{"id":3403,"date":"2015-03-26T20:11:39","date_gmt":"2015-03-26T20:11:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=3403"},"modified":"2015-03-26T20:11:39","modified_gmt":"2015-03-26T20:11:39","slug":"girls-on-fire-political-empowerment-in-young-adult-dystopia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/girls-on-fire-political-empowerment-in-young-adult-dystopia\/","title":{"rendered":"Girls on fire: political empowerment in young adult dystopia"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sarah Hentges<\/a>, University of Maine at Augusta<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Young Adult (YA) dystopia stories have never been more popular, and today\u2019s release of Insurgent \u2013 the second film in the Divergent series \u2013 is only the most recent example.<\/p>\n

This series has inspired popular trends like Divergent-themed personality tests, self-defense training and even tattoos<\/a> (out of stock!).<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, books like Legend, Under the Never Sky, Matched and Blood Red Road have all spawned trilogies and been optioned for movies<\/a>. And beyond the traditional fare of toys, dolls and costumes, The Hunger Games series \u2013 especially Katniss, the \u201cgirl on fire\u201d protagonist \u2013 has inspired archery lessons<\/a>, make up campaigns<\/a>, birthday cakes<\/a> and fashion spreads<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Clearly, YA dystopia is having an effect on consumerism and pop culture. Media coverage, however, will still often center on romantic elements of the genre\u2019s books and movies: the relationships<\/a> and crushes among various characters. It also tends to discount the genre<\/a> as a whole because of the film adaptations.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s the political potential of this literary phenomenon \u2013 especially for empowering girls \u2013 that could ultimately be the genre\u2019s most profound and lasting influence. And though its staying power has yet to be tested, YA dystopia has spurred legions of readers towards promoting social justice.<\/p>\n

Dystopian girl power<\/h2>\n

Unlike past young adult series geared towards teen girls \u2013 The Babysitter\u2019s Club, Clueless, Twilight \u2013 these books are about more than love triangles, hairstyles or popularity.<\/p>\n

Instead, the YA dystopia genre, as a whole, does what all great science fiction \u2013 from Brave New World to Mad Max \u2013 sets out to do: it holds up a mirror to our world, acting as a tool for social critique.<\/p>\n

As many have noted, these dystopian futures are not so distant<\/a>. Today, we face many of the same problems contained in these fictional worlds: violence against women, climate-related catastrophes, extreme inequalities in wealth and impenetrable power structures.<\/p>\n

Many YA dystopia books feature girls who buck the conventions<\/a> of our world as much as theirs, challenging gender roles and expectations. For example, their female protagonists often take on traditionally masculine roles<\/a>. Instead of acting as bystanders or caretakers, they fight, investigate, infiltrate, rescue, protect, journey and lead.<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t the case<\/a> in the popular vampire-themed Twilight series, where protagonist Bella Swan is often a passive player. But in YA dystopia novels, female characters like Cassia (in Matched) and Eve (from the Eve series) refuse to obediently accept the hand that\u2019s been dealt to them.<\/p>\n

Most of these books begin with a girl protagonist experiencing and discovering the corruption and injustice of society. From there, she has to navigate just to survive<\/a>. These girls are beaten and bruised, shot and burned, starved and oppressed, manipulated and used. But they do more than simply survive.<\/p>\n

In Birthmarked, Gaia\u2019s facial scar keeps her from being adopted into the Enclave, a society separated from her community by a wall. Gaia\u2019s parents are arrested, which leads Gaia to discover that life inside the wall is not as ideal as she imagined it to be. Rather than accept the status quo, like all \u201cgirls on fire\u201d she fights back: first by going inside the wall to try to find her parents, and then by protecting her baby sister from the Enclave.<\/p>\n

The Summer Prince\u2019s June is an artist competing for a prestigious prize. But when she discovers that the price she will have to pay to win includes not only her integrity, but also the continued subjugation of the lower class, she turns her art into a political weapon.<\/p>\n

Both Gaia and June become leaders in ways that real girls and women in the U.S. rarely do<\/a>. Possessing agency and power, characters like Gaia and June act as voices for the the oppressed masses.<\/p>\n

Diversity tackled head on<\/h2>\n

Like other areas of pop culture, children\u2019s literature continues to be dominated by<\/a> white, male characters. In response, Malinda Lo and Cindy Pon created Diversity in YA<\/a> in 2011. Last year, a number of bloggers, authors and academics launched the campaign #WeNeedDiverseBooks<\/a>.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re concerned because a lack of diversity fails to accurately represent a changing world \u2013 a travesty in the realm of dystopian fiction where a whitewashed future is illogical<\/a>, at best.<\/p>\n

While the most well known works in YA dystopia \u2013 The Hunger Games, Divergent, Uglies \u2013 feature white or racially ambiguous girls as their protagonists, many science fiction and dystopian YA novels complicate the ways<\/a> in which race is imagined, or, rather, ignored.<\/p>\n

Victoria Law\u2019s column for Bitch Magazine has also brought attention to girls of color in dystopia<\/a>, books that continue to be marginalized in the mainstream.<\/p>\n

Trilogies like Partials, Legend, and The Immortal Rules explicitly mention non-white racial features and ethnic heritage, though these aspects are of little thematic importance. But other books \u2014- the Tankborn series<\/a>, Shadows Cast By Stars<\/a>, Orleans<\/a>, The Summer Prince \u2013 center on characters whose experiences are shaped by their racial and ethnic heritages in new, dystopian contexts.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, these characters give voice and agency to girls of color in fiction and reality, providing an outlet that\u2019s sorely lacking in other corners of YA literature.<\/p>\n

Literature-inspired activism<\/h2>\n

The radical politics of YA dystopia have even seeped off the page. For example, adults and young adults alike are finding value in the ideas and symbols provided by The Hunger Games, many of which have been co-opted for real-life protests and social movements.<\/p>\n

The AFL-CIO brings attention to poverty and the need for social justice through its \u201cWe Are the Districts\u201d campaign<\/a> \u2013 a reference to districts that revolt against the Capitol of Panem in The Hunger Games. And in Korea, a young woman and her friends were detained<\/a> after holding up the Hunger Games’ three-finger salute to protest their authoritarian government.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nTwo Thai hold up the Hunger Games’ three-finger as a symbol of defiance against the country\u2019s military regime.<\/span>
\nAthit Perawongmetha\/Reuters<\/a><\/span>
\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Finally, the symbol of the \u201cgirl on fire\u201d has empowered girls in the US \u2013 and even around the world. In Kenya, the Girls on Fire Leadership Camp<\/a> draws inspiration from singer Alicia Keys, giving at-risk girls an opportunity to \u201cexperience their country for the first time\u201d and to \u201cview themselves as part of the solution and unlock their full potential as young leaders and change makers.\u201d<\/p>\n

When it comes to the ideas, practices and possibilities that stem from YA dystopia<\/a>, it doesn\u2019t matter that they originate in fictional works.<\/p>\n

Real or not real<\/a>, these characters, stories and settings ask to us to think about the past, present and future, to imagine new possibilities and opportunities for the marginalized and oppressed \u2013 and to even take to the streets.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

This article was originally published on The Conversation<\/a>.
\nRead the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sarah Hentges, University of Maine at Augusta Young Adult (YA) dystopia stories have never been more popular, and today\u2019s release of Insurgent \u2013 the second film in the Divergent series \u2013 is only the most recent example. This series has inspired popular trends like Divergent-themed personality tests, self-defense training and even tattoos (out of stock!). […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":3404,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[39,36,38],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3403"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/40"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3403"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3403\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3405,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3403\/revisions\/3405"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}