Being Masculine and Feminine in Panem

In reading and discussing The Hunger Games, I've found myself coming back to the question "Does Katniss really display masculine/feminine traits?"  I find myself chafing at the thought that certain qualities are considered inherently male or female.  We may think that certain physical or psychological traits as such, but when we look at a definition of inherent: belonging to the basic nature of someone or something we can see that masculinity or femininity are traits are not.  These descriptors are drawn of our own experiences, but they are not necessarily inherent.  I feel it is entirely possible that in the future world of Panem, the ideas of masculine or feminine have become obsolete, as words so often do over the course of time.  This is an idea I like.

As we read and examine the book in the 21st century, we are placing our 21st century ideas of masculine and feminine onto the characters.  I feel that, perhaps Suzanne Collins' writing brings us to a future where traits are attributed more on a person's class or experiences than gender.  In the book, traits that we would consider more feminine aren't displayed only in females, nor displayed by all females. While this is often true of people in the 21st century, the difference lies in that in Panem, it is not viewed as unusual.  

Peeta is a gentle soul with a tender, empathetic side who yearns for love, but Katniss isn't unnerved by the fact that these emotions are coming from a male.  She is unnerved that they are there at all because she is simply uncomfortable with them because her life experiences have taught her to be hard to survive.  The Capitol citizens all seem to be frivolous and obsessed with appearances.  Today, these traits are almost always attributed to females and/or labeled as feminine or effeminate-a word that is generally an insult-when it is a man displaying these traits.  But in Panem, they are simply indicators of a class that has not had to struggle.  Prim is a kind and seemingly delicate person, but again, this is not attributed to her being a girl.  Katniss wants Prim to remain this way and works hard to protect Prim from the ugliness of the world not because she wants Prim to be girlish, but because her love for Prim means Katniss does not want Prim to have to suffer as she did.

 Conversely, Katniss displays a number of traits that we would call masculine today, but it appears she does not think of herself this way, nor does she think of other traits as feminine.  Katniss is strong, not masculine. It is offered that her station in life creates a need to act this way.  I believe she didn't want to grow up closed off and distrusting, but she had no choice if she wanted to survive and protect Prim.  Career girls Glimmer and Clove are both skilled fighters, as are all of the tributes from Districts 1 and 2, but neither is ever described as being masculine. This is another example of how nobody in Panem seems concerned with whether someone is male or female-or even with physical size-but seem to all know that it's a person's knowledge and training that determines a person's personality and even physiology, since the larger stronger tributes are the ones who are well fed and trained, not exclusively the male tributes.


All of these instances of different people of Panem showing traits that are typically assigned a gender in our world today,are not given a gender in Panem.  Displays of strength or weakness, emotional dependency or being closed off, even afraid of emotion, are all presented at traits that a person has come to develop over their lifetime, not stamped on their psyche at birth.  People may still be judged in Panem, but they are not given the stigma or status of gender.  For me, Suzanne Collins has created a world that, in one aspect, has reached equality.  For me, feminism isn't about gaining acceptance for women to be masculine or men to be feminine, but where gender neutrality puts us all on a level playing field where we can develop ourselves as people.  As we can see with all of the problems that plague Panem, removing gender stereotypes would not remove all of the issues of equality, but perhaps in this one aspect, Panem has gotten something right.