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women should have sexual autonomy. It implies that women should be free in sexual
activities like buying and selling of sex, defending oneself against sexual aggression,
choosing intimate and sexual relationships and reproductive matters (Cited in Baehr, 2012).
McElroy (1991, p. 20) also states that women should be free in choosing their intimate
associations and private marriage (Cited in Baehr, 2012). Baehr (2012) refers to Stevens‟
statement (Stevens, Hugo, & Biscan, 2002) that women must have this right to defend
themselves against sexual aggression.
Katniss
The Capitol‟s rules and Panem‟s condition sound completely unfair to intersexual
relationships. How does Katniss fight against this injustice before and after the rebellion?
Katniss is a girl who chooses. She does not let herself be chosen by the others. She fights so
that she can choose her romantic partner and future husband of her own free will, not by
force. She disobeys both Snow‟s orders and also Peeta‟s decision. Katniss, by her delay in
choosing her partner, wants to deny the obligatory marriage from two points of view.
Subsequently, I explain, by some proofs of the novel, how she does want to defend her
gender identity as a free human being, and her right as a free resident.
In the first step, Katniss wants to condemn Peeta, who looks at her as a passive object.
“But now Peeta has made me an object of love” (Collins, The Hunger Games, 2009, p. 165).
She tries to demonstrate that Peeta does not have the right to impose himself upon her.
Katniss does not want to be objectified or possessed by a male lover. She wants to determine
the boundaries of her sexuality herself. Katniss contests and even hurts Peeta, because he
does not respect her. He does not even ask Katniss‟ opinion, before he declares his love for
her on camera. Katniss does not allow Peeta to enter her heart, before she becomes sure about
her own true feelings. She should be sure whether she feels love for or debt to Peeta. She
intends to prove that both partners have an equal right in selecting each other, and both of
them must gain from a voluntary relationship.
In the second step, Katniss objects to the oppression of tyranny. She bans the state
that breaks the private boundaries of the nation and determines the lines of its citizens‟
personal lives. She stands bravely against President Snow and even wants to escape to the
woods from a compulsory marriage. “I have chosen Gale and the rebellion, and a future with
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