Femme Dystopie

With critical eye I observe the portrayal of women in dystopian universe.

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TV Dystopia, Survivor Need

Whittier College Panel presents an intriguing debate between the members of the College board about dystopia. Overmyer-Velazquez states “dystopia is not a deferred future—it's the present that we live in.” Through dystopian texts (be it literature, or visual materials) we, the recipients, deal with present dystopia—our present condition as society and as a culture—by projecting it wholly into the future, as something far-off, a mere fantasy. By placing the setting into the safe constrains of the future we begin to think about the real issues of today, imagining the consequences of present predicament.

Suzanne Collins, the author of The Hunger Games, confessed in an interview:

One night, I was lying in bed, and I was channel surfing between reality TV programs and actual war coverage. On one channel, there’s a group of young people competing for I don’t even know; and on the next, there’s a group of young people fighting in an actual war. I was really tired, and the lines between these stories started to blur in a very unsettling way. That’s the moment when Katniss’s story came to me. (Collins)

It comes as a no surprise that the most popular dystopian narrative of today in fact comes from emulation and extension of what TV offers. Indeed, the narrative that the television portrays as “reality” does not differ all too much from the dystopian universe. War, death, violence, disease, disaster, murder, corruption, political upheavals, abuse of power, sex, hate, survival, youth—these are among the themes most often projected in the media. Perhaps it would be fair, then, to assume there is a certain level of dystopia embedded in our society. This trend grew out of our fascination with it.

Bak points to the inherent optimism in dystopian narratives giving the example of endings. The intrinsic hope comes with survivors—someone is always left alive at the very end, regardless of how difficult the situation/world of the story is. Scott explains, “We always assume we’re the 5% that doesn’t die. In reality, we’d be the 95% that did die.” This core narrative perpetuated by the media of a hero that does not die creates dissociation between reality and fiction. Recipients always identify themselves with survivors—be it in movies, TV shows, novels, or I would go as far as to claim, every “story” offered by the media (news, reality shows, etc.). In this manner we lose our sense of mortality, of death, and optimistically believe in our own invincibility. We are always Katniss who does not die, not Finnick, or any other character who does. This is not to say that such identification is wrong, quite on the contrary, considering how hard it is to avoid it, when in fact the story is told in Katniss’s point of view. Taking into consideration all the narratives working in such a way—there seems to be no alternative, which is why we (the recipients) project this image onto ourselves. We make stories about ourselves, the narratives we live by, refusing to consider identity is more than a role and we may not be the heroes, the survivors, the winners, but more. Garabedian, M., Bak, J., Overmyer-Velazquez, R., Scott, C., & Carbine, R. (n.d.). Faculty Tackle “Allure of Dystopia” in Popular Culture. Retrieved May 1, 2016, from http://www.whittier.edu/dystopia Collins, S. (n.d.). A Killer Story: An Interview with Suzanne Collins, Author of “The Hunger Games” | Under Cover. Retrieved from http://www.slj.com/2008/09/interviews/under-cover/a-killer-story-an-interview-with-suzanne-collins-author-of-the-hunger-games/

[femmedystopie]

Dystopian Appeal

At this point the Web is full of articles tacking this topic to the extent of making your eyes roll, but still there are certain ideas regarding the dystopian trend  (notably fading now) that are worth listing.

Dystopian narratives, be it novels or movies, were always created with adult recipients in mind. Even with the emergence of youth culture in the 1950s in the US, it wasn’t until 1990s that the first novels with teenage protagonist and POV emerged in this genre. One of such narratives is The Giver by Lois Lowry, a novel published in 1993, but reaching the peak of popularity fairly recently, and only partially thanks to the film adaptation (2014).

So why the appeal?

Dystopian narratives provide a sort of entrance to the adult world that is free of responsibilities. The stories tackle serious social and political issues, safely containing them and concisely explaining through the plot. The stories work as minuscule versions of multi-layered conflicts that in reality require in-depth study and additional information to be fully comprehended. A clear distinction between the protagonist and the antagonist allows also a clear division between good and bad—nonexistent in real life. The moral dilemmas and larger-than-life conflicts are presented in a digestible format. At the same time this fictive dream offers a transparent wall—the awareness that “it’s only a story—it’s not real.” This safety measure allows the recipients a peek into adulthood without concerns, yet still encouraging critical thinking.

Dave Astor points to “a certain ‘rightness’ in reading about a future that’s negative,” and it is hard to ignore the appeal. The general disappointment and hopelessness connected with politicians and the workings of the system in a way are reflected in apocalyptic stories. Astor adds, “They feel kind of honest.” In the end, through the depiction of worst-case scenarios they provide a source of hope derived from the sheer satisfaction “we’re not there yet,” and things can still get much worse. The moralistic lesson is for us to work twice as hard to make the world a better place to avoid a dystopian outcome.

One of the most prominent traits of 2010s dystopian narratives is the emergence of Violent Female Action Character (Gilpatric) as the teenage protagonist driving the action. An argument can be made that this shift toward female point of view is because the narrative needs to appeal to wider audiences. On another note, the VFACs are rarely portrayed as main heroines driving the plot and at the same time not defined by their relation to the male hero. Indeed, dystopian narratives not only challenge the status quo in Hollywood thanks to blockbuster productions, but generally influence society’s perception of gender norms. There is a certain level of liberation in a world where gender binary and sexuality are flexible (Smith), and this precisely is what dystopia offers.

But then again, precisely because of these portrayals of powerful women are put into a dystopian setting, ultimately the message is reaffirmed that divergence from conventional norms can only be allowed as a last resort during extreme circumstances—the ‘secular apocalypse.’ In this light, such portrayal of women ceases to appear so progressive.

Smith, Hannah. (2014). Permission to Diverge: Gender in Young Adult Dystopian Literature. Gender Studies Research Papers. Retrieved from http://soundideas.pugetsound.edu/genderstudies_studentresearch/1  

Gilpatric, Katy. (2010). Violent Female Action Characters in Contemporary American Cinema. Sex Roles, 62(11-12), 734-746. doi:10.1007/s11199-010-9757-7

Astor, Dave. (2012). Why Do We Like Dystopian Novels? Retrieved May 2, 2016, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dave-astor/why-do-we-like-dystopian-novels_b_1979301.html  

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The term has been out there since 1868 (John Stuart Mill), or if we look even further—1818, when Jeremy Bentham introduced the “cacotopia” (from Greek “bad, wicked”).