The
Gender Politics of Survival: The Walking Dead and The Hunger Games
Fantasy
fiction provides an imagined landscape in which to deconstruct conventional
ideas about gender, yet the fight for survival in dystopian narrative often
seems to bring about a return to more traditional gender roles. Sophie
Stringfellow explores constructions of masculinity and femininity in The
Walking Dead, a continuing TV series, in comparison with Suzanne Collins’ more
hopeful gender perspective on the other side of the dystopian revolution
represented in The Hunger Games.
Could the
fight for gender equality be maintained if people were required to fight for
survival? I am going to consider this question as I look at the presentation of
gender in two different types of survival narrative.
Post-apocalyptic
and dystopian literature, film and television have become particularly popular
over the past couple of years, with the zombie genre making a notable comeback.
The Walking Dead, a series of graphic novels and an acclaimed TV show, is
located firmly within the zombie cannon. It is post-apocalyptic in the sense
that it concerns the collapse of society during and after an outbreak of
plague. The television adaptation of The Walking Dead can usefully be compared
alongside another successful literary adaptation, The Hunger Games film. The
Hunger Games is unmistakably dystopian in its vision of a future society which,
in aiming to prevent disaster, ends up becoming the primary threat to many of
its citizens. Both Robert Kirkman and Suzanne Collins have rewritten our
reality within a fantastical framework; yet gender is constructed very
differently in the survival situations that they depict.
Constructing
gender – contrasting ideas
From the
first episode of The Walking Dead, gender is flagged up as a central concern.
As Rick navigates his way through his new alien environment, he sees what he
presumes is a living child, and calls out to her: ‘Little girl? I’m a
policeman. Don’t be afraid’. This patronising form of address, and the gendered
reference to his job title are rendered ridiculous when the camera focuses on
the ‘little girl’ and we discover that she is in fact a ‘walker’ – a predator
for whom human beings are nothing more than food. The director has thus chosen
to begin the series with the important lesson that simplistic assessments and
assumptions based on previous experience are useless now that their frame of
reference has been destroyed.
With Rick’s
worldview thoroughly shaken, we cut straight to a flashback of the period
immediately before the plague outbreak. A misogynistic exchange takes place
between cops Shane and Rick in their patrol car, which sets up a backdrop of
macho camaraderie. The symbols of their status as police officers also create a
link between masculine authority and sexism. Shane begins with the rhetorical
question, ‘What’s the difference between men and women?’ and goes on to rant
about women’s carelessness. We hope for a more enlightened attitude from Rick,
yet he demonstrates an old-fashioned sexism of his own by claiming that the
difference lies in women’s cruelty. As the director juxtaposes the conversation
in the police car with the ‘little girl’ scene in which Rick’s masculine
privilege is undermined, we are made to consider the possibility that gender
roles are constructs rather than essential truths, contingent upon culture and
subject to change.
In contrast
to the machismo on display in the first episode of The Walking Dead, The Hunger
Games gives us an all-female domestic scene in which Katniss comforts her
sister who has woken from a nightmare. The director quickly establishes
multiple personas for our protagonist through facial expressions, costume and
her varied interactions with Prim, Gale and the family cat. From early on in
the film, it is possible to discuss her heroism, a stereotypically masculine
quality, as she volunteers to take her sister’s place at the reaping.
Characters move between roles and responsibilities fluidly, without suggesting
that any transgressions are based on their gender.
Peeta is
another complex character whose contrasting skills in the arena are brute
strength, and the ability to camouflage himself effectively using
cake-decorating techniques. We discover that Peeta is uncomfortable with the
idea of losing his identity in the arena, whether to protect or to survive, and
prefers to use cunning to create some distance between Katniss and the career
tributes. Unlike many of the hyper-masculine characters in The Walking Dead,
Peeta also demonstrates a clear sense of self-preservation. We see this towards
the end, when he is gravely injured and hides himself, instead of attempting
any feats of bravery. Characters in The Hunger Games have access to a spectrum
of ‘ways of being’ and any restrictions on their behaviour come solely from the
particular rules of the dystopian society, rather than expectations based on
gender.
In The
Walking Dead, however, the characters’ opportunities to take on diverse
identities are severely limited by gender. After hearing Rick on the radio,
Lori wants to make a contribution by erecting a sign to warn people away from
the city, and begs ‘just give me a vehicle’. As Shane refuses Lori’s request on
the grounds of safety, her frustration is palpable and the audience wonders why
she has to ask permission to act. Furthermore, a car would symbolise freedom of
movement, but this is something she does not have. Later we learn that the
women are relegated to domestic tasks regardless of their skillsets or previous
careers. Jacqui draws our attention to the unequal division of labour as she
asks ‘How did we get stuck doing all the Hattie McDaniel work?’ and Amy replies
‘The world ended. Didn’t you get the memo?’ It is clear that in The Walking
Dead, survival means a return to traditional roles and the end of equal
opportunity. After Andrea learns how to shoot, she suggests that she would be
more useful performing watch duty than domestic tasks, but Lori attacks her for
overstepping her boundaries. Unlike Katniss, whose shooting prowess is
celebrated, Andrea is viewed as self-serving for wanting to use her skills. The
fact that female characters in The Walking Dead are pressured into ‘keeping
house’, even when they are capable of protecting the camp, shows that the
stereotypical gender roles fiercely championed by the characters are rooted in
ideology, rather than what is necessary for survival.
Protection
issues – care or control?
The
representation of protection in The Walking Dead and The Hunger Games
demonstrates a contrasting approach to gender roles. In The Hunger Games, love
and protection are bound up in the symbol of the Mockingjay pin, which is
passed between Katniss and Prim ‘to protect you’. The powerful sisterly bond
represented by the pin drives the plot and helps to spark a revolution, as we
will see in the next two films in the tetralogy. The relationship between the
two sisters is also mirrored in the arena with Katniss and Rue, whose poignant
interactions show girls who are capable of looking after each other. This is
not to say that Katniss receives no help from Gale or Peeta. Indeed, Gale
supports Katniss’ family in her absence, and Peeta helps her to create an
appealing public persona. In The Hunger Games, protection between male and
female characters is based on mutual care which never calls the strength or
capabilities of the women into question.
In The Walking
Dead, however, protection is inseparable from control, and this control is
almost entirely one-sided. As we have already seen, Shane restricts Lori’s
movements, saying ‘I’m not putting you in danger’. He also attempts to extend
his protective arm further by proving his menace to the rest of the camp. In a
disturbing scene of domestic violence, Carol is attacked by her husband Ed
while the women do laundry. The other women’s complaints are completely
ineffectual, and the entire group is presented as being weaker than one abusive
man. They are left floundering – until Shane uses extreme violence upon Ed.
Although Shane appears to break the cycle of abuse between Ed and Carol, his
heavy-handed approach ensures that he is seen as the Alpha male without whom
the women would not be able to survive.
The
influence of genre
We are given
two strikingly different presentations of gender in these disaster narratives;
I would argue that the writers’ uses of genre lies at the heart of the
contrasts I have observed. As a zombie story, The Walking Dead takes social
fears and makes them real, physical and deadly. Right from the beginning, the
series places gender at the forefront of the viewers’ minds and goes on to
problematise the relationships between men and women living at crisis point
throughout. Although the presentation of sexism makes for uncomfortable
viewing, the post-apocalyptic genre is at its most effective when it takes a
convincing version of our own society and plays with the horrors of what could
be.
The dystopia
of The Hunger Games, on the other hand, allows more flexibility for the writer
to change the rules and focus on personal primary concerns. In an interview for
Scholastic, Suzanne Collins tells us why she chose to write science fiction:
Telling a
story in a futuristic world gives you this freedom to explore things that
bother you in contemporary times. So, in the case of The Hunger Games, issues
like the vast discrepancy of wealth, the power of television and how it’s used
to influence our lives, the possibility that the government could use hunger as
a weapon, and then first and foremost to me, the issue of war.
Collins has
used The Hunger Games as a vehicle to explore certain social problems – but
gender relations is not one of them. Both The Walking Dead and The Hunger Games
provide a compelling vision of a crumbling society. But whilst Collins gives
men and women a level playing field upon which to tackle wider social concerns,
Kirkman warns us that prejudice which may appear innocuous in a stable society
can soon become domination when transposed to a society in chaos.
Follow
it up
The Hunger
Games (2012)
The Walking
Dead Season 1 (2011) and Season 2 (2012)
Scholastic
interview with Suzanne Collins: http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/article/qa-hunger-games-author-suzanne-collins
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