyse texts like movies on their content, to examine which messages are (unconsciously) included in the text.
In this chapter, a theoretical framework is provided as a base for the examination of the female protagonists. Section two of this chapter will discuss the characteristics that scholars signal as traditionally linked to male and female characters. These will be used as tools to examine how much the protagonists differ from most female characters. After that, in section three, the meaning of the term agency is discussed, which will form an important standard to review the progressiveness of Tris and Katniss against. In section four, the concept of coping mechanisms will be described; strategies that may be present in movies to ease out deviating patterns for the viewer or even neutralize these patterns. It is important to consider these filmic constructions because they can
completely undo the supposedly gained agency of the character. But first, in the next section, important work from the field of gender studies will be addressed. The development of the female action character will be scrutinized as well to give a better understanding of the current status of the female role.
1.1 Women in the action genre
Laura Mulvey is the theoretician who cannot be ignored in the context of gender in film studies. In her seminal work “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema”, Mulvey uses psychoanalytical theory in her article as a weapon to show how the subconscious in the patriarchal society has structured the shape of film. The principal argument in the article is that the narrative of Hollywood films puts women in the position of a - for men - visual entertaining aspect. The view, which shapes the movie, is masculine. Women are the object of this view or gaze, instead of owning it. The female character herself is not a creator of meaning; she only undergoes the process of signification. Her position is passive in contrast to the male characters. The active/passive divide noted by Mulvey became an important keystone for feminist film studies, not only in the meaning of who is holding the gaze, but also in who acts. The best example is the princess that needs saving by the male hero.
When looking at characters, audience and the creators, action movies can traditionally be regarded as male territory.4 Tasker calls the genre “an almost
exclusively male space, in which issues to do with sexuality and gendered identity can be worked out over the male body” (17). According to Brown, the muscled body of the male icons of the action movies became one of the central features of this genre, as well as the performance of extreme masculine behaviour. Action movies of the 80s are a men’s world wherein the women are the beautiful objects that need to be rescued, if they are featured at all. “With their obvious emphasis on masculine ideals, action movies of the 1980s seem to deny any blurring of gender boundaries: men are active, while women are present only to be rescued or to confirm the heterosexuality of the hero (Brown 52).
Of course, there were some exceptions in the 80s and more in the 90s. A few
4. IMDB illustrates that directors of action movies are almost always men. On this list only The Matrix Reloaded is directed by two transgender women: Lana Wachowski and Lilly Wachowski, who were formerly known as the Wachowski brothers
(Top-US-Grossing Action Titles). The director gender gap is big in top-grossing films anyway.
Across 1,300 top-grossing films from 2002 to 2014, only 4.1 percent of all directors were female (Smith 4).
feminine characters appeared, which were not just waiting for their saviour, but were saving themselves and/or others. The best example of this is Lieutenant Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver), in the horror/action movie Alien (1979). During a visit to an unfamiliar planet, a crablike alien creature attacks one of Ripley’s fellow spaceship crewmembers. It turns out that inside the attacked crewmember a dangerous creature is growing and when the ships leaves the planet, everyone in it is trapped. In the end only Ripley survives, together with the cat Jones. Ripley shows skill, astuteness, power, intelligence and a real badass action hero attitude during the movie and defeats the alien in the end. An interesting fact is that the role of Ripley was originally written for a male actor. The result of that is that there are not many signifiers that point at the fact that Ripley is a woman.
In the 80s there has been a development in the role of women in horror films as well (Clover; Trencansky). Especially in the slasher movies, a genre that is also condemned for unemancipated female image it exhibits. The girl who survives, known as ‘the Final Girl’, becomes an active character in the 80s and defeats the monster, not because of luck or help, but by means of her own skills and abilities. “The Final Girl, far from being viewed as a passive sexual object, is instead the viewer’s identifying connection to the film. (...) She is an active body, driving the narrative forward, and allowing the viewer to conquer the monster as well, through identification with her (Trencansky 67). The male monster is the object of the to-be-looked-at-ness instead of the Final Girl. The monster is cinematographically portrayed like the desirable female character in many other movies and takes the role of the object of visual spectacle (Trencansky).
Brown indicates that in the 90s something has changed in the action genre. Several movies were released that revolved around action heroines instead of action heroes. These “hard body, hardware, hard-as-nails” heroines seem more than capable of defending themselves and fighting the bad guys (Brown 52), which can be seen as a step towards more acceptance of female characters in the genre. But a lot of critical response evolved around these heroines. “As many critics have pointed out, the image of heroines wielding guns and muscles can be conflated within the binary gender codes of the action cinema to render these women as symbolically male“ (Brown 53). This is in line with the
oppressor/suppressor model of Susan Bordo, in which women are passive and violated
violates as transvestite (Brown 53). That the theories of Judith Butler critique these assumptions will be discussed in the next section.
Since the emerging of these female roles in the 80s, an increase in women action heroines could have been expected, but apparently this is not the case. Girlpatric examined the Violent Female Action Character (VAFC) in the Hollywood cinema between 1991 and 2005. These VAFCs are female characters that display a more active role, in the sense that they have the hero’s job, the position of the villain or are engaging in the hero’s pursuits. According to her results there was no increase in the amount of VFACs and they also did not break with the traditional gender patterns in movies.
“The VFAC is a recent addition to contemporary American cinema and has the potential to redefine female heroines, forbetter or worse. From a superficial or visceral viewpoint it appears that the emergence of the VFAC is an indicator of gender equality. However, by looking more closely this research found that the VFAC was most often portrayed in a submissive role and was romantically involved with a dominant male hero character, thus reifying gender stereotypes.” (Gilpatric 743)
Even with the fierce Ellen Ripley taking to the scene in the 70s already, movies are still short on heroines in the movies and especially the ones who break the traditional patterns set for women. In the next section the characteristics that are traditionally marked as masculine or feminine and which will be used in analysing the characters of Katniss and Tris, will be discussed in more detail.
1.2 Masculine and feminine characteristics.
In the second Terminator movie, The Terminator: Judgement Day (1991), female character Sarah is focusing on being some kind of ultimate soldier, while the Terminator is focussing on displaying the behaviour of a good mother for Sarah’s son, according to Susan Jeffords (Brown 59-60). ‘That a cyborg Schwarzenegger can be read as the more feminine role is an indication of how over determined our cultural notions of appropriate gender behaviour are” (Brown 59-60). In the media, but also in society at large, there are still dominant images of what a ‘man’ and a ‘woman’ are and how people in these categories should behave. At the surface, it seems that possibilities for alternate versions of these images are opened up, but the conservative stereotypes are still of great influence.
One of the founders of current day gender studies is Judith Butler. Butler is most famous for her work Bodies That Matter and Gender Trouble. Butler opens the latter with
an attack on the feminist theory assumption that the terms ‘woman’ and ‘women’ link to a particular identity and that these are fixed subjects within language and politics. Butler has a total different view. To her aspects like ethnicity, class and gender influence categories as ‘woman’ and ‘man’ and these categories are not so easy to determine. Butler argues that gender is performative, that one does his gender instead of being a gender and that there is no fixed identity without the behavioural manifestations that go with it. These ‘expressions’ of gender form the illusion of fixed gender categories and identities of which they are mere utterances. Because people take these acts from one another and repeat them, there seem to be fixed formats, but that is just appearance. So terms like ‘woman’ and ‘man’, according to Butler, are open to interpretation and change. Whenin this thesis the categoriesmasculine and feminine are mentioned, these are meant as categories in a performative manner, not a biological one. Peoplelearn how to behave on the basis of examples of people around them. In our mediated society, they also learn to a great extent from the media. What people see in the media therefore has a big influence on how one ‘does’ his or her gender. To unravel what this means for our images of man and woman, the characteristics in the media that are traditionally linked with these categories will be discussed.
There is a general consensus in film studies about the fact that men and women are generally portrayed differently in mainstream movies and that this representation is often not in the advantage of the women. Men get the role of the (biggest) hero of the story and women that of the love interest or the sidekick. Female characters, when they are not the villain of the story, often display traits like caring and being beautiful and have a more passive role overall (Rosen; Calvert et al.; Dietz; Eschholz and Bufkin). They are also often portrayed in romantic relationships with a male protagonist (Magoulick 2006). Many scholars mention masculine and feminine characteristics in their researches, yet they almost never discuss what these characteristics are. To discuss this matter some achor points are needed. Therefore, this section will introduce the characteristics of male and female characters in Disney movies as signaled by England, Descartes and Collier-Meek, as a starting point for analysing the roles of Katniss and Tris. That the mentioned characteristics found in Disney movies will be an important part of this work, is due to the fact that there is not much literature wherein scholars explicate what they understand to be the typical traits of the gender roles. The animation movies of Disney contain archetypes, which give a distilled version of what a
man or woman ought to be and which characteristics are often seen as naturally belonging to a certain gender. Therefore, these characteristics form a fitting way of analysing how the characters of Tris and Katniss are shaped.
England, Descartes and Collier-Meek discuss the characteristics that could be found over the years in princes and princesses in Disney movies. They base their choice of character traits on previous research in which the content of the movies is analysed on the basis of what kind of role is set apart for the male and female characters (Do Rozario 2004; Dundes 2001; Durkin 1985; Hoerrner 1996; Klein et al. 2000; Leaper et al. 2002; Thompson en Zebinos 1995). These are the traits they distinguish.
• Feminine characteristics: tends to physical appearance, physically weak, submissive, shows emotion, affectionate, nurturing, sensitive, tentative, helpful, troublesome, fearful, ashamed, collapses crying, described as physically attractive (feminine), asks for or accepts advice or help, victim, gets rescued.
• Masculine characteristics: Curious about princess, wants to explore, physically strong, assertive, unemotional, independent, athletic, engaging intellectual
activity, inspires fear, brave, described as physically attractive (masculine), gives
advice, leader, performs rescue (England, Descartes and Collier-Meek 558-560). For the exact definitions used in their article, see Appendix B.
For the analysis of the female protagonists in this thesis, not all characteristics are equally important. The focus will be on the characteristics that contribute to or diminish the agency and activity of the characters, like being a leader for instance. Some of the masculine and feminine characters form pairs. For example: gets rescued and
performs rescue. Within these pairs, the masculine version of the opposition mostly
reflects agency, while the feminine version shows passivity or uncertainty. The binary opposition shows emotion – unemotional is the exception. A poker face apparently makes for a stronger agency, as Egerer en Rantala discuss in their research concerning images of gambling in movies (2014). There will not be argued that an emotional character cannot be a person with agency, but in our filmic language the characters with the agency, often the male characters, tend to be less emotional than the others. In the scope of the analysis of Katniss and Tris and their love interests, this will prove to be an
interesting characteristic. Although England, Descartes and Collier-Meek conduct a quantitative research, their characteristics are also useful in a qualitative research. Qualitative research allows for a use of the characteristics in a less strict way, because in that way one is able to elaborate more on a certain characteristic. The characteristics will also overlap and support each other. The question of who saves whom at the end of the story for instance, touches manyof the aforementioned characteristics like activity, balance of power, and physical strength.
Gilpatric names also a list of characteristics based on social science research (Eschholz and Bufkin 2001; Lueptow et al. 2001; Twenge 1997). These gender traits for masculine stereotypes include: dominant, aggressive, competitive, independent, ambitious, self-confident, adventurous and decisive. Traits used for feminine stereotypes include: affectionate, submissive, emotional, sympathetic, talkative and gentle (Gilpatric 735). It is striking that roughly the active characteristics can be seen in masculine characters and more passive characteristics belong to feminine characters. The most obvious is that in the traits gives advice (prince) - asks or accepts advice or help (princess) and performs rescue (prince) – gets rescued (princesses). Gilpatric distinguishes also a masculine and feminine motive to use violence. “If the VFAC engaged in violence to protect a child or loved one, then Motive was coded (1) feminine. If the VFAC engaged in violence to protect a stranger or society at large, then Motive was coded (2) masculine” (Gilpatric 738). When these motives did not occur, the violence was divided into (3) self-defence (only if the VFAC did not engaged in the ‘first strike’), (4) escape, (5) evil (if the VFAC was a villain, or (6) other (Gilpatric 738).
Maryn Wilkinson also signals an active/passive contradiction in her book Wonder
Girls, in which she examines to what extent the female characters in the teenage movies
from the 80s challenge the traditional gender roles. Wilkinson also signals in her research of the teenage girls, that men in films are often portrayed in physically exerting activities like sports, as opposed to women.5 The contradiction active and passive will
play an important role in my analysis, because it determines for a big part if a character possess agency. In the next section this term will be discussed in more detail.
5. Women in the media are often portrayed in passive state, where the men are often showed engaging in an activity. You can see this for example in the trailer of the television-show “Expeditie Robinson” 2015 (Survivor), in which the men are portrayed in activities like fishing, slashing a coconut or pulling a rope and the women in shots where they are standing in the water, sitting on a rock or standing on the beach.
1.3 Agency
Agency is aterm that is often used in discussions about the difference between male and female characters in movies. Feminist scholars would ideally want to see female characters as displaying agency and being autonomous, not defined by the male characters. But how could one define this agency that is ascribed to a character? Agency is linked to descriptions like competent, independent or being able to act. These synonyms show already that agency is quite a slippery concept. A lot of scholars use agency to make conclusions about movie characters, but they generally do not define the term. Nevertheless, an attempt will be made to come to a closer understanding of the term - without claiming to have formulated a definitive definition – in order to give a better idea of the criteria to which progressiveness of the roles of Katniss and Tris will be measured in this thesis.
Egerer and Rantala examine the way movies make gambling appealing. When one is gambling, one makes a choice to do so. This makes it an interesting angle of incidence to look at agency, because it tells something about someone’s capacity to make a discussion and to act. They found out that the way gambling is portrayed in fiction movies is different for men and women. Gambling often contributes to the agency of the male characters, in contrast to the gambling of the female characters. Below are two statements from the paper, which contain the term agency and give an idea of the meaning.
“The practically non-existent female gambler, completely invisible when presenting competence (willpower and skills), is the ‘vanished woman’ (Beckman, 2003) of cinema, whose agency is made invisible.” (Egerer and Rantala 480 – emphasis added).
From this quote one can conclude that agency has something to do with the competence to make things happen and the visibility hereof. It also signals the difference between the level of agency of male and female characters. This unevenly distributed level of agency amongst male and female characters is made even more apparent in the following assertion:
“The well-represented image of agency and competence through male characters calls for more attention to gender roles in the imaging of gambling.” (Egerer and Rantala 480 – emphasis added)
This statement applies not only to the imaging of gambling, but also in imaging the female action hero. The events surrounding the male characters usually have something to do with a
deliberate action or choice, which gives them a certain prestige, whereas this is absent with the female characters. Previously in this thesis, action heroine Ripley was marked as a character that survived because of her own skills, not accidentally. If someone is surviving because of conscious performance, instead of luck, this tells something about the agency of the character, as Egerer and Rantala show us with the gambling scenes. Words they use in their article in connection with agency, but not as a part or definition of it, are self-control, competence (willpower and skills) and will.
Pisters associates the term agency with “the ability to act” (98). Pisters is discussing characteristics of new media and brings a more meta-vision of the term, which is intrinsically linked to the ability and skill to act. When they are explaining the ideals of Foucault, Hermes and Reesink describe agency as a feeling of self-determination (41). Later on, they associate agency with vigour and innovative spirit (72) and with the power to choose or (sometimes) to trigger social change (84). In summary, agency has to do with the ability to act, with a certain power and activity, with choice and influence and with the ability to determine one’s own faith.
The concept of agency is used in all kinds of domains. Sulkunen describes that “to have the capacity of agency” in daily life is “to have a self defined well enough to recognize one’s limits and interfaces with others, including relations of domination” (503). According to Sulkunen, agency is about control. It is about the ability to know one’s abilities, difficulties and power. Hunter and Cooke discuss the term in the context of the learning process in education. They define agency as: “the ability to act with initiative and effect in a socially constructed world” (Hunter and Cooke 72). Here we again see that agency is connected to the ability to act, and that most importantly this ability is placed in a context of cause and effect. It is the ability to cause something, to have an effect on something.
Roy and Sengupta discuss the image of the women that the Indian director Aparna Sen sets down in her films. They signal an ongoing development in the female characters that are a part of Sens work. Their primary criterion in establishing the evolution of the agency of the female characters is to what extent the characters resemble the traditional patterns of the heterosexual marriage and the extent to which they make their own decisions (Roy and Sengupta). Women, especially in action films, are conventionally portrayed in connection to a male lover, often the hero of the story. Both Katniss and Tris are involved in romantic relationships, but in different ways and
extent, which indeed influences their agency, as later discussed.
In this section, a discussion of the term agency and how it functions in the variety of disciplines has been presented. The improved understanding helps to clarify the criteria which will be used to determine the progressiveness of characters Tris and Katniss. Regardless of the jigsaw puzzle-like nature of the meaning of the term agency, one is able to conclude that agency has something to do with activity, with being an agent, someone that acts and influences the situation. Words connected to agency are competent, independent and autonomous. It has to do with being able to determine one’s own faith and not being determined by others. Agency is about the power to act, to perform, to speak, and to decide. The extent to which a character has agency, is the extent to which a character determines her of his own person and situation in an active manner. When we look at the aformentioned masculine and feminine characteristics, most male characteristics are direct signifiers of these terms and therefore of agency. It is not the case that a character possesses agency completely or does not possess it at all. It is a sliding scale, wherein all these aspects find their place.
The way the viewers judge the extent to which a character has agency, has to do with the storyline and the behaviour of the protagonist and the other characters, but also with the filmic language. The structure of the film, how a character is imaged (on the fore- or in the background or from a bird of frog perspective) and other filmic elements like lighting and music influence the extent to which agency and autonomy are attributed to the character by the viewer. These elements shape the image of the character and therefore have influence on how the viewer ranks this person in the hierarchy of characters, which will be adressed further in chapter 2.
1.4 Coping mechanisms
Movies, especially mainstream Hollywood movies, consist of repeating patterns that are recognizable, understandable and acceptable for the audience. As mentioned before, society and the media industry are aligned in how they influence on each other. Movie producers want their movies to do well, especially if a lot of money is in play and they want as big an audience as they can get. As a result of this, changing familiar patterns brings a risk. Will the audience accept the shift and pay for the movie and merchandise? To minimize the risk, movies seem to contain mechanisms that diminish the risky aspects. These mechanisms that are put in, consciously and unconsciously, can also be seen in connection to major roles for women.
Female characters that exhibit traditional traits of male characters are often portrayed as the villain for instance. This practice descends already from the time when most of our fairy tales where written, wherein female characters who wanted power were often evil queens. Mainstream narratives emphasize also often the heteronormative aspect. “Due to the homophobic nature of most mainstream audiences, many narratives overtly seek to establish the heterosexuality of action heroines by providing a nominal male love interest or, as in Aliens and Terminator 2, by linking the action heroine to notions of a fierce maternal instinct” (Brown 62). There are also
mechanisms that diminish the strength of women in tales and films. Lane, Taber and Woloshyn make the argument that, while female characters may take on masculine tasks and roles, they often only do so in exceptional circumstances usually involving the
absence of a father figure, reinforcing the idea that this behaviour is not normative (154). For instance, when a woman has a certain active role, like fighting, often this is explained through a traumatic past or by the fact that her father dies and someone has to take his role as “head” of the family. It makes it understandable for the audience why the character acts different from the expected behaviour. Many female characters, who initially may appear to be strong role models, often remain constrained by patriarchal norms of emphasized femininity in that they eventually are returned to traditional roles, "safely brought back to orthodox femininity" (Domínguez-Rué 306). This fate appears to befall Katniss at the end of the fourth The Hunger Games movie, which will be discussed later on in this thesis.
1.5 Method
In this thesis a critical discourse analysis from a feminist will be deployed. This type of analysis “examine[s] how power and dominance are discursively produced and/or resisted in a variety of ways through textual representations of gendered social practices, and through interactional strategies of talk” (Lazar, 2005, p. 10). In order to investigate the development of gender role patterns in current mainstream action films, heroines Tris and Katniss will be examined. This will be done by trying to dissect the ways in which the previously established traditional and conventional categories of ‘feminine’ and ‘masculine’ are applicable to our heroines. These categories bring forth a number of gendered characteristics - as mentioned in the section 1.2 of this chapter - and this thesis will trace the manner in which those traits are dispersed throughout the
cultural and discursive constructions that the fictional characters of Katniss and Tris are. Furthermore, the meaning of the term agency as established in section 1.3 will be used as a guiding incentive for the unravelling of these gendered constructions. On top of this, the analysis will scrutinize the specific coping mechanisms the films contain. A character can lose agency on the filmic level because of the structure of the filmic text, regardless of possessing many traits that usually lead to agency.
First of all, these aspects will be applied to the analysis of the protagonists themselves. Their motives and behaviour will be examined and their introduction in the exposition of the films will be analysed specifically, because expositions generally contain a lot of information about a protagonist, in order to give the viewer an understanding of who the character is. However, as we have seen in section 1.3, agency has a lot to do with the power relations a character takes a part in. The way these power relations are structured will be the subject of research in chapter 3. The Hunger Games contains an extra layer of signification, because of the reality television aspect of the Games and the commentary the filmic structure gives on the practises belonging to the reality genre. The ways Katniss handless this television aspect also influences her agency as well. Therefore, Katniss’ relationship with the medium television will be examined as well.
1.6 Summary
In this chapter a theoretical framework is presented as a base for analysing how much female protagonists deviate from the traditional gender norms in films. This chapter discussed some perspectives on the development of the female role in the action movies and considered recurring traditional gender patterns in film. Subsequently the term
agency was discussed, which is used as overarching term to analyse the roles of Katniss
and Tris. In the section 1.4, certain tactics from movies were considered, which help the audience to deal with new story patterns and elements and lastly an overview of the applied method has been given. The coming chapters will analyse the amount of difference protagonists Katniss Everdeen and Tris Prior display in comparison to more passive and stereotypical female characters. The agency of the female protagonist is hereby the focal point.
2. KATNISS AND TRIS: DECODING THE
FEMALE PROTAGONISTS
The previous chapter contains a theoretical framework for the remainder of this research. In this second chapter the heroines of the films under scrutiny will be analysed, especially the characteristics they display will be the subject of inquiry. Information concerning the narrative of the films and the diegetic world will be mentioned when this is necessary for the understanding of the argument, but to start a sort description of Katniss’ and Tris’ their situations will be given. A more complete and chronological description of these aspects can be found in Appendix A.
2.1 Katniss and Tris and the worlds they live in
Katniss Everdeen (see Figure 1) lives in future version of North-America, now called Panem. The country reflects a stratocracy rather than a democracy. Panem consists of the Capitol and the twelve districts surrounding it. Katniss lives in District Twelve, an area rife with poverty. Each year a boy and girl from each district get selected to compete in the Hunger Games. This is an annual television event in which the contestants have to face each other in a fight to the death in a big, closed off arena. The games are over when only one of them remains. When Katniss’ twelve-year-old sister Prim gets selected for the Games, Katniss volunteers and takes her place.
Beatrice Prior (see Figure 2) lives in a futuristic Chicago that is largely destroyed by a war. The world outside the city is understood to be completely destroyed. The current society in Chicago is divided into five groups, called factions. A sixth group are the Factionless, who do not fit in with any of the other factions. Young men and women have to choose in which faction they want to live for the rest of their lives. In order for them to make that decision, each takes a test. Beatrice’s test results are inconclusive. This makes her a Divergent, a person who fits into more than one faction. Divergents are seen as a threat to the system. Tris transfers from the altruistic faction of Abnegation, to Dauntless, the daredevil faction who supplies guards and soldiers. It is her challenge to try and fit in, without letting one know that she is a Divergent.
a b Figure 1(a-b) Katniss Everdeen.
a b
Figure 2 (a-b) Tris Prior.
2.2 Katniss and Tris: masculine and feminine characteristics
This section will discuss how the characteristics which are traditionally assigned to male or female characters in movies are prompted in protagonists Katniss and Tris. It should be stressed that this thesis follows Judith Butler in the idea that the categories ‘masculine’ and ‘feminine’ are not fixed concepts to which you can attach certain specifics. Beside biological features – and even those are not always conclusive – concepts like ‘man’ and ‘woman’ are social constructs. People are inclined to act on the behaviour they already know and recognize and repeat those constructs. They are iterated and appear as a natural phenomenon. However, these characteristics that are traditionally ascribed to male and female characters can be used as a tool for examining if these new movie heroines diverge from the established norms. Moreover, since male characters traditionally possess the characteristics that lead to agency, conventional masculine and feminine characteristics can help to analyse the progression in the development of the role of the female characters in movies. Again, it is important to note that when traditionally feminine and female or masculine and male behaviour is mentioned in this thesis, this describes a movie character norm and does not claim that this behaviour intrinsically belongs to men or women anywhere else.
2.2.1 Introduction of the protagonists in the films
The most important 'thematic ingredients' for a film to come are usually prompted within the exposition. Much of who the protagonist is can be deduced from the
introduction of this character, because filmmakers, especially in the mainstream cinema, tend to define their important characters at the beginning of the film. Therefore, in this section, the introduction of Katniss and Tris in the first instalment of their respective movie series will be analysed.
The first shot of Katniss in the movie, is one of her back, with the arms of her little sister Prim around her. This shot develops into a pan towards their heads, which shows how Katniss is holding Prim and comforting her after a bad dream (see Figure 3).
a b
c d
Figure 3 (a-d) Katniss comfort her little sister Prim
Katniss talks softly, caresses Prim's hair and persuades her to go to sleep again. When Prim lies down again, Katniss sings for her in a soft voice. One can see Katniss here as a caring person. In this scene she displays traditionally female traits like nurturing and being affectionate. But after the short scene with Prim, there is a remarkable transition in the introduction of Katniss. When Prim is at ease again, Katniss says she has to go. She does not explain when Prima asks, but repeats that she has to go. This gives the impression that Katniss is able to go her own way. The conversation continues for a short while by the use of a sound bridge– one can hear how Katniss says to Prim “I’ll be back, I love you” (0.02.39 The Hunger Games) at a caring parental tone - but in the image Katniss is already downstairs and is making herself ready to go somewhere. Her contrasting mood can best be described as focussed. Downstairs, a cat hisses at to her. Katniss looks at the cat and says in a cold, clear manner “I’ll still cook you” (0.02.50 The
Hunger Games). It forms a contrast with her soft voice earlier and the way she cherishes
purposefulness Katniss is shown. The structure of this introduction, in which the scene with Prim is broken off to an image of another Katniss, shows that this other side is an essential one. In the second part of her introduction, Katniss is trotting trough District Twelve. The movie switches between Katniss and images of other residents of District Twelve, to show how miserable their life is. Notable is that Katniss is portrayed as active and vital here, going somewhere with a fast pace, while the other residents are portrayed in a passive setting or moving slowly, tired (see Figure 4).
a b
c d
e f
Figure 4 (a-f) The images of vital active Katniss in contrast with a passive dispirited District Twelve.
There is also a shot of the miners (all men) of District Twelve, walking to their work, looking tired. The next shot shows Katniss running away from the place where they walk, we can see them in the background of her shot (see figure 5ab). Katniss is in that way literally walking away from the routine in District Twelve, going her own way. The green of the leaves of trees that we are seeing in her shots, which contrast with the grey and low saturatedblue in the other shots, highlights activity and vitality around Katniss (see Figure 4 and 5).
a b Figure 5 (a) Miners. (b) Katniss trotting away.
Katniss’ independenceis even more highlighted in the shots following on the shots with the miners. Katniss goes to a separation fence. There is a sign on the fence that tells people not to pass (see Figure 6a), but Katniss ignores this, which is an indicator of her rebel side and the fact that she is making up her own mind. The division of the image by means of the fence shows also that the space outside District Twelve presents space and freedom for Katniss (see Figure 6b).
a b
Figure 6 (a-b) Border District Twelve.
Beyond the fence is a forest. Katniss knows her way around there. Katniss appears to be a hunter and she seems to be completely in her element when she hunts. This second part of Katniss’ introduction sequence shows a woman, who goes her own way, has a rebel side and possesses hunting skills. The combination of the two parts shows that Katniss is not a character that easily fits into a stereotypical kind of role. Katniss has a soft spot, her sister Prim, and is able to act in a caring manner. At the same time she has a completely different side, which wants to come out with certain urgency, illustrated by the transition between the two parts, where the scene with Prim is broken off to show the viewer this other image of Katniss. The introduction portrays Katniss in several ways as someone who goes her own way and makes up her own mind. She is portrayed as vital and active, in contradiction to the more passive residents. This displays that Katniss has the ability to act and therefore possesses agency.
voice, which acts as a voice-over that explains the situation in the city where the story is set. When Beatrice talks about the faction of Dauntless, the viewer gets to see her for the first time. A little girl, in completely different clothes than the people from Dauntless, is running behind a group of members of Dauntless, smiling, as shown in Figure 7a-b. At the same time Beatrice’s voice-over explains that she “always thought they were amazing” (0.03.23 Divergent), which signals to the viewer that this may be the younger version of the person talking. In the next shots (See Figure 7c-d), an adult is correcting Beatrice, for wandering off and not walking in the row of people where she should walk. The camera focuses on the face of the younger version of Beatrice, not that of the adults around her. It aligns the viewer with Beatrice. The people around here are people in grey clothes, just as she was wearing in the first shot of her. She apparently belongs to this group of people, who seem to have a strictly set out way of life and the sequence shows that young Beatrice wants something different, that she may be a bit of a rebel in this group. After Beatrice has described her own faction, she says that “it all works, everyone knows where they belong, except for me” (0.04.08 Divergent). This makes it even clearer that Beatrice is not comfortable where she is at this point and has a longing to go or do something else.
a b
c d
Figure 7 (a) Dauntless running. (b) Little Beatrice running with the Dauntless group. (c-d) Young Tris corrected by an adult for wandering off.
The second part of Beatrice’s introduction shows her in present time. Beatrice’s mother cuts her hair and models it into a knot. In this scene, it is made clear that the Abnegation faction rejects vanity, because Beatrice is only allowed to look in the mirror for a few
seconds. After this scene, Beatrice climbs on one of the low Abnegation houses, while other members of her faction are walking peacefully on the ground. Climbing a building is not a normal act in calm and strict Abnegation. It hints to her longing for Dauntless and shows a bit of bravery and being athletic already, characteristics traditionally associated with male characters.
The voice-over of Beatrice literally literally says that she is scared that the test will tell her that she is not Abnegation wich means that she has to leave her family, but that she is even more scared that it tells her to stay. Being Fearfull is a characteristic England, Descartes and Collier-Meek signal as a feminine characteristic. In this case however it is used tell that she simply wants a different life, even if she does not want to leave her family. It does imply some kind of indecisiveness of not knowing exactly what to do, which will show later to be a recurring state of being for Tris. In the last part of her introduction, Beatrice’s brother Caleb spontaneously helps someone to carry her luggage, while Beatrice has to be specifically urged to do so. It highlights that Beatrice does not fit Abnegation, a faction that has in its core values some traditional feminine characteristics, like helpful, nurturing and submissive. When adding it all up, the character of Beatrice is portrayed as having a longing to explore different things, to be active and to act differently from what she is asked to. It is a harbinger for activity, although not really activity itself. The whole introduction shows a young woman who is dying to find a place where she fits in, who wants a more active life for herself wherein she does not have to be submissive and modest all the time, but who is not sure what to do.
The faction system is a remarkable aspect when we are looking at gender, because to succeed in a faction, you have to display a certain kind of behaviour. The behaviour of most of these factions is related to a certain conventional gender-stereotype. People from Abnegation subordinate themselves to others and take care of others, characteristics that are traditionally related to female characters, where behaviour that belongs to the Dauntless faction has a lot of kinship with 'male' characteristics. To fit into Abnegation, Tris is forced to conform to characteristics that are traditionally equated with female characters, while she wants to be more like the traditional male characters at this point.
forward as a tough girl and an active character, who displays both feminine and masculine characteristics. Tris on the other hand, is a character that feels displaced because society forces her to fit into a certain kind ofbehaviour that is traditionally seen as feminine, while she wants to be more like the faction that has more masculine values. Both introductions of the female protagonists challenge gender patterns in their own way. When looking at the agency of the characters, based on the introduction, Katniss comes off as a girl who is able to act on her own, whereas Tris is controlled by her faction and is indecisive, which grants her few agency.
2.2.2 Motives
In this section, the motives and goals of Katniss and Tris will be examined. Mainstream cinema and most other types of conventional storytelling are rigorously structured by a certain story structure. In this trajectory there is a hero, whose 'status quo' is challenged by a certain event, which causes him or her to act upon this event. The protagonist therefore develops a certain goal that he or she has to achieve and during this achievement a number of obstacles appear on their path, usually including a fixed antagonist, who tries to prevent the protagonist from achieving this goal. As we can see already, within this construction, the different motives of the various characters play an important role in how the story gets shaped. A lot can be told about the protagonist by analysing his or her motives for reaching the intended goal.
Katniss has no big dreams at first. Her main drive in the films is a combination of surviving and taking care of the people she cares about. Katniss is not actively pursuing some of the traditional goals that can be seen with women in movies so often. She is definitely not looking for a romantic relationship; she has other things to worry about. In the second film she tells Gale she “can’t think about anyone that way right now” (00.34.30 The Hunger Games: Catching Fire). She also states very clearly in a conversation with Gale that she is “never having kids” (0.07.10 The Hunger Games).
Katniss uses violence mostly to survive, which Gilpatric sees as gender-neutral, and to protect people close to her, a traditional feminine motive according to Gilpatric’s theory about gendered motives to use violence. The reason Katniss got into the Games was that she wanted to protect her sister Prim. Besides volunteering for Prim, Katniss uses violence to protect Rue and Peeta. When drawing the definition of ‘fighting’ wider, Katniss fights for her loved ones in other ways as well. This is illustrated by some conversations between Gale and Katniss in Catching Fire. Katniss wants to flee into the
woods with all her loved ones, to protect everyone from President Snow. Gale on the other hand asks her what happens to the other people in the districts. He is waiting for an uprising against Snow and the Capitol, which will free the districts and wants to help forcing this. He wants to force a better life for everyone, a motive that is conventionally masculine according to Gilpatric.
Although trying to survive is not a gendered characteristic, the way a character survives, can be gendered and may tell something about the agency of a character. As discussed in chapter 2 there is a difference between characters that survive because of luck and characters that survive because of their own actions and abilities. Thus there is a difference between a conscious and unconscious way of surviving. Katniss is surviving in a conscious way for a great part. She survives because of her own fighting skills and her increasing understanding of the media, as will be discussed later. The fact that Peeta loves her, helps her to gain sponsors and therefore also to survive and Haymitch is helping her as well. But the reason Haymitch chooses to help her is because of her attitude and skills. .
Tris’ main drive at first is finding a place where she fits in and where she can be herself. Tris is Divergent, which means she is a person whose character does not belong with just one of the factions. People like this are seen as a threat to the system and therefore Tris has to keep this a secret. Tris looks happy in her new faction of Dauntless, where she can be active and outgoing and where she does not have to be submissive. She quickly makes friends in her new faction and looks happy doing all kinds of dangerous stunts. Although at first she is not able to meet the physical standards of the Dauntless faction, she works hard and earns her place there. She becomes physically fit, daring and skilled in climbing, shooting, and fighting. It makes her a character, who dares to take action and who takes the lead if necessary. If the faction was not corrupted and there was no hunt for Divergents, Tris could be happy in the masculine Dauntless, so it seems. Tris takes her chance to get a different life, fights to make it work and gains agency in this way.
Katniss has different motives and goals than traditional female characters. Surviving and saving are her main goals. The traditional masculine goals of fighting and providing for others does have a traditionally feminine side, because Katniss wants to take care of
people she loves and who are younger or who she sees as less capable of taking care of themselves, like a mother cares for her children. Tris wants to find a place to be happy, since she is not happy with the live she needs to live in the faction of Abnegation. That she wants to go from a faction where traditional feminine characteristics are the core values to a faction where traditional masculine behaviour is the way of living, does make her a character that brings something different to the gender mix. Both women are actively pursuing certain goals and showing agency in their attempt to reach their ambitions.
2.2.3 Behaviour
In this section the behaviour of the protagonists is the central aspect of research. The traditional masculine and feminine characteristics described in chapter 1 will be used as tools to analyse the actions of the characters.
Both protagonists display several traits that are mentioned as masculine by England et al. First of all, Katniss seems at her happiest and the most in her comfort zone when she is hunting in the forest outside District Twelve with her friend Gale, at the beginning of the first movie (see Figure 8).
Figure 8 Katniss at her happiest hunting with her friend Gale.
She comes off as athletic and physically strong, mostly because of her ability to shoot. There is also one point in the first movie, where she aggressively pushes Peeta against a wall, which contributes to the idea of her being physically strong (see Figure 9). She does this in the outfit that is the most seductive of all the things she is wearing, a long red dress accompanied by a feminine hairdo. The contradiction draws attention to gender role patterns itself. The beautiful young women with aggressive behaviour stands
