Shut the Hell Up About How Stupid the Reaping and Hunger Games Are

I saw Erica reblog of a post from the Tangential by Jay Gabler that was quick to dismiss general criticism of Black Friday, even though the yearly retail circus has again reached a new fervent peak and clearly has important cultural and class implications, most of which are negative, for America. I figured I’d test the arguments by just swapping out the Black Friday mentions with references to the Hunger Games competition—where the government in the fictional nation of Paneem selects two kids from every district as tributes, forces them to fight to the death, and awards food as prizes—and see if the argument held up. See what you think.  

Note: Yes, watching the reaping is mandatory whereas Black Friday is (still) voluntary, but go with it. 

Shut the Hell Up About How Stupid the Reaping and Hunger Games Are

I am not watching the Hunger Games competition right now. I have not watched the competition at any time today, and I do not intend to watch the competition today—except maybe if it’s on at a liquor store. But good grief, people, you need to SHUT THE HELL UP with your snooty comments/tweets/posts about how stupid the reaping and Hunger Games competition is. Here’s why:

It’s boring. There are millions of people complaining today about how stupid the Hunger Games competition is, and anyone who’s listening to/following you has probably correctly guessed how you feel about it. Do you really need to jump on the bandwagon? Is there really that much danger that anyone might think you’ve been eagerly anticipating this day for months?

It’s classist. With a their tesseras or a win at the Hunger Games, it’s possible for some districts to get stockpiles of provisions. For a lot of families, that’s a lot of food. Of course there are many people who watch the Hunger Games competition purely for fun, but it seems awfully privileged to sit there and scorn people who are getting supplies and more food to come to their districts. I actually saw a retweet of this, shortly after midnight: “If we would just drop bombs on all the people watching the Hunger Games across the country right now, the crime rate would go down 75%.”

The ridiculousness is part of the point. Generalizing about people watching the Hunger Games by saying they’re just cheering for violence reflects a lack of imagination about why people do what they do. Of course it’s ridiculous to watch an extended competition where kids are selected in an elaborate “reaping” ceremony and let loose to kill each other as a tribute to the Capitol; that’s a big part of the point. Families and friends go out and make a party of watching the Hunger Games; they bring fortification and make battle plans and probably have a really great time at it. What’s more ridiculous: having fun and watching the competition and cheering for the tribute from your district, or sitting at home scowling and complaining about people you don’t even know doing what they want to do and not hurting you or anyone else?

Welcome to the human race. You know what? Millions and millions of people every day do a lot of shit that’s a lot stupider than watching the Hunger Games. That’s why the Capitol has the yearly reminder for the rebellion, in fact. If you have a specific complaint about a specific tribute who trampled your kitten, fine. If you have a substantive observation about the dangers of social control through spectacle, go for it. But if you’re just going to harumph about people being dumb, go stick your head in the oven with the turkey. We’re human beings, and this is how we roll.