(Re)definition of Gender Roles in Popular Culture: The Case of «The Hunger Games»

Abstract

Popular culture today is witnessing the (re)signification of hero/ine positions through the appearance of emergent roles that occasionally subvert traditional gender roles. This paper analyzes this issue in the film adaptations of Suzanne Collins’ trilogy The Hunger Games. The interest in this trilogy is rooted in its box office success and originality as a popular culture proposal for teenagers with few things in common with its coetaneous products, both because of its much more political discourse and due to its mise en scène, which includes the unprecedented profiles of its main actors. Our text provides a descriptive study of representation alongside an evaluative analysis based on the gender perspective as an epistemological approach. Our conclusions allow us to affirm that The Hunger Games proposes a new heroic profile that subverts both the hegemonic pattern found in media and the patriarchal order of mainstream narratives.