Perfuming The Hunger Games: Scenty Thoughts and Drawing!

Thoughts, Perfumey and Not, on Suzanne Collin's The Hunger Games, Part 2

Part 2: Hunger Games Related Musings, Olfactory and Auditory

So, now that I've said all that about Katniss and YA and Feminism in Part 1, let's talk perfume, a little music, and giveaways, shall we?

I've been thinking about what sorts of scents I would associate with the characters, because if I try to imagine the perfumes that would actually appear in the word of The Hunger Games, all I can imagine is horrible, fake, overly sugary fruity florals scents coating the Capitol, like the worst collection of boring celebrity scents in history. Seriously -- can't you just see someone suggesting to Cinna that Katniss needed a celebrity scent of her own? She's be as offended by that as by the idea of a Katniss Barbie. FN1. FN2.

He smells like food....hmmmmm...

No, instead I'm focusing on scents I think capture some of the spirit of the characters and world. It is hard not to think of L'Artisan Bois Farine when you see fans wearing buttons that read, "I heart the Boy with the Bread." I also think of it when I think about the District 11 gift to Katniss during the games, which sadly did not make the film. FN3. My other option was the intensely sweet marshmallow of By Kilian Love because I always think of Peeta as kind of soft and sugary. I don't mean that in a bad way; softness is a rare and delightful find in any man, and particularly here in a romantic lead. Even if that softness is worn away somewhat by circumstances, it is wonderful to think of the Girl on Fire ending up with the boy who frosts the beautiful cakes for the bakery windows. He isn't even the stereotypical bad boy baker/chef. He's sweet, vulnerable.

As for the Girl on Fire, I skip directly to CB I Hate Perfumes Fire from Heaven, which I once described as possessing a kind of "holy fire" and is therefore connected with my notion of Katniss as a warrior-saint, the Joan of Arc figure Lawrence referenced. Other options I think of are Comme des Garcons x Artek and Crazy Libulelle Encens Mystic, a solid perfume that was once recommended to me by a reader that I have since enjoyed (and can still be found with a little hunting). FN4. I also sometimes think of DSH Perfumes Festive, but that reminds me more of the triumphant girl on fire than the one strapping herself to trees to sleep and running from fireball cannons.

It's possible that in seeing Katniss only as "The Girl on Fire," I'm playing into a media-centered stereotype, and in turn I miss Katniss in her complexity, Katniss the sister, the daughter, even the lover. The Katniss that exists after she finally lays down her arms, and begins to love. The Katniss who hopes. That girl I want to give something vulnerable, something still innocent. But maybe I'll save that for later.

As for Prim, I like to think she smells of the herbal tinctures and salves that she and her mother use to heal the injured brought to their door. Medicinal but general, a little floral sweet, not foodie sweet.  Pretty, but not beautiful.

I think of JoAnne Bassett's Enchant, though that seems a little to adult in some ways, as is Serge Lutens Borneo 1834 EDP, though that also has a sweet/medicinal/earthy quality I'd look for. What little we see of Primrose is so young and innocent in the first book, I want to put her in some sort of delicate rose scent, something young and sweet but possibly edgy, like Juliette Has a Gun Miss Charming?

Speaking of innocence, I have to give Rue a little love, mostly because this will be her only appearance. I love how clever she is, how every part of her life is used to her advantage.  She's a wonderful character, perhaps one of my favorite minor/side characters in all of YA.

For Rue, perhaps, something sweet, smart, acceptably youthful and light but...special. Maybe CB I Hate Perfume Wild Pansy or Borsari Violetta di Parma? I keep wanting to go floral with Rue...perhaps because of Katniss' impulse to honor her with wildflowers.

Generally, when I think of District 12, I cannot help but think it might smell like Olympic Orchid Perfumes Kingston Ferry, because it smells of woods and dampness and hard work to me, though wasn't exactly what Ellen Covey intended, I'd wager. FN5. I guess another way to go would be L'Artisan Al Oudh, which also reminds me of a walk in the woods, but on a dry sunny day...maybe the memory of an almost happy day Katniss spent with Gale hunting, the kind of memory she clings to during the Games?

Which brings me back to Gale. I don't know what to scent Gale as. Is there a scent that captures, in turn, angry, desperate, defiant, lost? I don't know. Maybe Esscentual Alchemy Lumberjack Man? Better to save him for later.

Interestingly, I found a perfumer who has been similarly inspired. SaraWenn Perfume Art popped up in my Hunger Games swag-related searches, and on sheer impulse I ordered some. There are three Hunger Games-inspired scents coming my way: Run Away With Me, Girl on Fire, and The Baker's Boy. And not just for me, dear reader. FOR YOU!

That's right. Once again, it's drawing time here at Feminine Things. Winner will receive a sample of several of the perfumes referenced above, plus a sample of SaraWenn Perfume Art's Girl on Fire, along with a Hunger Games bookmark, mix Cd of songs that remind me of Collin's stories, and yes, even a custom made hammered silver bracelet made by Serenity Storms that reads, May The Odds Be Ever In Your Favor.


Perfume! Music! Jewelry! What fan wouldn't want that kind of swag?

So come on: what scents do you associate with Katniss and her band of rebels?

POST A COMMENT ON EITHER PART 1 OR PART 2 OF THIS PIECE talking about Katniss, YA books in general, feminism, perfume, whathaveyou on or before 11:59pm PST on Friday April 6, 2012 to enter. Will ship internationally.

I will leave you now with this, an oldie but goodie, and a song I always associate with Peeta and Katniss.




___________

FN1. This comes on the heels of Lionsgate sending a cease and desist letter to Oxfam/HP Alliance for trying to use the series' popularity as a tool to fight actual hunger because, you know, Hunger is not a Game. And can I just say, thanks HPAlliance! "The Weapon We Have is Love!"



EDITOR'S NOTE:  It appears Lion's Gate has since changed their minds re: OxFam. ('Hunger Games:' Lionsgate relents in charity kerfuffle, LA Times Blog.)

FN2. And before you ask, yes Bella already has a Barbie. In fact, she has two: normal and bridal. Sigh.

FN3. This is what I wore to the release.

FN4. I really need to do a round-up post of solid scents, which I have some of enjoy, and never talk about.

FN5. Reading the books, I kept thinking of The Capitol as being pretty recognizably in the location of Denver and District 12 more like being in West Virginia. Did anyone else think that? I know they filmed in the Appalachia, so I guess Gary Ross did, too. I just wondered.

The Girl on Fire: Katniss Everdeen as Feminist Icon

Thoughts, Perfumey and not, on Suzanne Collin's The Hunger Games, Pt. 1

For those of you living under a rock, the first film adaptation of Suzanne Collin's killer trilogy, The Hunger Games, released this past weekend, and brought in the third biggest U.S. box office opening in history. Though I will tread carefully to avoid film-related spoilers, I do want to talk a little about Katniss Everdeen as a role model for young women everywhere.

This post got so long, I'm splitting it into two parts.

Katniss as Feminist Role Model

To start let's talk about Katniss, the role model. I was listening to Jennifer Lawrence talking about why she took the part of Katniss on NPR last Friday morning and I feel like she summed it up nicely.

Q: What draws you to the character:

JL: She's not a hero. She's not a James Bond or Laura Croft that's done this a million of time and she has all the tools and knows how to do it and we're just going to watch her win. There's never really a point in the Games where she thinks she won't die. She's just trying to survive for her family and then becomes this Joan of Arc by starting to fight for her people.

Q: When you think about the young women who are going to be in these audiences, what do you want them to take from this character?

JL: I think the most important message that this movie has and what Katniss has is how powerful one person can be and the power that we have as the people because we're being manipulated by whatever we're being manipulated by -- reality television, the news, the president... And also, on a simpler note, she's just a girl whose standing up for what's right when something's wrong when it's hard and when it's scary.

Q:What were the doubts? If [your mom, who introduced JL to the books,] had said there could be a potential down side, what was it?

JL: I was just worried about, you know there's not a lot of decisions you are faced with that will change your life forever and it'll never go back. I was afraid nobody'd ever be able to lose themselves in another character I did. It would always be, you know, Katniss is doing a period drama, Katniss is doing .... But then I realized that if I was going to known for any character, this is the most incredible character that I could ever... you know, I would be honored.

JL on Katniss' costuming:
"I want to make sure I can run
and jump and climb.
[...] The dresses I don't care about.
Just put them on me.
 It's like Oscar season again."

FN1. "I would be honored."  Just reading that gives me a little lump in my throat.

Listening to Lawrence's interview, I found myself crying. I think what moved me about Lawrence's interview, in part, is that this film is coming out at a time when a lot of power structures are moving against women's rights to autonomy in this country. And whether you are talking about a presidential candidate or a religious leadership council or a state government, it is hard not to feel like your right to make choices about what happens to you physically isn't being increasingly restrained. Speaking out is punished. These decisions are being made for your own good. Dissent will be met swiftly, and with ugliness and, frankly, hatred.

When Lawrence describes Katniss as "just a girl," she's right. Katniss is only a girl struggling to survive. While her situation is far more dire than most first-world women, the principle that no government or religious organization has the right to restrict your autonomy, personal safety, or right to live remains the same.

I know I sound like a boring, broken record lately, and I apologize for that. Believe me when I tell you I want to write about something other than reproductive choice and politics. Hell, I want to think about something other than reproductive choice and politics. But I cannot stop, because I am inundated on a daily basis with the message that my choices are being constricted and my life is less valuable than someone else's and my judgement is suspect. And if I speak out, I will be cast in a negative light because we must never forget that it is wrong for women to enjoy or want physical intimacy and that if women become pregnant, it is always and exclusively, their responsibility, their fault. FN2

Activists protesting for
reproductive freedom in Virginia.

I went to a history lecture last week at my alma mater (yes, I'm one of those people). In it, one of my beloved professors, Dr. David Campion, spoke about feeling lost in your life. "Who am I? Where am I going? Am I making wise decisions? What will happen if I fail? What will happen to those who choose to follow me if I do?" Though he spoke of many extraordinary people -- Eisenhower and Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks and Tolstoy -- his point, over and over, was this: no one knows when or if they are destined for greatness. Eisenhower, before he was President or Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces, was a man with an unremarkable military career headed for retirement. You just never know when life is going to suddenly expect you to be extraordinary. So the best plan is to make decisions based on what you think is right, consult the examples of those who have gone before for inspiration and guidance, and surround ourselves with people smart and trustworthy in case you are called on by force of circumstance or chance or choice to become something less than ordinary.

This is one of the things that makes Katniss an extraordinary example. She doesn't want to be a leader, she doesn't ask to be an icon. She becomes ones because she refuses to lie down and die when she's told to. She acts of love and bravery, not fear, even when it might come at the cost of her life, or the lives of those she loves. That is extraordinary, and I think it is part of what has resonated with a lot of the books' readership.

I'm also pleased the directors chose to include Katniss' aversion to having a family in the beginning of the film and her feeling of responsibility as stand-in parent for her sister. I think it is rare in this world that women who don't want children are portrayed as sensible or likable though given how awful the world, even the first world, can be, sometimes I wonder if these men and women aren't making the wiser choice. Mostly, I'm glad that the sheer work it takes to feed and cloth and house oneself and one's dependents is shown as a real and limiting factor for both Katniss and Gale in the first book, because it is an important aspect of the intersection of poverty and reproductive choice rarely explored in media.  While this was explored more full in the book, I am really glad the film included it.

Gale: "Maybe if I didn't live here."
Katniss: "Yeah,but you do live here."

I like that it is okay for Katniss to express that she does not want to have children and for us to like and understand her choice far more than Gale's reaction to it. I like that the one who seems irrational isn't the person who does not want children; too often, the social norm of 'wanting to have kids' is so overpowering that the idea that no children is a (possibly more) rational choice gets overlooked entirely. FN3.

The other thing I wanted to comment on is that I am thrilled the film reflects one of the things I noticed most in series' first book: if most of the men who make it to the final rounds do so on brute strength, the women survive due to their own cleverness. Rue, Foxface, Katniss -- each has moments of brilliance that keep them alive, and it is because they are smart and thoughtful and clever, not because they are the biggest, strongest, or most inclined to success in conflict. What a great message for young female readers! It isn't your looks or your physical prowess or your ability to be likable and feminine that is your most valuable asset: it is your intellect! FN4. FN5.

I wrote a piece a while back talking about my hope that a result of the current proliferation of women-written, female-character-centered young adult novels would be a generation of women inundated with a message that their voices matter and their strength matters and that they can change the world. Like Lawrence, I hope young women in film audiences will take the message from The Hunger Games that they don't have to be special to become special. They don't have to feel brave to be brave. That simply doing the right thing in the face of fear and difficulty can make all the difference in the world, be it this one or Panem.

It isn't easy, as any fan of Katniss knows. It can cost you plenty.

But in the end (and for those of you who haven't finished the series, you should), it can mean a much better life than any you could have imagined, one that contains -- if not comfort -- love and self-respect.

Stay tuned for Part Two, wherein I talk about perfumes and music I associate with the world of The Hunger Games, and do a give away that contains both, plus so much more [SPOILER ALERT - HG SWAG YOU CAN WIN!]!

May the odds be ever in your favor.

________________
FN1. You can hear the full interview with Lawrence and the director, Gary Ross, here.

FN2. This did not stop me, of course, from offering myself up for criticism as the only pro-choice female speaker an abortion discussion panel at a Catholic University. They could not locate a pro-choice female faculty or staff member willing to do the panel for professional reasons, so a former co-worker and professional associate reached out to me. went because (1) someone needs to; (2) I don't like intimidation used to silence speech; (3) I'm a glutton for punishment. The hate mail in the aftermath has been....challenging. To the credit of the university, it wasn't their community members who attacked me (they were all very respectful), but some audience members who seem unrelated to the school, and whom I suspect are attached to the anti-choice organization who was represented on the panel as well.

FN3. Bella Swan, Bella Swan, Bella Swan.  Sorry. Had to get that off my chest.

FN4. Okay, so yes, there's the underlying current that Katniss, much like Bella Swann of the Twilight franchise, are beautiful and have an effect on men they are unconscious of. (My husband pounced on this similarity before the credits had finished rolling.) Aren't they humble about their looks and isn't that amazing, that they are beautiful but only occasionally engage in using it as a tool and then feel really bad about their guile? I think the difference between them is that (a) Katniss has more to offer than her looks and almost never relies on them, or on anyone else, to solve her problems. In point of fact, trying to be a 'pretty girl' is something she can never grow comfortable with and is an aspect of her personality used more by others than by her.

FN5. Though it is obvious that Panem, as a society, does not value intellect the most, which is made equally clear in the book and the film. Katniss' intellect is a liability, it attracts negative attention, it saves and simultaneously endangers her because her ability to think for herself and to resist mass messaging makes her a target, figuratively and literally. Katniss is only safe when she sticks to scripts that serve traditional male dominance/appeal to the male gaze.

Haymatch: "He [Peeta] made you desirable!"

Because remember, Ladies, it's not your inherent beauty or strength, personal charm or intelligence that makes you attractive to others, it's that the male gaze values you. Peeta makes Katniss 'desirable' (i.e. an object of value within the confines of 'things men want to possess') and that makes her worth sponsoring, not her skill score or anything she does on her own. The only people who sponsor her for her own value are the people of District 11, and they honor one of the best things about Katniss during the games: her ability to maintain her humanity even at the worst times.