Competition?

Team Edward or Team Jacob?

 

 

 

Team Peeta 

 

or Team Gale?

 

Why are we breaking everything into teams?

 

Written by: Lindsay Brookshier

 

It is no secret that The Twilight Saga created an intense fandom of women and usually they identify with a certain Team as their preference for the male characters.

Now we see this trend being carried over into The Hunger Games trilogy! I have heard and seen many different people announce themselves Team Peeta or Team Gale thus provoking the similar trend we have seen in Twilight.

Why do we do this? It is interesting how in popular culture you most often see women fighting over one male (movies, media, television, etc.) but in these book series: the woman becomes the object to be desired and to invoke competition.

Are these teams devaluing the male characters? The female characters? Or both?

In one view, you could say that these men rallying for the attraction of the lead female character is transforming her into a simplistic romantic object to be traded to the highest bidder- may the best man win?

Or, is this competition turning the men into romantic objects- for each female character to  dispose of or choose as she sees fit?

Well, this time- I think I am siding with the guys on this one!

Bella constantly leads both Edward and Jacob on in this mixed up, romantic, soap opera of a love triangle. We especially see this in Eclipse! She runs back and forth between them like a ping pong ball with only the thought of remorse until poor Jacob or Edward betray their emotions- and show how hurt they really are. If I feel anyone is being devalued in this scenario- it is definitely Edward and Jacob.

(Yes, yes- I know Renesmee becomes the 'fixer' for this problem but that's a whole other blog post of issues to unravel.)

In The Hunger Games we see this similar trend of emotional apathy towards these poor fellas passion for love. But in this situation, Katniss is not a character that is ruled and defined by love. She is her own individual of strength, power and psychological issues- she doesn't have time to worry about relationships! She is the Mockingjay, for crying out loud. I may be speaking from a bias because I am a Katniss fan to the core, but she is definitely not on the same plane of existence as Bella.

However, we have to be fair. She does lead the boys on throughout the trilogy. Peeta especially gets the run around from her. We see this in the arena especially as she plays out a false love (is it truly false?) for the cameras. And we see the same behavior towards Gale as she comes to him time and time again to fulfill her more furious emotions.

As everyone can probably tell from my writings about Bella vs. Katniss, I am entirely...

Team Katniss!

Can these teams really be comparable? Are Katniss and Bella playing with the emotions of love stricken men to achieve their own aims?

What do you think?