Hey so I was just doing more thinking about the Hunger Games even though I read it a year ago. I think I just need to do a Katniss Everdeen appreciation post.
I love Katniss and I am very sad that the HG didn't exist when I was a kid because I think I needed a character like her in my life. I was always drawn to strong female leads in books like Ella Enchanted and Alanna the Lioness, but the thing that bothered me about these characters is that they made me feel like enjoying things that are traditionally perceived as feminine was somehow a bad thing. I wanted to be kickass like the warrior women of books, I wanted to play outside and climb trees and call myself a tomboy, but I felt I couldn't be fully awesome with my long hair and interest in sewing and cooking. I feel like a lot of books shamed girls with domestic pursuits and wrote them off as "weak" or "vain", and the beloved tomboy was always very clumsy at these things, and never had any female friends.
While Katniss falls into the tomboy trope category, she also loves the shit out of her sister Prim, who LIKES wearing dresses and cooking *gasp*. She acknowledges that they are different, and that Prim has her strengths and talents elsewhere. Katniss also wears a braid and doesn't bitch about how her hair is getting in the way of her fighting. To be honest, long hair can be kind of cumbersome for an active person but you can wear it in a braid and you hardly notice it OKAY? You don't need short hair and to act "masculine" to kick ass. She also doesn't need a strong romantic plot to drive her story forward in the first book. I just think that she is a very awesome character and again, I wish that she existed when I was a kid because I needed someone like her to reassure me that it was OKAY to have my interests and be strong at the same time. You don't need to choose one or the other. There doesn't need to be a polarity between "tomboys" and "girly girls".
