The Hunger Games

Looks like there's about to be a song, but it's not that kind of teen movie...

The Bechdel Test goes as follows:
It Has to Have Two Named Women:
Katniss, Prim, Rue, Effy
Who Talk to each other:
All of these characters interact with Katniss at some point in the film for over 30 seconds.
About something besides a man:
Done. Katniss's life is on the line, she's not trying to get in on some heterosexual love... but somehow, I'm sure it'll sneak up on her anyway. Katniss and Rue spend time developing a friendship and plan. Katniss and Prim discuss the reaping, as well as a tearful goodbye. Effy gives advice and silly "let them eat cake" style conversation, and Katniss gives her mother some tough love. There are conversations about men, but they don't dominate every conversation.

I wouldn't blame her for talking about this guy, though. He's lovely.

Right off the bat, The Hunger Games passes the Bechdel test. Katniss Everdeen is seen having conversations with her mother, her sister, an ally, and her handler, all based around her survival in the games, despite having a love interest involved. What I found particularly interesting about the film and it's relation to gender difference was that it does place a considerable amount of Katniss's success on her own shoulders, complete with her team. However, what ends up setting her ahead of her competitors seems to be the discovery of, or the illusion of heterosexual love. 

With this guy, and his flawless logic.

While Katniss is resourceful, and brave, and ultimately is the heroine of the story, her edge in the games really comes through after Peeta confesses his feelings during his interview. She's of course blindsided, because as a sixteen year old girl, she's never considered her feelings on love, sex, and relationships with anyone. Also, she's got 23 other kids trying to take her out. She's a little busy. When she is in the woods, toward the end of the games, she teams up with Peeta, and ultimately they both live because of her intelligence. However, without Peeta, it is unlikely Katniss would have survived on her own. His love story won her favor with sponsors, and Peeta saved her from the Career team. 

Still can't save her like hetero love can!

In many popular young adult novels adapted into film, there’s usually some kind of heterosexual love interest. Katniss doesn’t follow the same pattern as Twilight’s Bella. Bella's love interest spends their story trying to convince her why she shouldn't give in to her feelings, while at the same time nurturing dependence and a relationship. Katniss is a different formula, and is the secondary storyline to her survival. She doesn’t fall head over heels for Peeta, she doesn’t spend the film consumed by her love interest, though she is obviously torn between her best friend and her team mate. Peeta spends his time trying to convince her to fall in love. Katniss needs to be tricked into love and sex, because she is naive and pure, as women should be. In Twilight, Edward saves Bella from a speeding car, and in Hunger Games Peeta saves Katniss from starvation as well as from violent interaction with other players. Edward and Bella cannot be together until everything around their unholy union is resolved (something about a vampire war? I don't remember). Ultimately, Katniss cannot commit to Peeta as they are embroiled in a game for their lives, but by the end of the series, she is bound to choose a mate as the turmoil dies down and a new age of peace starts. 

I've lived the story on the right, why would I pay to watch it?

Credits

That's real talk.

Hunger Games
Gale
Peeta
Skills
Katniss vs. Bella
ECards

She's just a SLUT

Because this is only the tip of the degrading iceburg.

  (Sorry for the wonky font, if anyone knows how to get fix this, please let me know. I'm Blogger challenged.)


Slutwalk 2011 was the first time I'd ever heard of anyone reclaiming the word "slut" formally. I'd heard it said amongst my friends in high school as a term of endearment, but also as a put down for anyone who was generally disliked. According to dictionary.com, a slut is a dirty, slovenly prostitute. According to etymonline, the definition is similar, but there's a small note that the term was used affectionately for a brief period. Despite a small amount of positivity, this word has been around since the late 14th century, and has since been used as a tool for shaming sexuality and degrading women. Until last year. July 31, 2011 Portland hosted its first annual Slutwalk. This was part of an effort started in Canada in response to a police officer's statement, "women should avoid dressing like sluts in order to not be victimized."  Supporters, activists, guest speakers, sex workers, and performers of all ages gathered together to protest both victim blaming and sexual violence, some dressed provocatively, in the imitation of the picture "slut" brought to mind. And the message was wonderful, inspiring, educational, and unfortunately, not widespread enough. Today, February 22nd, 2012,  slut is still an ugly word.

Mean girls are mean...

My mother would use the word "crude" to describe the way "slut" rolls off the tongue. "Slut" is synonymous with promiscuity. The number one definition on urbandictionary.com, a popular slang dictionary site, is "A woman with the morals of a man." The second definition describes a woman who will sleep with anyone, no matter how unattractive or pathetic, "she just has to {have sex with} everyone she knows." The author of the definition praises "sluts" as though they prevent more sex crimes from happening by being willing to have sex with anyone, suggesting that sluts are women who cannot be raped. Only on the third definition is it suggested that a slut is merely a sexually promiscuous person, though usually a woman. Looking at these definitions, it is clear that to thousands of people who voted positively for the definition a "slut" is decidedly female, though she is engaging in or thought to be engaging in behavior that as a society we encourage in men. There is no word you can call a man the has the same connotation, the same bad taste. Calling a man a slut is insulting his masculinity, which is why so often we seen "man slut" as a joke, or something associated with feminine or queer men. One of my friends continually states he does not like to be grouped with Portland gay men because, "Portland gays are sluts, and I'm just not… I'm too androgynous." Even within deviant groups, we pick each other apart. 

Every man is not a master key, let me throw that out there. 

In "What's Up, Slut?" by Marueen Dowd, the New York Times columnist explores the word briefly, calling it a word that was once a "summary judgement that a woman is damaged goods" but has become a slang employed by teenage girls and young women who are latching on to a fad. And from that, there's stemmed the movement to take back the word as a joke among friends. But what is the joke? I've been told a joke is only funny because it either ridiculous, or it's true. Applying that logic, it's funny to call a girlfriend a slut because she either would never have promiscuous sex, or because she's comfortable with her sexuality with or without promiscuity and that makes her friends uncomfortable so they tease her about it. "Social groups create deviance by making rules whose infraction constitutes deviance" according to Becker's Labeling theory (p39). In our society, labeling women as sluts has been our way of keeping women in line and making examples of women who have broken these rules by exploring their sexulaity in the same fashion that is encouraged in men. In "A few words about reclaiming Slut"author "Chloe" writes for feministing that women have been trying to reclaim the word "slut" since the Riot Grrrl movement involving Bikini Kill's Kathleen Hanna scrawling the word across her bare stomach to make a statement. The battle to take the sting out of the word that has been on the forefront of the new movement that is "Slutwalk" is not, in fact, new. Slutwalk Seattle responded that slut should be able to be used as a "sex-positive term" that would empower self-proclaimed sluts of any gender identity. Unfortunately, the problem with the word is not with "self-proclaimed sluts" it lies with those who choose to label others, and continue to bring others down with its use. Until we can rid the word "slut" of the connotation of a deviant woman, a woman who should be ostracized and ashamed of herself. 

   On an episode of the popular comedy/sitcom, Scrubs, the main female doctor has a one night stand, and walks the halls realizing everyone knows and is talking about her sexual experience. The rumors get outrageous. Her friends even join in the teasing and gossiping. After being understandably devastated, the character finds power in her "label" because people see her as knowledgeable about sex, and are paying attention to her where she previously felt invisible. Her friends apologize for not standing up for her, and she responds with a new attitude. "I'm not sure. I mean, I was mad at you at first, but it's actually kind of empowering, you know, to have this...persona -- this identity. I mean, I'm not just some, you know, nameless, faceless white doctor -- I'm Elliot Reid: Tramp"

As a woman in a workplace that has been dominated by men for so long, it takes a lot to stand out for being anything other than a token hire. As we've discussed in class, most members of deviant groups have to work twice as hard to prove they are just as capable as the normative heterosexual white male employee. While it's admirable that a person can turn something so ugly and negative into a seemingly positive label or view, the situation points to the bigger issue. On February 23rd, we discussed the ideal of masculinity, and as Professor Williams said, loosely paraphrased, when we are telling people to "man up", we are also devaluing women and femininity. As people greet each other with, "Hey slut!" I believe we are devaluing sexuality, women, sexual experiences and there's little respect left for the person being greeted. 

The reality hurts. A lot. 

I am embarrassed as a human being hearing anyone use that word, though I am more embarrassed for the person using it. It angers me in my identity as a woman, especially to hear another woman use the word so carelessly. Just as the word "cunt" was originally a word meaning "sheath for a sword", "slut" was associated with another word: mud. And in the hundreds of years these words have been in use, the majority of their time has been spend degrading women. "Slut" is a word I think should be stripped of its ugliness, and left to wither away into a word that will no longer be used. I think Slutwalk is a fantastic idea,  in it's message and practice, but I don't want to reclaim such a vile word and use it as my own. I don't want it to be ok to degrade women because of my identity as a woman. Words may be only as powerful as the power we give their meaning, but I think this is one of the many words that there's no loss in taking out of our mouths. 

Think about it. Please.

Word count: 1290


Becker, Howard S. Thio, A., T. Calhoun, and A. Conyers. Readings in deviant behavior. 6th. Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon, 2010. Page 39, Print.
CHLOE. "A Few Words about Reclaiming "slut"" Feministing. 16 May 2011. Web. 27 Feb. 2012. <http://feministing.com/2011/05/16/a-few-words-about-reclaiming-“slut”/>
Dowd, Maureen. "What's Up, Slut?" The New York Times. The New York Times, 15 July 2006. Web. 23 Feb. 2012. <http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/15/opinion/15dowd.html>.
Harper, Douglas. "Online Etymology Dictionary." Online Etymology Dictionary. Douglas Harper. Web. 27 Feb. 2012. <http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?allowed_in_frame=0>.
Muscio, Inga. Cunt: A Declaration of Independence. 1st ed. Seattle: Seal, 1998. Print
"Portland Events, Music, Art, Entertainment, Sustainability | PDXPIPELINE.com." July 31: Slutwalk Portland. Web. 22 Feb. 2012. <http://www.pdxpipeline.com/monthly-event-list/slutwalk-portland/>
"Slut." Dictionary.com. Dictionary.com. Web. 23 Feb. 2012. <http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/slut>.


"Urban Dictionary: Slut." Urban Dictionary. Urban Dictionary. Web. 23 Feb. 2012. <http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=slut>






Credits:
A few words about reclaiming Slut
Class Notes (2.23.11)
Cunt: A Declaration of Independence (I love this book, it taught me a lot, personally)
Dictionary
Etymonline
Portland Slutwalk 2011

Urban Dictionary
What's Up, Slut?




Photos:

Chill Out Slut (Originally from Bluntcard.com, the second link)
Your boobs are hanging out
Enlightenment
Scrubs Screen Shots: My New Coat
Have you ever looked at yourself
DC Slutwalk 2011 Photo