by V. Arrow
Exploitation, Fashion, and Appearance
Finnick’s story is the most overt example of exploitation that takes place in the Capitol, but it’s not the only one. Victors’ bodies are sold as a luxury good in Panem, in a way that is not so far from how celebrities’ appearances are “sold” today, to sell magazines and to sell goods like fast food, cosmetic products, and cars. It’s a practice that contributes to a fundamental set of beliefs about the human body vis-à-vis marketability or salability:
The human body is now a product . . . so we buy and sell ourselves, constantly remake our bodies, blindly believing we are “improving” them. This commercial exploitation of the body has become a norm; once normalized in a society, it’s taken for granted.liv
The Hunger Games are a fundamental part of the Capitol’s economy, and one of the major currencies of Capitol society is beauty. There’s a reason stylists play such a large role in the Games; the people of the Capitol identify with, and root harder for (and therefore, pay more to sponsor), attractive tributes than unattractive, district-identifiable ones. Katniss and Peeta succeed in large part because Cinna and Portia have altered their appearance in a way that strikes a chord with the Games’ viewers.
In the Capitol, the way standards of attractiveness are determined is deeply, narcissistically self-referential: tributes are styled and transformed to resemble their Capitol audience, but once they win, the victors become celebrities on whom the members of that Capitol audience model themselves. It creates a cycle of dissatisfaction in which Capitol citizens must strive (and buy) to attain a standard of beauty that is fundamentally incompatible with a Capitol lifestyle. The result is a widespread cultural dissatisfaction with the body that one can assume fuels the Capitol’s economy the same way our own bodily dissatisfaction does ours.
At a party in the Capitol in Catching Fire, Peeta very nearly drinks from an emetic cocktail. Although many past Western cultures thought being fat was ideal because it demonstrated affluence, Panem clearly views thinness as ideal. Why? Quite possibly because their idols, the victors, have never gotten enough food to become fat. This element of Capitol culture mirrors our own contemporary US culture far more than the Roman culture suggested by the gladiatorial customs, government system, and Capitolite characters’ names. At Capitol parties, socially acceptable bulimia is used not only to stay thin but also to binge more consistently on the food taken away from those who are forced to take out tesserae in the districts—like Katniss herself.
This dual exploitation of the body—both self-inflicted, of those within the Capitol, to achieve social norms, and government-enforced, of the socioeconomically disenfranchised outside—is perhaps the most salient image of how far-reaching the exploitation in Panem may be. Victors—many of whom are sold—are modeled on people who themselves are modeled on other victors . . . who were in the Hunger Games because they had to take out tesserae, because the food stores produced in their districts were sent instead to the Capitol . . . where people make themselves vomit simply to be able to eat more food at parties for victors.
The Capitol obsession with body modification is a further method of illustrating the Capitol’s preoccupation with “attractiveness” and the importance placed on adhering to its beauty standards. Octavia, Tigris, and Cinna are all examples. Cinna “concedes to Capitol vanity” with only his gold eyeliner (“applied with a light hand”); Octavia dyes her entire body a shade of pale pea-green and, in Mockingjay, does not know how to behave or present herself in a society that doesn’t agree that such a cosmetic procedure is “beautiful.” Although both Cinna and Octavia fall within an “acceptable” range according to Capitol mores, Tigris does not. She has stepped over an arbitrary line delineating acceptable and not acceptable modification. She had her face stretched and tattooed with black and gold tiger stripes, and her nose flattened until it barely exists, forming a short snout. She also has surgically implanted whiskers—“longer than anyone else’s in the Capitol”—as well as what Katniss describes as tawny eyes and a tiger’s tail. She additionally acts much like a tiger, in the sense that she moves similar to a cat, moves her tail when she is angered, eats only raw meat, and growls. She speaks with a gravelly voice that sounds similar to a cat’s purr.
Tigris demonstrates a less-discussed side of the Capitol’s beauty-as-currency culture: the societal rejection of those who participate at extreme levels in this same culture of self-modification and body dysmorphia. Katniss arrives in the Capitol and is deemed “filthy” and “almost human” (by Flavius). Her natural body—a darker-skinned district body, specifically, untouched by the Capitol’s expensive beauty processes and subject to Capitol bigotry—is so far from acceptable, in the eyes of the Capitol, as to be less than human. But someone like Tigris, who has gone out of her way to transform herself beyond the human, is deemed “too altered” to be desirable or marketable. (In the end, Tigris is fired from her job as a Games stylist because of her appearance.)
Although even in Panem one can “go too far,” image marketing is a Capitol pastime of such prestige that it even influences the districts—especially on reaping day, when the need to impress the Capitol citizens is high. When Prim tells Katniss she looks beautiful in her mother’s dress and braided hair on reaping day, Katniss tells us, “I look nothing like myself.” For Katniss, not looking like herself leads to discomfort and something of a loss of sense of self—later, when she is allowed to wear her hair in her mother’s signature braid as part of her official costume, she regains confidence and is comforted—but in the Capitol, not looking like oneself is a source of pride, social currency, and confidence.
The Capitol trend of dyeing the skin various nonhuman colors—Octavia’s green being the most prominent example—also suggests further commentary on the race issues explored throughout the Hunger Games series. The citizens of the Capitol choose to dye their skin different colors as a sign of wealth while suppressing the liberty, safety, and equality of district citizens whose skin is naturally of “color.” The fleeting scene in Mockingjay when Posy expresses affection for Octavia by stating “I think you’d be pretty in any color”M63 is a strong statement about one of the major outcomes of the Second Rebellion: a Panem less divided along color lines. Young Posy’s understanding of beauty as separate from skin color is a poignant illustration of hopes for Panem’s future.
The Real Catwoman
Although Tigris is meant to show the absolute far edge of Capitol vanity, veering into the grotesque, she may not be a work of pure fiction. Given the time frame in which Collins was writing the series—presumably circa 2006–2008—it is likely that Tigris is based on a very real person, socialite Jocelyn Wildenstein.
Wildenstein spent more than $4 million on several silicone injections to her lips, cheek, and chin, along with a face-lift and eye reconstruction, in order to appear more “feline,” much like Tigris. Also like Tigris with her tigerlike nose, Wildenstein’s eyes were pulled up and back, giving them a more feline shape. She was known in the press in 2006–2010 as “The Real Catwoman” and “The Lion Queen,” and in 2004 she was named “the world’s scariest celebrity” on the British tabloid the Daily Mail’s website.
The Conspicuous Exclusion of Sexual and Gender Diversity
Some fans and civil rights bloggers have criticized the Hunger Games for its lack of open LGBTQAIP3 characters. However, as Katniss’ narration is so sexually naïve as to not even recognize her own sexuality, one could argue that Katniss just glossed over or did not recognize non-heteronormative sexualities in other characters. Also, Panem appears to be a world without religious dogma or scripture, so our ideas of “sin,” “vice,” and “virtue” may not apply; it’s a question whether non-heteronormative sexuality would be an issue at all in Panem. Troublingly, the only confirmed canonical examples of genderqueer/non-heteronormative sexual expression in Panem are Finnick’s male clients. Are readers meant to infer that being gay is something that is only okay in the bad, bad Capitol?
; There’s certainly a variety of behavior discussed in the series. In May 2011, one eloquent essayist, Katybeth B., phrased her understanding of gender and sexuality in Panem as “a lot more fluid than in our society.”lv From Finnick’s list of “secrets” shared in Mockingjay, Capitol sexuality seems to follow very few of the mores of the contemporary United States. And contrary to the presentation of the tributes as either distinctly feminine-female or masculine-male, the Capitol citizens’ aesthetic performance is not confined by contemporary gender standards. Flavius and Caesar Flickerman wear flamboyant makeup, Octavia and Tigris present as xenoqueer (nonhuman/humanoid/other-species), and Cressida shaves her head bald as a stylistic choice that, in our culture, is more commonly associated with the masculine. This gender presentation fluidity “combined with the hedonistic lifestyle of the Capitol, would suggest that everything from homosexuality (or casual homosexual behavior, at least, if not in a life choice sense) to androgyny to transvestitism is probably . . . commonplace.”lvi
However, the presentation of non-heteronormative sexualities within the Hunger Games series is confined to the residents of the Capitol, who are, of course, meant to be seen largely as villains. This is problematic not only in the dichotomy it creates between the districts’ and the Capitol’s ways of life, but also in what the story, as a product of our culture, suggests about sexuality in our culture. Is the series really trying to say that any lifestyle outside of the heteronormative is as grotesque, exorbitantly performative, and immoral as the Capitol is meant to be seen?
That these forms of presentation are not found in the districts (or at least not District 12 per Katniss’ description), but only in the Capitol, suggests that in Panem, lifestyles outside of the normative—whether in terms of sex and gender, or unrelated aspects of appearance—are seen as valid only for those of significant socioeconomic stature. It’s okay for Octavia to have colored skin, for example, because she bought it; it is not okay, in contrast, for Rue to have the dark brown skin because she was born with it. Trying to compare the two, in Panem, would likely be no more effective than comparing the behavior of intoxicated Capitol citizens at a party to Haymitch’s drunkenness in the districts.
The Capitol, then, as Katybeth Mannix continues:
definitely allows for a lot more freedom in terms of sexuality and genderqueerness than in our society, but in terms of [the acceptability of that behavior beyond the richest Capitol citizens]—and actual freedom in terms of queerness that doesn’t adhere to traditional gender and/or aesthetic standards—I’m not sure there’s much positive going on [in Panem]. Then again, there’s not a ton of positive things going on there in our society at the moment in terms of the general media and public perception (“it’s okay to be gay” isn’t the same as “it’s okay to be gay as long as you’re a flaming drama queen who loves musical theatre and shopping or the butchiest butch on the softball team to ever wear flannel and a buzz cut)lvii
Just as with race and class, Panem’s representation of sex and gender is both a product of its own national standards (while unique to each individual Panem citizen) and highly reflective of our world’s—in an accurate, and unappealing, way. Panem’s culture, like our own, casts sex and gender alongside race and class as quantifiable commodities to be used, traded, and sold for pleasure, pain, and profit. The validity of these sales are determined by social rank and aesthetic presentation, with outliers seen as repulsive or unworthy.
In the end, maybe Katniss is lucky to have been reaped into the Quarter Quell rather than have to complete the Capitol sham of her forced marriage to Peeta on national television, and have to engage in all that may well have entailed.
Subtextual Sexuality
One possible antidote to this problematic implication is the canonical—or at least demi-canonical—implication of a prior, consensual, fond relationship between Finnick and Cinna that some fans point to as evidence of positive homosexuality (or pansexuality) in Panem.
Katniss doesn’t describe the characteristics of either man in great detail—she doesn’t for most people—but she does say that both men have bronze or light brown hair and green eyes. Given that people of the same district tend to look like one another (based on the two apparently homogenous populations in District 12), this similarity could indicate that they are both from District 4.
In the lead-up to the Quarter Quell, Cinna made gold jewelry pieces to match or mirror Katniss’ gold mockingjay pin, in order to subtly indicate ideological alliance for Katniss, Peeta, Haymitch—and, some readers argue, Finnick. (The gold bracelet Finnick wears into the arena resembles one Katniss had seen Haymitch wear; Katniss assumes it is the same bracelet, and Haymitch gave it to Finnick in order to signal to Katniss that the District 4 victor could be trusted [though she does initially consider that Finnick may have stolen it to trick her], but we don’t necessarily know that’s the case.) None of the other rebels in the Quell—Johanna, Beetee, Wiress, the morphlings, Blight, Chaff, Seeder, Cecelia, and Woof—had gold symbols to wear into the arena, which means that Cinna only made them for his actual clients . . . and Finnick. Even for a stylist, a handcrafted gold bracelet is a very intimate gift.
Before the Quell, during the interviews, Finnick reads a poem for “his one true love in the Capitol.” This could have been intended as a tactic to appeal to sponsors, leaving his “love” unnamed so that all his past lovers in the audience could believe the poem was about them. But, as with Peeta’s confession of loving Katniss the year before, it could also have been based on truth. Annie wasn’t kidnapped by the Capitol until after the Quell, around the time that District 12 was being firebombed (which is why Finnick wanted so badly to go “get her in Four” on the hovercraft), so it couldn’t have been her the poem was meant for. And he read it on the same night that Cinna debuted the dress that would spell his death, which Finnick knew he would do, since they’d already collaborated and Finnick had been given the bracelet.
Other than with Annie, Finnick probably didn’t have much, if any, safe, sane, and consensual sex once he became a victor, and likely would have had a pretty skewed idea of love. A kind, nurturing, healthy relationship prior to the one with Annie is likely the only way that someone as abused and tortured as Finnick could really learn how to have the kind of kind, nurturing, healthy relationship we see between him and Annie in Mockingjay; many fans therefore assume there had to be a prior lover we didn’t see.
Given how few truly kind, compassionate characters there are in the Hunger Games, especially around Finnick’s age, and how few characters are ascribed color symbolism similar to his (something that is used so frequently in the series to show relationships between characters, as in the case of Rue and Thresh, Prim and the merchants, or Katniss and the Seam)—both men are represented by gold and green—the most likely candidate for that lover is Cinna.
2 “Cisgender” is an identifying terminology, coming into use in the twenty-first century as a replacement for the diminutive classification “gender normative.” It is an oppositional term to “transgender,” and it denotes the social designation of individuals whose born physical sex at birth matches their socially assigned gender identity and gender expression. It is considered preferential to “gender normative” because it denotes only the idea of “a gender-diversified experience” instead of an abnormal gender diversification.
3Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans*(transgender, transsexual, transvestite)/Third Gender, Queer, Asexual/Agendered, Intersex, Pansexual
9
District 4
Some of the most memorable and important characters in the Hunger Games—Finnick, Annie, and Mags—come from District 4, and that alone would make it worthy of a closer look. But District 4 is also uniquely important in the overall arc of the Hunger Games series. It’s our (the readers’) window to a richer understanding of Panem: through Katniss’ interactions with the people who come from District 4 and their foreign (to her) customs, we receive several key details that reveal just how separate and iso
lated the disparate district cultures of Panem are.
District 4 Culture
We readers never “see” District 4, despite Katniss and Peeta stopping there on the Victory Tour. Its location is confirmed by Suzanne Collins to be “west,” but that’s the only concrete detail we are given. The “encroaching seas” mean that “west” would be something different for Panem than it is for us; the west coast of Katniss’ world is required to be further east than California. Based on the likely changes to the oceanic borders and the characterization of the District 4 tributes and victors, District 4 most likely includes land in what is now Mexico.
The most suggestive clue that District 4’s location is in the former site of Mexico is the way that Katniss characterizes Mags, the oldest living victor of the Hunger Games and Katniss’ ally in the Quarter Quell. Mags was alive before the First Rebellion, if Katniss’ estimate of her age as eighty-two is correct, and her speech is described as not only garbled but needing to be “translated” by Finnick. This could point to a stroke or some other medical issue that resulted in impaired speech (which Finnick would possess greater familiarity with, given his friendship with Mags), but Mags could also be unintelligible to Katniss because she is speaking another language: Spanish. In the Panem we see in the Hunger Games, everyone speaks the same language (possibly due to Capitol mandate or socially forced assimilation, compounded by the possible end of immigration). Katniss seems to have no idea that there ever were other languages, so her not recognizing Mags as speaking one is not so far-fetched.