Agency and the Docile Body in the Hunger Games And
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“MORE THAN JUST A PIECE IN THEIR GAMES”: AGENCY AND THE DOCILE BODY IN THE HUNGER GAMES AND REALITY TELEVISION by KATHLEEN DENISON Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Arlington in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of MASTER OF ARTS IN ENGLISH THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT ARLINGTON December 2014 Copyright © by Kathleen Denison 2014 All Rights Reserved ii Acknowledgements My deepest gratitude goes out to the chair of my committee, Penny Ingram, for being an incredible person and an incredible professor. She selflessly saved me from my initial thesis “crisis” and constantly believed in me when I wasn’t sure I could believe in myself. Dr. Ingram’s patience, humor, knowledge and stories have been an incredible gift throughout this process. I don’t know if this thesis would have been possible without the shared laughs and compassionate words of understanding that introduced light into some occasionally dark times. I am also grateful to Ashley Miller for her kindness and patience throughout this process. And to Jackie Stodnick for ensuring that my writing best represents my abilities and knowledge. Finally, thank you to my family and friends. This thesis would have never materialized without the many wonderful people that listened to my often incomprehensible ramblings, that let me vent and cry and stress aloud, that offered comfort and accountability during the actual writing, and that always helped me see the light at the end of the tunnel. A special thank you to my mom for listening to me talk about The Hunger Games for hours and for helping me focus when clarity seemed like the least obtainable thing possible. And, I couldn’t have done this without my best friends, Misty and Deana, or the many amazing UTA friends I have made before and during this process. Thank you to Ronni, Rachael, Sean, Barbi, and India for always listening and understanding and reminding me that I am capable of doing this thesis thing. Oh, and I can’t forget to thank everyone for the wonderful thesis hugs! November 24, 2014 iii Abstract “MORE THAN JUST A PIECE IN THEIR GAMES”: AGENCY AND THE DOCILE BODY IN THE HUNGER GAMES AND REALITY TELEVISION Kathleen Denison, M.A. The University of Texas at Arlington, 2014 Supervising Professor: Penelope Ingram In recent years, with the rise of social media and normalized forms of surveillance there has been an increase in the visibility of how female bodies are policed within Western society. As the fight for women’s rights over their own bodies continues there has been an increase in the number of strong female protagonists in Young Adult literature, particularly literature classified as dystopian. Contemporary young adult (YA) literature is now filled with characters, such as The Hunger Games’ Katniss, that are taking on corrupt social institutions that represent exaggerated versions of those we quite regularly encounter in America. As many scholars have done before me I explore the idea of the female body as a docile body; however, unlike scholars such as Susan Bordo, Adrienne Rich, Judith Butler (and others), my focus is primarily on the ways in which youthful bodies are being policed, and the messages that young people within western society are receiving—through the literature targeted specifically toward young adult audiences—that tell them they are able to subvert the systems that seek to deprive them of power and agency over their own bodies. I address the role of modern surveillance, specifically via reality television and social media, in the establishment of increasingly more oppressive forms of power that construct women and children as sex objects, the idea that female agency is predominately an illusion (since women are often unknowingly perpetuating these oppressive forces), and how young women might dispel that illusion through an understanding of the ideologies being perpetuated by the various forms of media. iv Table of Contents Acknowledgements ..................................................................................................................................... iii Abstract ....................................................................................................................................................... iv List of Illustrations ...................................................................................................................................... vii Chapter 1 “We’re Watching You: Panoptic Power in The Hunger Games .................................................. 1 1.1 Introduction ....................................................................................................................................... 1 1.2 The Aim of Dehumanizing Individuals............................................................................................... 6 1.3 Situating Lack Against Excess .......................................................................................................... 9 1.4 Appearance and the Docile Body ................................................................................................... 11 1.5 Panoptic Power .............................................................................................................................. 14 Chapter 2 Hungering for Immortality: The Fetishization of Youth in Western Culture ............................... 17 2.1 Appearance and a Devouring Gaze................................................................................................ 17 2.2 Establishing Lack and the Need to Transform ................................................................................ 21 2.3 Cultural Capital and the Almost Woman ......................................................................................... 25 2.4 Age, Sexuality, and the (Re)positioning of Power ........................................................................... 30 Chapter 3 “The Disbelief of the Chronically Hungry”:The Power of Starvation in The Hunger Games ..... 42 3.1 Starvation in the Districts ................................................................................................................ 43 3.2 Starvation and Excess in the Capitol .............................................................................................. 49 3.3 Starvation in the Televisual Arena .................................................................................................. 51 3.4 Control Resources and Control Bodies........................................................................................... 60 Chapter 4 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................... 66 4.1 Subverting or Reproducing the Docile Body ................................................................................... 66 4.2 Sexuality as Power ......................................................................................................................... 68 4.3 Author of Her Own Life ................................................................................................................... 70 4.4 Ending the Reign of the Sovereign ................................................................................................. 73 4.5 Final Thoughts ................................................................................................................................ 74 References................................................................................................................................................ 76 v Biographical Information ........................................................................................................................... 80 vi List of Illustrations Figure 2-1 Mackenzie ............................................................................................................................... 28 Figure 2-2 Renee Zellweger, Before and After.......................................................................................... 30 Figure 2-3 Vanity Fair Issue July 2003 ...................................................................................................... 37 vii Chapter 1 “We’re Watching You”: Panoptic Power in the Hunger Games 1.1 Introduction A quick look at the currently trending topics on social media shows that women and young girls are fighting a continued battle over their own bodies. Some of the most recent and most disturbing topics include: a sixteen year old Texas girl’s rape going viral (hashtags: #jadapose, #iamjada); nude celebrity photos leaked on the internet; a teenage girl used as bait and sodomized in a school bathroom in Florida; NFL player Ray Rice abusing his wife and the video going viral (hashtags: #whyIstayed, #whyIleft); a hoax about a Florida woman getting a third breast through plastic surgery so that she will no longer be attractive to men; YouTube star Sam Pepper pranking women with stealthy ass-grabbing; Emma Watson’s moving speech on feminism being retaliated against with [false] threats to release nude photos; and, Django Unchained actress being mistaken for a prostitute and subsequently harassed by police. This list is by no means anywhere near a comprehensive list. With the rise in media literacy it has become increasingly more evident that, as another trending hashtag implies, #Yesallwomen still have to worry about rape (without justice), domestic violence, sexual assault on the streets, private photos stolen from the cloud, harassment