#smthn else i noticed when reading is that any chara from the capitol who may be lgbt was never ridiculed For testing gender boundaries

[shimelyasmin]

thinking about that one tiktok where some guy went on about how the hunger games is conservative because, in his words, “the capitol citizens are coded to be queer and this redneck girl who lives in the woods leads a revolution against these queer people.” (found it) it’s a particularly interesting take because he noticed an aspect of the hunger games that is so interesting to me but then read it in the most surface-level way imaginable.

i do agree that many of the capitol citizens are queer coded but this is the end of where his reading of it was right. there is a deep contrast between how the capitol citizens express themselves compared to how the district citizens express themselves and it is not to push a conservative agenda. it’s about control. showing somebody that it is a possibility for them to express themselves beyond the box they were initially stuffed in is a liability in a country where the power the authoritarian government holds is already fragile. capitol citizens are afforded the right to test the bounds of gender because there is no risk of them realizing that maybe, there are other boundaries to push! a good majority of them are very comfortable with sitting complacently because the status they have benefits them. the hunger games, for one, does not do anything for them other than offer entertainment. but the reaping, the tributes, they’re all divided between strict categories of Boy and Girl Tribute. there is no crossing lines for people from the districts.

i may not know what suzanne collins was exactly thinking when writing this aspect of thg, but i know it doesn’t take a genius to realize that an authoritarian government would do all it can to prevent its citizens from discovering that there are options beside their current reality.