The Unofficial Hunger Games Companion (33 page)

What’s real? What’s not real?
This is what Peeta wonders during the reality series he and Katniss are forced to star in, and this is what audiences wonder about reality programs that are actually on our televisions. The main difference is that the actors and actresses know what’s real and what’s fake; whereas in
The Hunger Games,
apart from Peeta and Katniss’s romance, there’s not much “acting”—all the players are fighting to the death. Most of us take it for granted at this point that reality shows are pre-staged to ramp up the drama and gossip, that what we think is real actually is fake.

Regarding
The Hills,
actor Brody Jenner was once quoted as saying, “The thing is, as you saw on the end—what’s real and what’s fake, you don’t know . . . Our relationship [Jenner and costar Kristin Cavallari], the entire time could have been fake . . . That’s one of the questions: What was real and what was fake?”
¹³

In
The Osbournes,
Jack kills one of the family’s dogs, setting off speculation in all the gossip rags and among fans about whether the death was real or not.

Writes
Newsday,
“[T]he
Real Housewives
series has never been about ‘real’ anything. The cast for a show like this, by definition, consists of exhibitionists.”
¹⁴

As for the
Kardashians,
Rashad McCants, who briefly dated Khloe, told gossip columnists that the show is “completely fake.”
¹⁵
In January 2011, Piers Morgan at CNN interviewed Kim and Kourtney about “what’s real . . . and what’s not.”
¹⁶
The sisters discussed Botox, plastic surgery, girdle-type underwear, and breast implants. It’s not a typo, folks: yes, this interview aired on CNN.

Flavor of Love
star Flavor Flav has been quoted as saying his show was completely fake. Posts one reality gossip Web site, “It’s obvious that people will wonder if the show is real or not since at least two seasons of Flavor of Love were pronounced pointless by Flavor Flav himself!”
¹⁷

The Real World
was one of the first reality shows, and it was immensely popular. Series spinoffs were featured in close to twenty cities. Viewers and gossip columnists have long pronounced the popular series as totally fake. One example: “From the casting to the editing to the dorm-style bedrooms to the sponsorship clubs and restaurants that provide free food in exchange for airtime, even without scratching the surface there’s not any debate as to how deeply and completely the manipulations go.”
¹⁸

Anyone who has watched reality television shows—and if you haven’t watched any, you’re in quite a minority—has guessed by now that the shows are primarily scripted and fabricated. Their prime purpose is to titillate audiences and promote speculation. Their goal is to entertain. Period.

The Hunger Games
is a blend of various reality shows:
Survivor
plus
American Gladiator
plus any of the programs listed in the above table. Just as with real shows such as
Survivor, American Gladiator, Rock of Love, Flavor of Love, The Bachelor,
and
The Bachelorette,
“contestants” are eliminated until only one is left.

Much worse, of course, is the fact that in
The Hunger Games
reality television series, the combat is all
too
real. After submitting to the whims of stylists and fashionistas, the tributes are interviewed by Caesar Flickerman, a bizarre character who reminds the reader of a snake-oil salesman crossed with a Ken doll crossed with a punk rocker crossed with a public relations slime crossed with the announcer of the old Miss America pageant. Dressed to the hilt, fed at banquets, tributes are interviewed as if they’re about to perform on
American Idol
. And just like the winners and runners up on shows such as
American Idol,
just like Susan Boyle in Britain, the tributes become television celebrities.

Everything is so trumped up that television crews simulate battles for audience consumption, Peeta and Katniss pretend to be engaged to increase their audience popularity, sponsors are essential to winning the Games ( just like television sponsors are critical to winning the ratings games in the real world). And as for the fashions, is it any wonder that people are emulating Katniss’s style sense? To name one example in our real world, Jessica Simpson has been earning billions of dollars on her styles; her celebrity status has made her a very rich and successful woman in the fashion industry.

Is it any wonder that the people in the Capitol are obsessed with style rather than substance?
Aren’t we—in the real world—also obsessed more with style than substance?

It is this celebrity-and-fashion obsession that fuels the tabloids, that drove paparazzi to follow Princess Diana and hound her literally to death. Many people are obsessed with the latest royal wedding, even in the United States where we supposedly don’t have royalty. Between the paparazzi and the gossip rags, we’re all lost in an illusion of reality as presented by celebrities and public relations specialists. Tila Tequila became famous just for being famous. And Paris Hilton is famous because of her celebrity status; she didn’t raise to her current level of fame because she won an Academy Award or won a Pulitzer Prize. People like to see what she’s wearing, and like Jessica Simpson, Paris Hilton has her own fashion line that does quite well. Mary Kate and Ashley Olson, who did rise to stardom due to their childhood acting abilities, are known for being on best-dressed lists
and
worst-dressed lists. They’ve made fortunes selling clothing, perfumes, fashion dolls, and cosmetics. Young girls buy their items due to their celebrity status.

It’s hard to forget the focus on Sarah Palin’s clothing and hair expenses during her 2008 United States vice presidential campaign.
Style over substance
: The Republican National Committee spent $150,000 on clothing for Palin and her family, and the Federal Election Commission ruled that it was okay. Overall, she spent $290,000 on clothing, hair, and makeup during a two-month campaign period. So important was style that she spent $42,000 on a hair stylist and $68,000 on a makeup artist.

In the meantime, Palin was bombed by the press for saying nothing of substance. For example, gossip columns bore headlines such as “Sarah Palin Lays into Obama, Uses Crib Notes, Says Nothing of Substance”
¹⁹
and legitimate hard news sources bore headlines such as “Biden on Palin’s Speech: Style but No Substance.”
²⁰

What about Hillary Clinton, the other woman at the forefront of the 2008 campaign? Though she delivered substance in her speeches and is well-known as former President Clinton’s wife, Hillary Clinton’s fashions and style sense were also analyzed by the press.
Glamour
magazine featured a story about Clinton’s
pantsuits
: “Hillary Clinton Pulls a Pantsuit Out for the DNC: The Woman Knows What Works.”
²¹
The Guardian
posed the question, “She’s hoping to become the most powerful woman in the world—so why does Hillary Clinton wear such uninspiring clothes?”
²²

First Lady Michelle Obama has a stylist, and her clothing has been analyzed by none other than
Vogue
. In fact, Michelle Obama’s style sense and clothing have made headlines around the world, been features of magazine covers, and have prompted
The Huffington Post
to publish stories with titles such as “More Details on Michelle’s New Wardrobe Advisor,” “Diane von Furstenberg ‘So Embarrassed’ by Michelle Obama State Dinner Dress Flap,” “Michelle Obama Goes Curly on Thursday,” “First Lady Arrives Home in Questionable Pants,” and many more.
²³
Daniel Mendelsohn writes in
The New York Review of Books
that “The popularity of First Lady fashion and style often supersedes any true importance about the President’s wife and what she accomplishes. The most recent example, of course, is Michelle Obama. Books have already been written about her fashion sense.”
²⁴

Michelle Obama follows in the footsteps of former First Lady Jackie Kennedy Onassis, lauded for decades as America’s style icon. How many people remember anything of actual substance that Jackie Kennedy did as opposed to remembering her stylish and elegant image? How many people remember something that Michelle Obama has done to change the world for the better? Here’s what
USA Today
wrote about the subject:

So why should we be surprised that the tributes are subjected to the same fashion, style, hair, and other trivial scrutiny? Why should we be surprised that people don’t care about the evil inflicted upon the tributes instead of what they are wearing? The Hunger Games trilogy reflects our current society’s obsession with style over substance, and as with all great speculative fiction, the series pushes the point to the extreme.

So focused are the people of the Capitol on style that tributes from District 12 have been forced to wear near-naked costumes as well as nothing
but
black powder to symbolize coal. Katniss’s first outfit is a unitard, shiny boots, and a fluttering cape with a matching hat. She must smile, wave at the crowds as if she’s the Queen of England in her chariot, and if she’s lucky, sponsors will remember the fire associated with her cape and headdress (
The Hunger Games,
69–71).

Meantime, the citizens of the Capitol get plenty of plastic surgery, dye their hair (and bodies) strange colors, and look freakish. Sadly, in our real world, both male and female newscasters get plastic surgery and dye their hair just to remain employed, and up close, a lot of them look freakish, too. Our celebrities are even worse: plastic surgery is a given, and without the touchups, air brushing, and other artistic flourishes, not to mention the softening by various camera lenses, they can look beyond freakish.

In
Catching Fire
(48–49), Flavius comments that he wishes he could perform “alterations” on Katniss; and by this, he’s referring to plastic surgery. Octavia and Venia both agree that with plastic surgery, Katniss would look much better.

According to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS), as of February 7, 2011—in the midst of a major economic depression—
13.1 million cosmetic surgeries were performed in 2010
. In addition, surgeons performed
more than 5.3 million reconstructive plastic surgeries in 2010
. So if you think the people in the Capitol are crazy in The Hunger Games for having so many bizarre cosmetic procedures, consider our real society and its bizarre practices in an era when people are starving, homeless, and permanently unemployed. Says Dr. Phillip Haeck, President of the ASPS, “. . . as the aging population continues to grow, people are investing in plastic surgery procedures to help stay competitive in the workplace.”
²⁶
He cites the top five requested plastic surgeries: breast enlargement aka boob jobs (yes, I’m sure gigantic breasts will land that lucrative job for a sixty-year-old woman whereas her normal breasts would cost her valuable income); nose jobs (yes, I’m sure a fifty-year-old man will lose a potential job at McDonald’s to another old guy who “invested” in a Michael Jackson nose); eyelid surgery (puffy lids obviously tell potential employers at Walmart that you’re an alcoholic); liposuction (if you’re not bone thin, all potential employers will think you must be a lazy slob); and tummy tucks (God help you if that potential employer makes you show your belly flab during the interview!).

In addition, many millions of people get botulinum toxin injections, fat injections in their face to make them look younger, brow lifts, removal of spider veins, thigh lifts, arm lifts, body lifts, body contouring, breast lifts, chin surgeries, hair replacements, and permanent makeup. In a body lift, the surgeon removes fat and skin all over the body to try to emulate muscle tone and youth. People are willing to undergo plastic surgery procedures even given the horrific medical risks such as scarring, bleeding, infections, blood clots, skin discolorations and permanent swelling, long-lasting pain, pulmonary and cardiac problems, and more. Most people do not experience these post-plastic surgery problems, but still . . . the fact that so many millions are willing to take these risks to look physically more attractive is a frightening glimpse at the psyche of today’s society.

In the Capitol’s case, things go far beyond plastic surgery. These people implant claws and whiskers, cut patterns into their skin, dye their skin, and more.
And yet, how weird is this, really?
In our real world, surgeons implant pigments beneath the skin to add permanent color to our flesh. If you have the money and you want it badly enough, you can have dyed skin just like the strange people in the Capitol. Just hold still while the surgeon sticks a needle into your face (or other body parts) hundreds of times per minute until finally, you look “terrific.” Don’t want to waste time applying blush to your cheeks, but think you need blush to get a job? Thousands of needle jabs will give you a permanent blush. Think your eyebrows are too thick or dark to win that coveted position for ten dollars an hour with no benefits? Thousands of needle jabs will “paint” permanently colored eyebrows on your face.