Hunger Games

Hunger Games reveals the consumerism, ignorance, and disparity within our own society.

Hunger Games is a fictional film based on the novel by Suzanne Collins. In the movie, there are twelve districts subjected to the rule of the capital, which had won a war for control 74 years in the past. The reparations for the war included the majority of the resources produced and the volunteering of 2 tributes from each district, between the ages 12 and 18, to compete in the annual hunger games. The hunger games are violent and miserable; in the end, only one of the 24 tributes survives each year. This story is targeted at teens and young adults, but is relevant to all adults in our society.

Effie Trinket, the escort of the district 12 tribunes, is oblivious to the horror and struggle faced by Katniss and Peeta because of her upbringing in the culture of the capital. While she is bringing the tributes to the capital she is proud and excited to introduce them to her lifestyle of wealth and excess. However, Effie is so materialistic and caught up in her own consumption that she does not even notice the tribunes’ horror at the contrasts between their daily struggles at home and the consumerism within the capital when they arrive. Effie’s ignorance highlights the contrasting cultural values in the different societies.

Additionally, Effie’s obsession with manners and elaborate outfits reveal the triviality of concerns within the capital. This idea is further developed in a scene where a young boy is gifted with a sword, like one of the weapons that the tribunes can use to try to slaughter each other in order to survive in the games. Rather than being disturbed at the present, his parents laughed and encouraged him as he play-fought his defenseless sister. This reveals leading societies’ tendency to encourage of indiscriminate dominance over “weaker” people and governments. Again, the societal disregard for the tribunes’ lives reveals the disconnection between the capital and the outside world, in a similar way to the disconnection between first world values and third world values in contemporary society. The Games themselves represent the commodification of human lives and emotions. In the movie, the devaluation of individuals is both a cause and an effect of the instability of society as a whole. As Effie’s understanding of the world is limited by her culture and the tribunes are suppressed by theirs, the film depicts the struggle between individual people and societal machines, such as government and economics.

In the movie, the hunger games are run by a special group of technicians. Their goal is to amuse consumers in the capital and placate the citizens in the surrounding districts. The technology is beneficial because of its entertainment value; however, it also allows images and information to be edited by President Snow and his staff. Consumerist interests and governmental control corrupted the media and limited the information that the general public received. Similarly, in our society, consumer and corporation funding of news programs limits the biases and relevant programs produced in our media.

Exploitative Economics, Advertisements, and Consumerist Culture

New technology is created with the intent to bring convenience and ease to peoples’ daily lives. Innovations are the result of problem solving, not merely from businesses attempting to profit. However, in our increasingly fast-paced, work-oriented, consumerist society new technology creates barriers to happiness because people are expected to DO more instead of have more leisure time, consumers are expected to HAVE more updated technology instead of being satisfied with their current lifestyles, and we lack a concrete set of moral guidelines for dealing with new technology.

While the majority of innovations are guilty of this paradox, Apple technology in particular exemplifies this inconsistency. The iPad/iPhone duo (and their ability to sync over the cloud) was created to simplify and combine the functions of communication, education, and entertainment. Phone, email, calendars, and various other apps exist in order to aid consumers’ productivity while most music, videos, and books are available purely for entertainment. However, instead of allowing people to finish their jobs efficiently and spend extra time solely on leisure, this technology has created an expectation for people to constantly work, maintain relationships, and “relax” on-the-go. Meanwhile, consumers lose control over their privacy as companies gain the ability to track the items they buy, games they play, and even the things that they search on the internet.

With this information, companies are enabled to market more directly to individuals. However, businesses continue to sell “pleasure” through advertisements that reinforce our cultural status quo because the imbalance of power within our society is the force driving capitalism. While they are not underprivileged, average individuals experience a perceived need for more when they can compare themselves to those who have excess. Individuals’ freedoms are limited by greed, carelessness, and ignorance within our society.

Historically, our society has treated economics as a zero-sum game; our predecessors took land from the natives, used slaves to cultivate the land, and practiced the Monroe Doctrine to protect their interests in nearby foreign land while avoiding dangerous wars with powerful empires overseas. Currently, American consumers are being manipulated by large corporations. The upper class (which tends to be the same demographic as the original colonists) manages large businesses, and therefore has significant power within the economy. The upper class also tends to be highly visible in the media, enabling this socioeconomic minority to set trends that are unobtainable for the majority. These trends are expanded upon advertisements that target consumers’ insecurities and desires. Internet tracking allows businesses to send specific advertisements that target the most susceptible individuals. Because they are raised within this exploitative culture, people typically do not question the system. Acceptance of the status quo limits consumers’ investigative curiosity. This ignorance allows businesses to further exploit consumers, who do not use their purchasing power to “vote” for more morally sound business practices because they are unaware of corruption or unwilling to sacrifice potential profits from low prices in exchange for protected privacy.

Vintage Weight Gain Ads on Pinterest

     I was messing around on Pinterest the other day when I found this one. The woman who posted it had made a comment about wishing that this was still society’s perception of beauty. It’s a vintage ad claiming that it is ugly to be skinny. The advertisement was selling these magical pills that could help women gain weight in order to become more attractive. I was surprised at how much the cultural myth has changed in the last 50-60 years.

     In modern society, thinness is considered a virtue; the majority of our models and celebrities are skinny, which creates a cultural expectation for all women to be slender. Our cultural myth creates unnecessary pressure on girls and women to attain and maintain a certain body image. I’ve always been on the lower side of having a normal BMI, but I’m also very active, so I eat a lot, often. When I’m out with friends after swim practice, and we are all enjoying our second cheeseburger and large fries at In ‘N Out, women who notice tend to make comments to each other like “Oh, to be young again.” Some even comment to us, saying stuff like “Enjoy that while it lasts.” These small offhand phrases can sometimes makes me a little self-conscious; I wonder if I should be watching my weight or if I’m eating too much, even though I know that I need the extra calories because of my workouts.

     Conversely, the advertisement encourages weight gain. While the image-related cultural myths are polar opposites, the ad shows that our society has persistently placed pressures on women to attain particular body images.

     This advertisement, viewed in the context of modern society, has shown me how cultural expectations can influence women’s body image and self-confidence. It has persuaded me to care less about my weight and image because, as long as health is maintained, weight is only as important as the influence you allow cultural bias to have on you. This may not have been the message that the advertisers originally intended to give (in fact, encouraging self-confidence and satisfaction with a variety of body shapes and sizes is the opposite of what the advertisement was supposed to do), but the image was shared on a social media site to point out the foolishness of fully accepting cultural myths in advertisements because of their detrimental effect to consumers’ confidence. The newer message definitely appealed to and affected me.

 

http://www.styleite.com/media/vintage-weight-gain-ads/#0