I think the author creates the story of The Hunger Games with a female lead character for a purpose. The author herself is a female and I think she makes a point to create the lead as a female to shift typical narratives of gender. Every word and idea put into a story is purposeful. This idea is holding a lot of purpose. It used to be rare that books and films would have female leads unless it was in a romantic drama of sorts. It was recently that the phenomenon of the powerful female lead emerged, We see this with the rise of Twilight (debatable in many senses), Divergent, Hunger Games, and many more. The optimistic part of me recognizes the growing power of feminism and the acceptance of women into typically male roles. The pessimistic side of me thinks it might just be a money grab or a trend. Maybe it is a little bit of both. I think a lot of it has to do with the growing number of female authors getting recognized. It is a lot easier to write from the perspective of one’s own gender I would imagine, so I’m sure that played a lot into why Katniss is the lead.
I think the female lead is positive, but it is always at the expense of a male counterpart, or counterparts in this case. The rising popularity of young adult literature was something that many authors caught onto and were able to add different elements to their stories, such as a female lead in a dystopian future. For this story, I think she made Katniss the lead because it was a new movement in literature and feminism and it was easier for her to write from a female perspective and portray the insight into the mind of a young woman.
Toasted Ghost 