#mallark

So, this is kind of my first public reflection on a movie, so sorry if it's not 100% eloquent =__=U 

And note that everything below is just about the movies, I have not yet read any of the books (though maybe in the future) 

Soooo...I just watched Catching Fire today (some spoilers below) and I was really interested watching Peeta. 

Now, most people generally have been rallying behind the Katniss and Gale relation, and it's kind of popular on the internet to make fun of Peeta because he's not as good looking and, more importantly, because he's not as strong as Katniss or even Gale. 

But this is why Peeta is so important. Peeta is, in many ways, a damsel in distress. Many times he shows valor, for example in catching fire he did fight more than in the first movie and he did help Katniss a couple of times. But there are key moments where he's in trouble and Katniss has to save him or go back for him. In fact, Katniss constantly feels the need to protect him, to make sure he's alright. 

Peeta in so many ways fits the role that women have fit in countless of other action, adventure and fantasy movements. 

Let's try something. Suppose there's a book where there is a hero, Jim, and a heroine, Mary. Jim is talented, he's a good fighter, and he has skills or attributes that many people rely on. Everyone knows he's important. Mary is a kindhearted girl. She is friendly and cares greatly for Jim. She's not the best fighter, and so Jim is worried about his safety, and Jim's enemies sometimes try to hurt Mary to exploit Jim's weakness. Aside from highlighting Jim's strength in comparison, Mary also serves to be the symbol of virtue and innocence, the moral compass of the hero. 

How many stories do you know which follow something like this? This is the damsel in distress formula, and everything from Super Mario Games to Thor 2 exhibits some form of this (strange examples i know but just what i could think of on the fly haha) 

Now, replace Jim with Katniss and Mary with Peeta. Both fit the descriptions very well I would say. 

So why is this important? For two reasons: 

1) A lot of people kind of feel that Peeta is a weak character, and because of this they dislike him and make fun of his character. 

BUT THIS IS LITERALLY HOW MOST WOMEN ARE PORTRAYED. 

It really displays our discomfort with seeing a man act in this "feminine" way. In an interview the actor playing Peeta says

"I think Peeta kind of has the tendency to sometimes come across a little soft which is actually something that myself and Gary wanted to kind of change a little bit and wanted to make Peeta a little more strong" source

We constantly need to make our male characters "strong", yet we have no problem portraying female characters as weak. In fact, when we think of masculinity, we often think of a strong, buff protector (google image search for masculine). When we think of femininity, we think of soft delicate flower (google image search for feminine) ಠ_ಠ

2) Peeta is an emotional guy. He shares his feelings and wants to talk to Katniss and get to know her (in the movie he tells her he wants her to talk to him more and share her interests) 

And yet in the movie this does not make him less of an attractive man to Katniss, in fact her attraction seems to grow for him. He's not made fun of in the movie because of his emotions, and overall this emotive side of him doesn't hurt him or his relationship with others in anyway. In fact this emotive side does in some way help him "protect" Katniss; it allows her to escape from her fear of the Capitol and the games, and to get some mental serenity.  

So, in these two key ways, the character of Peeta shows that there is something wrong with how we as an audience are fine with a girl begin the damsel in distress but get kind of uncomfortable and cynical when a guy is in that same "damsel in distress" kind of scenario, even if it's just for a little while (after all, saving Peeta is not the main focus of the movie, unlike other movies where "saving the girl" IS the main focus). Peeta is a character that tells us; look, here's a guy that needs to be saved by a girl every now and then, he's a bit emotional, he's not a strong fighter, but he's still a good character.