TEAM WHO GIVES A FUCK

When I got to the theatre for the midnight premiere of The Hunger Games, there were two boys there, one with a shirt that said "I'M GAY FOR GALE," and the other, "I'M GAY FOR PEETA."  I loved this, of course, as I always love people being gay for someone.  The next day, though, I regrettably started seeing facebook professions of one's being on TEAM GALE or TEAM PEETA, and started getting a little worried.  I know that probably 90% of people that like these books just like them because it's the latest teen series, and process them as though they were about as meaningful as fecking Twilight, but I hate to see something so good ruined by that kind of thoughtlessness.  One of the first people I talked to about these books said she was disappointed by them because Katniss didn't end up with the guy she wanted her to, and I was a little amazed that after reading this series, anyone could walk away thinking it was ultimately about a girl's finding this or that boy.

I love Twilight.  It is sexually repressed, but still a little sexy, all the actors are beautiful, and the soundtracks are perfectly teenage hipster.  It is the definition of a guilty pleasure.  But it's also the story of a girl whose entire life is defined by which boy she will marry.  She will completely lose her self and relationships and identity either way, she falls in love with a gentleman who insists they wait until marriage to get it on, she refuses to have an abortion even though her pregnancy would likely kill her.  It's a giant advertisement for Mormon/Christian sexual ethics and reinforces all kinds of awful gender norms.  It should never for a moment be taken seriously.

The Hunger Games, on the other hand (SPOILER ALERT), is the story of a strong girl opposing soul-crushing systems of violence, resisting its corrupting influence, and doing her best to protect the innocent people she loves.  There are men in her life.  She cares for both of them, but is ambivalent about romance.  She finds herself interacting with her culture's worship of a good love story, and plays off of it when she needs to in order to survive, but finds it almost as manipulative and abhorrent as being forced to fight 23 children to the death.  She may end up forming some genuine feelings even under the watchful gaze of a culture that is begging her to, and that is sweet and a miracle, but it is certainly not the prevailing narrative of these books.  This is human vs. society.  It's about resistance, beating impossible odds, sparking social movements, and also inequality, fame and reality tv, the costs and causes of progress, etc.  I was really impressed when I read it that someone actually trusted teenagers to engage with this kind of material, and found a way to put it in terms they could understand, relate to, and find entertaining.  But of course, what teenagers may actually be mature enough to engage thoughtfully, the media machine turns into a cartoon.

All that to say, if I see one more post about Team Peeta or Team Gale, I think I may barf.