Hungry

On Friday night, equipped with our pre-purchased tickets, excited by the start of a weekend's liberation from work, and surrounded by one of Naperville's loudest and giddiest assembly of tweens, Peter and I took our seats in one of Regal Cantera's big theaters. We were squeezed in between a row of athletic tweens, a row of nerdy tweens, and two rows of hormonally charged tweens, counting down the minutes till The Hunger Games started - till the unveiling of whether or not Hollywood had the same vision for a world so vividly impressed on our minds.

From the time the movie started at 5:20 until it ended around 8:00, I went through just about every emotion: I blushed amorously with the rest of the girls when Gale first appeared. I felt pain and anguish as we toured the poverty, starvation, and duress stricken District 12. My heart burned when Katniss volunteered as Tribute and when Peeta was called to the stage; and then developed ticks of annoyance when I realized that the casting of Peeta was all wrong. I felt a very similar kind of nausea during the blood bath at the Cornucopia as I felt when Piggy was killed in Lord of the Flies. Huge tears streamed down my face for Rue and District 11. I laughed from the comic relief provided by Caesar Flickerman, Haymitch and Effie. I was charged with excitement and happiness when the odds became more in Katniss' favor. And I felt a whole mixture of emotions churning through my stomach as Cato made his last stand.

But around 6:30 say, I felt angry. Right as Katniss appeared in front of the Gamemakers to rank her, I got really, really mad. It wasn't directed toward the themes of authoritarian rule, slavery, injustice, or corruption in the story. It wasn't directed at the Hunger Games skeptics who are incapable of seeing the projection of human history that Suzanne Collins' so accurately nails in her dystopian world. Instead it was directed at the row of tweens to my right and their chatter. In particular, one unbelievable comment.

 

"She's kind of fat."

I could not believe what I heard. I wanted to stand up and slap some sense into each one of their awkward, self-conscious bodies. Really? 'Not that skinny?' 'Fat?' You have got to be kidding me.

With all that Hollywood got wrong about Peeta's casting, they got right with Katniss'. Jennifer Lawrence doesn't only play the part perfectly, she looks just as I imagined Katniss to appear. Strong, beautiful, and feminine. And the scrawny girly girls next to me were scrutinizing her for being a size or two bigger than they them.

Well, tweens, here's what I thinkt:

• Katniss' emaciated Twilight counterpart, Bella, would have been one of the first to go in the Hunger Games.
• Gale, Peeta, and the rest of the male population staring at the cover of Glamour Magazine this month, really, really like Katniss' curves. 
• There is a reason why Katniss has amazing hair and skin, it's her diet. And it includes food. 
• And in the real world, it's the strong, confident women who know how to hunt that are capable of beating the odds, taking over the top spot of the career men, and winning the games that life throws at us.

Overall, I liked the movie a lot. And it was a very entertaining way to spend a Friday night. But I've got to say, as scary as the post-apocalyptic world of Panem may be, the distortion of the ideal female image in our world, is equally scary. And I'm really hoping that beyond entertain, this film helps show female tweens, teens, and adults that strong and curvy looks a hell of a lot better than a size 0, wallowing, stick figure.

Lo.