'shipping for young women
[Spoiler alert: major spoilers for The Hunger Games and His Dark Materials trilogies, minor spoilers for The Gemma Doyle trilogy, The Mortal Instruments and A Song of Ice and Fire series.]
So a note on 'shipping. I was lurking browsing The Hunger Games tag on tumblr, and of course there was the usual smattering of stupid 'shipping fanart. But there was also a comment from someone who said ze was addicted/obsessed with The Hunger Games even though ze found the first book to be merely good, not great. One of the reasons ze cited was the cheesy/forced relationship between Katniss and Peeta in the arena. And I agree. I've always felt that relationship felt unnatural, though later on I was totally willing to buy it for Peeta's brain-jacking that makes him go completely bat-shit inane. I thought that plot twist was absolutely brilliant and I loved it and I felt like it totally made up for the lame 'shipping, especially since I feel like MOST 'shipping in fiction, especially fiction aimed at young women, is lame and obligatory. Like "I'm female and therefore I must ALWAYS be worrying over which boy I find cute/want to kiss/want to fuck/whatever, never mind the fact that I'm on a badass adventure that is way cooler than any date ever!" I found the romance particularly irritating in the Mortal Instruments series, which is why I loved the whole brother/sister incest thing the author was working, and hated how she backed out of that corner for the sake of the 'ship. But I've gotta give Libba Bray credit where credit's due, because the romance in the Gemma Doyle trilogy was perfect and actually had a point to it. Gemma was like "Wow Kartik is hot, but wait, I have way more important things to think about right now." And then when she slept with him, there was no slut shaming, and I thought Gemma was becoming sexually empowered rather than the author forcing Gemma to be defined by the men in her life. Plus Fee/Pippa? Lesbians? In YA? Usually gay charactes are just the sassy gay best friends. Fee/Pippa, though, is awesome...But I digress.
Back to the main point: as I was taking a shower tonight, I thought about that post, and then I thought about Romeo & Juliet-or, more specifically, I thought about a comment I'd heard someone make about the play. I Can't Remember Who said that Shakespeare never meant the play to be some romantic tragedy. Rather, he wrote it as a satire on how teenagers are idiots. And I thought Goddamn, this persons' right! Teenagers ARE idiots. This play is brilliant! and I didn't hate the play as much after that. Now, I can't be sure if this is a correct statement (but one deliciously snarky blogger makes a very good case for the play being a satire). I've always been taught that Romeo & Juliet is some epic love story-I mean, they had an episode of Hey Arnold! about it for gods' sake-but I choose to believe the play is a satire because it makes more sense to me that way.
I feel like the same logic could be applied to The Hunger Games. The Katniss/Peeta 'ship (hereafter known as PeeNiss, THANK YOU Mark Reads The Hunger Games) seemed to intrude on the main point of the story, which was, you know, the eponymous Hunger Games themselves. Katniss was constantly thinking about how she should act romantically, and her preoccupation with Peeta was legitimately forced. The whole star-crossed lovers routine was simply an act to garner sympathy from the audience so she could not die a horrible televised death. I mean, here's a young woman who has been thrown into an arena with 23 people who want her dead, she's already been through dehydration, starvation, and tracker jacker poisoning, and her having to be all lovey-dovey just doesn't fly. It's out of character for Katniss, who is a certifiable badass, and that shows in the disrupted feel of the narrative. If the reader was so inclined, ze could choose to view the PeeNiss relationship as a satire to rival that of Romeo & Juliet. It's ridiculous that someone fighting for her continuation of biological life should be so concerned over her love life. The constant disruptions are an example of just how ridiculous female protagonists in YA fic can be.
Now, when I first read Peeta's declaration of love in The Hunger Games, I immediately wanted Katniss to say "I'm gay." That was the very first thought that popped into my head. I wanted this to be a book that wasn't focused exclusively on who'd the female lead would be playing tonsil hokey with. Later, in Mockingjay, when I read the scene where Katniss, trying to fall asleep in the Capitol, overhears Gale and Peeta saying she'll pick the one of them who she "can't survive with out," and she says something like "I can survive just fine without either one of them" I literally pumped my fist in the air and cheered. THAT is what a female YA fic protagonist should be, an empowered and independent woman girls can look up to (though at this point Katniss is pretty close to broken by the Capitol's sick fuckery). Katniss is a survivor, her own person and not defined by the men in her life, and she is one of the best role models girls living in a world-wide rape culture could have. In fact, I'm going to buy The Hunger Games and The Golden Compass for my little cousins since I found out the oldest of them (she's twelve or thirteen) is a Twilight fan. *shudder*
I think another good role model in a similar vein as Katniss Everdeen is Lyra Silvertongue of His Dark Materials (more children's lit than YA fic, I know but close enough). In The Golden Compass she is out for an adventure, and it is awesome. But then you get to The Amber Spyglass. Don't get me wrong, the final book was nothing short of epic (Lyra and Will fucking kill god and cut a gateway out of purgatory! EPIC!), but after almost three books of build up, the final chapters of the trilogy are a bit of a let down (except for the epilogue with Lyra back in her world; I quite liked that). Now that I'm older and have started to explore and question my own sexuality, I understand that it was the awakening of a young woman's sexuality in a patriarchal, religion-crazed (and by extension sex-phobic) world that allowed Dust, the physical manifestation of knowledge, to keep on falling. Knowledge of one's own sexuality is definitely powerful, especially when it is a woman in possession of such knowledge. Just look at Daenerys Targaryen in A Song of Ice and Fire (ASOIAF is by no means YA fic, but fuck it, it helps me make my point). Danerys is scared and powerless when she is first sold to/marries/raped by Khal Drogo. But when her prostitute-turned-handmaid Doreha teaches her about love and sex, and Dany begins to take pleasure in her nights with Khal Drogo, she starts to truly become a khaleesi and a powerful female figure. Sex is power, and that is why the patriarchy would have us believe that a woman should just lie back and think of England rather than take pleasure in sex, and that women who enjoy sex are sluts, are shameful, and deserving of the sexual violence committed against them. Returning to His Dark Materials, it is puberty that makes Lyra the second coming of Mother Eve that the Church in her world so abhorred and the witches so revered. Lyra chose to disobey the wishes of the Church/Authority/Reagent, gained knowledge by doing so, and then began her sexual awakening, directly mirroring the biblical story of Eve. Now, if Lyra had been a few years older, and she and Will had been allowed to discover their sexualities with each other, I feel like the final chapters would have been a fantastic ending. But Lyra isn't a few years older, and her youth is part of what makes The Golden Compass such an amazing piece of literature. As a result, her and Will's relationship feels more like puppy love romance than two sexually-aware individuals falling in love (which is good, because again, they were like twelve, but still disappointing in its own way). And as a result, the finale of my favorite book series of all time has Lyra Silvertongue, who's ridden an armored polar bear, tricked a king out of his throne, blown up a facility where kids were being abducted and experimented on, crossed a bridge in the sky, killed god, and released all the spirits of the underworld, the finale has courageous Lyra fucking Silvertongue in a parallel universe mooning over a boy and willing to let her soul, her beloved Pantalaimon, sicken and die just so she can be with Will. I mean...crap. It feels so out of character for her. Of course, she returns to character when she decides to go back to her world alone to help replenish the Dust lost to the doorway out of Death, but just that she contemplated it...like, as a female, your life should be at least be partially defined by men. It's fucked up.
Even considering all this, I still see Katniss Everdeen and Lyra Silvertongue as feminist characters. I wouldn't even be the badass woman I am today without Lyra-she is my hero, and she is a part of who I am. Katniss, too, resonates deeply with me. I relate to her so much simply because of what I went through my freshman year of high school. I felt alone, and I felt broken, but I survived. Just like Katniss. I also see Gemma Doyle and Felicity Worthington as feminist characters, and even Ann Bradshaw and Pippa Cross. I see Daenerys Targaryen and Arya Stark as feminist characters. (At least Arya has yet to go all romance-y on me, though I am only on A Feast for Crows. Given the character development of Sansa Stark, I don't expect Arya to go all starry-eyed over some Braavosi boy. Maybe a Braavosi sword, but not a Braavosi boy.) They are feminist characters because they are women, they are strong and brave, they fight for what they believe in, the go on grand advetures, they don't let anyone own them, and they are so, so alive.
I still see PeeNiss as a satire of the romance-obsessed female of YA fic, though I'm certain that wasn't the intended purpose behind their relationship. And I still see the intended purpose behind Lyra/Will (do they have a portmanteu?) as saying that knowledge of all sorts-scientific, sexual, etc-is needed to keep a world and its people thriving and healthy (even if the whole sexual awakening thing was completely lost on me the first dozen times I read the series, especially since the very first time when I was still in elementary school).
So anyways, my two and half hour musing is over. And I would just like to share the Hunger Games fanart I would draw if I had any drawing competence whatsoever:
-The Hunger Games: Katniss is checking out Foxface while Peeta is in the background saying how he love her/needs her help/is hurt/whatever.
-Catching Fire: Katniss is standing in the clock-shaped Quarter Quell arena saying "I just watched kids my own age get murdered for the sake of television, and even killed a few myself so I could survive, and now I have to do it all over again! I don't have time for your shipping bullshit!"
-Mockingjay: Gale and Peeta are arguing over who Katniss likes best while Katniss and Johanna are off in the corner making out. (I feel like Katniss and Johanna had a bit of a Faith/Buffy tag-team thing going on...and we all know what that was supposed to be. Plus, johannagayson at tumblr pointed out something really interesting: "Gale took years to say he loved Katniss. Peeta took nearly a decade to even speak to her. Johanna had her clothes on the ground the moment she met Katniss" [emphasis added].)
Oh, and just for the record, I'm not anti-Gale or anti-Peeta. After Peet's musings on identity on the training center roof the night of their first Games how coul I not love Peeta. That's one of my absolute favorite scenes in the trilogy. I just wish...well, I don't really know what I wish.
[/spoilers]
Edit 9/4/11: I wrote an entry on male privilege and male feminism in another YA fic book, The Knife of Never Letting Go that I'm linking here.
So a note on 'shipping. I was lurking browsing The Hunger Games tag on tumblr, and of course there was the usual smattering of stupid 'shipping fanart. But there was also a comment from someone who said ze was addicted/obsessed with The Hunger Games even though ze found the first book to be merely good, not great. One of the reasons ze cited was the cheesy/forced relationship between Katniss and Peeta in the arena. And I agree. I've always felt that relationship felt unnatural, though later on I was totally willing to buy it for Peeta's brain-jacking that makes him go completely bat-shit inane. I thought that plot twist was absolutely brilliant and I loved it and I felt like it totally made up for the lame 'shipping, especially since I feel like MOST 'shipping in fiction, especially fiction aimed at young women, is lame and obligatory. Like "I'm female and therefore I must ALWAYS be worrying over which boy I find cute/want to kiss/want to fuck/whatever, never mind the fact that I'm on a badass adventure that is way cooler than any date ever!" I found the romance particularly irritating in the Mortal Instruments series, which is why I loved the whole brother/sister incest thing the author was working, and hated how she backed out of that corner for the sake of the 'ship. But I've gotta give Libba Bray credit where credit's due, because the romance in the Gemma Doyle trilogy was perfect and actually had a point to it. Gemma was like "Wow Kartik is hot, but wait, I have way more important things to think about right now." And then when she slept with him, there was no slut shaming, and I thought Gemma was becoming sexually empowered rather than the author forcing Gemma to be defined by the men in her life. Plus Fee/Pippa? Lesbians? In YA? Usually gay charactes are just the sassy gay best friends. Fee/Pippa, though, is awesome...But I digress.
Back to the main point: as I was taking a shower tonight, I thought about that post, and then I thought about Romeo & Juliet-or, more specifically, I thought about a comment I'd heard someone make about the play. I Can't Remember Who said that Shakespeare never meant the play to be some romantic tragedy. Rather, he wrote it as a satire on how teenagers are idiots. And I thought Goddamn, this persons' right! Teenagers ARE idiots. This play is brilliant! and I didn't hate the play as much after that. Now, I can't be sure if this is a correct statement (but one deliciously snarky blogger makes a very good case for the play being a satire). I've always been taught that Romeo & Juliet is some epic love story-I mean, they had an episode of Hey Arnold! about it for gods' sake-but I choose to believe the play is a satire because it makes more sense to me that way.
I feel like the same logic could be applied to The Hunger Games. The Katniss/Peeta 'ship (hereafter known as PeeNiss, THANK YOU Mark Reads The Hunger Games) seemed to intrude on the main point of the story, which was, you know, the eponymous Hunger Games themselves. Katniss was constantly thinking about how she should act romantically, and her preoccupation with Peeta was legitimately forced. The whole star-crossed lovers routine was simply an act to garner sympathy from the audience so she could not die a horrible televised death. I mean, here's a young woman who has been thrown into an arena with 23 people who want her dead, she's already been through dehydration, starvation, and tracker jacker poisoning, and her having to be all lovey-dovey just doesn't fly. It's out of character for Katniss, who is a certifiable badass, and that shows in the disrupted feel of the narrative. If the reader was so inclined, ze could choose to view the PeeNiss relationship as a satire to rival that of Romeo & Juliet. It's ridiculous that someone fighting for her continuation of biological life should be so concerned over her love life. The constant disruptions are an example of just how ridiculous female protagonists in YA fic can be.
Now, when I first read Peeta's declaration of love in The Hunger Games, I immediately wanted Katniss to say "I'm gay." That was the very first thought that popped into my head. I wanted this to be a book that wasn't focused exclusively on who'd the female lead would be playing tonsil hokey with. Later, in Mockingjay, when I read the scene where Katniss, trying to fall asleep in the Capitol, overhears Gale and Peeta saying she'll pick the one of them who she "can't survive with out," and she says something like "I can survive just fine without either one of them" I literally pumped my fist in the air and cheered. THAT is what a female YA fic protagonist should be, an empowered and independent woman girls can look up to (though at this point Katniss is pretty close to broken by the Capitol's sick fuckery). Katniss is a survivor, her own person and not defined by the men in her life, and she is one of the best role models girls living in a world-wide rape culture could have. In fact, I'm going to buy The Hunger Games and The Golden Compass for my little cousins since I found out the oldest of them (she's twelve or thirteen) is a Twilight fan. *shudder*
I think another good role model in a similar vein as Katniss Everdeen is Lyra Silvertongue of His Dark Materials (more children's lit than YA fic, I know but close enough). In The Golden Compass she is out for an adventure, and it is awesome. But then you get to The Amber Spyglass. Don't get me wrong, the final book was nothing short of epic (Lyra and Will fucking kill god and cut a gateway out of purgatory! EPIC!), but after almost three books of build up, the final chapters of the trilogy are a bit of a let down (except for the epilogue with Lyra back in her world; I quite liked that). Now that I'm older and have started to explore and question my own sexuality, I understand that it was the awakening of a young woman's sexuality in a patriarchal, religion-crazed (and by extension sex-phobic) world that allowed Dust, the physical manifestation of knowledge, to keep on falling. Knowledge of one's own sexuality is definitely powerful, especially when it is a woman in possession of such knowledge. Just look at Daenerys Targaryen in A Song of Ice and Fire (ASOIAF is by no means YA fic, but fuck it, it helps me make my point). Danerys is scared and powerless when she is first sold to/marries/raped by Khal Drogo. But when her prostitute-turned-handmaid Doreha teaches her about love and sex, and Dany begins to take pleasure in her nights with Khal Drogo, she starts to truly become a khaleesi and a powerful female figure. Sex is power, and that is why the patriarchy would have us believe that a woman should just lie back and think of England rather than take pleasure in sex, and that women who enjoy sex are sluts, are shameful, and deserving of the sexual violence committed against them. Returning to His Dark Materials, it is puberty that makes Lyra the second coming of Mother Eve that the Church in her world so abhorred and the witches so revered. Lyra chose to disobey the wishes of the Church/Authority/Reagent, gained knowledge by doing so, and then began her sexual awakening, directly mirroring the biblical story of Eve. Now, if Lyra had been a few years older, and she and Will had been allowed to discover their sexualities with each other, I feel like the final chapters would have been a fantastic ending. But Lyra isn't a few years older, and her youth is part of what makes The Golden Compass such an amazing piece of literature. As a result, her and Will's relationship feels more like puppy love romance than two sexually-aware individuals falling in love (which is good, because again, they were like twelve, but still disappointing in its own way). And as a result, the finale of my favorite book series of all time has Lyra Silvertongue, who's ridden an armored polar bear, tricked a king out of his throne, blown up a facility where kids were being abducted and experimented on, crossed a bridge in the sky, killed god, and released all the spirits of the underworld, the finale has courageous Lyra fucking Silvertongue in a parallel universe mooning over a boy and willing to let her soul, her beloved Pantalaimon, sicken and die just so she can be with Will. I mean...crap. It feels so out of character for her. Of course, she returns to character when she decides to go back to her world alone to help replenish the Dust lost to the doorway out of Death, but just that she contemplated it...like, as a female, your life should be at least be partially defined by men. It's fucked up.
Even considering all this, I still see Katniss Everdeen and Lyra Silvertongue as feminist characters. I wouldn't even be the badass woman I am today without Lyra-she is my hero, and she is a part of who I am. Katniss, too, resonates deeply with me. I relate to her so much simply because of what I went through my freshman year of high school. I felt alone, and I felt broken, but I survived. Just like Katniss. I also see Gemma Doyle and Felicity Worthington as feminist characters, and even Ann Bradshaw and Pippa Cross. I see Daenerys Targaryen and Arya Stark as feminist characters. (At least Arya has yet to go all romance-y on me, though I am only on A Feast for Crows. Given the character development of Sansa Stark, I don't expect Arya to go all starry-eyed over some Braavosi boy. Maybe a Braavosi sword, but not a Braavosi boy.) They are feminist characters because they are women, they are strong and brave, they fight for what they believe in, the go on grand advetures, they don't let anyone own them, and they are so, so alive.
I still see PeeNiss as a satire of the romance-obsessed female of YA fic, though I'm certain that wasn't the intended purpose behind their relationship. And I still see the intended purpose behind Lyra/Will (do they have a portmanteu?) as saying that knowledge of all sorts-scientific, sexual, etc-is needed to keep a world and its people thriving and healthy (even if the whole sexual awakening thing was completely lost on me the first dozen times I read the series, especially since the very first time when I was still in elementary school).
So anyways, my two and half hour musing is over. And I would just like to share the Hunger Games fanart I would draw if I had any drawing competence whatsoever:
-The Hunger Games: Katniss is checking out Foxface while Peeta is in the background saying how he love her/needs her help/is hurt/whatever.
-Catching Fire: Katniss is standing in the clock-shaped Quarter Quell arena saying "I just watched kids my own age get murdered for the sake of television, and even killed a few myself so I could survive, and now I have to do it all over again! I don't have time for your shipping bullshit!"
-Mockingjay: Gale and Peeta are arguing over who Katniss likes best while Katniss and Johanna are off in the corner making out. (I feel like Katniss and Johanna had a bit of a Faith/Buffy tag-team thing going on...and we all know what that was supposed to be. Plus, johannagayson at tumblr pointed out something really interesting: "Gale took years to say he loved Katniss. Peeta took nearly a decade to even speak to her. Johanna had her clothes on the ground the moment she met Katniss" [emphasis added].)
Oh, and just for the record, I'm not anti-Gale or anti-Peeta. After Peet's musings on identity on the training center roof the night of their first Games how coul I not love Peeta. That's one of my absolute favorite scenes in the trilogy. I just wish...well, I don't really know what I wish.
[/spoilers]
Edit 9/4/11: I wrote an entry on male privilege and male feminism in another YA fic book, The Knife of Never Letting Go that I'm linking here.