Katniss Panem Gender Analysis

Gender reveals itself in aspects of everyday life, ranging from a child’s backpack to a single sex school to restrooms. A trip to a clothing store exposes the division of male and female clothes; a toy store divides toys by girl toys and boy toys. Even colors have gender. In hospitals, male infants are swaddled in blue, while female infants don pink. Even before birth, the imposition of gender norms unto infants comes in the form of the blue “I’m a Boy” buttons for boys or the pink variants for girls. The parents assume their children will even identify as their assigned sex at birth and not identify as a separate gender later in life, with the distinction “sex being physical and gender being social” (Henthorne 2012:45). Gender exists solely

She refuses to conform to the traditional gender roles in Panem. After her father dies being “blown to bits in a mine explosion,” Katniss “transforms herself from a dependent into a provider” (Collins 2008:6, Henthorne 2012:44). As a result of her father’s death, her mother essentially becomes a child, having to rely on Katniss to provide. Katniss takes on the masculine role of being the provider of the family and the feminine role of being a mother to Prim. During the Games, Katniss switches between masculine and feminine traits depending on what the situation required. Before she and Peeta join together in the seventy-fourth Hunger Games, Katniss exemplifies masculine qualities. The situation forces her to provide for herself by hunting and foraging and just being overall self-sufficient. These acts prove to the views that she has the capability of being on her own and independent. However, when she and Peeta unite later in the Games she displays more of a feminine and motherly caring role. Although, Katniss still provides both for Peeta and herself, encouraging the masculine role, she takes care of Peeta like a mother would their sick child. She lets her guard down around Peeta, and she plays up the showmance. Another example of Katniss’s femininity exposes itself when she decides to ally with Rue, the female tribute from District Eleven. Katniss takes on the protector role,