Holiding out for a hero

Last week the American MTV awards hit our small screens for the 22nd year. Who can dislike a show that gives us such pivotal, career-making awards like Best WTF Moment and Best Shirtless Moment? Say what you like about MTV and its evolution, or as many say dissolution into less of a music channel and more of a reality show bonanza, but I like these awards shows because the nominees are chosen by the public and the winner is crowned based on our votes.

However, I was severely disappointed this year when I read the nominees for Best Hero:
Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man, Iron Man 3; (Fair, both heroic and smokin' hot) Martin Freeman as Bilbo Baggins, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, (I kind-of understand this) Chris Hemsworth as Thor, Thor: The Dark World; (Obvs.) Channing Tatum as John Cale, White House Down; (Huh? What?) Henery Cavill as Clark Kent: Man of Steel (OK, OK I get it. Superheroes were a thing this year)


The award went to Superman. A deserving hero, no doubt, but who is missing form that list? Women are missing form that list. Notably Sandra Bullock for her performance in Gravity and Jennifer Lawrence for her perfect incarnation of Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. These two movies were huge in 2014. It's not as if these characters would have been missed by the target audience of MTV, in fact The Hunger Games: Catching Fire won Movie of the Year and Best Male Performance this very year. In addition to those two accolades, the Best Female Performance nominations included Sandra Bullock, and Jennifer Lawrence actually won for her portrayal of Katniss, so we can see these two characters as a female, but not as heroes?

Shortly after MTV revealed its nominations people took to Twitter and many angry viewers created a petition to get Jennifer Lawrence added to the Best Hero shortlist. She won the hero award in 2012 for playing the same character, so why wasn't she in the running this year? Unfortunately we can't blame MTV. They don't choose the nominees, we do and we didn't choose any women this year. Shame on us. During the awards ceremony itself, a hero montage was screened that included Katniss, showing us that MTV did indeed think Katniss was a worthy nominee, it was we, the public who failed her.

Katniss Everdeen is a hero, and not just in 2012. The bloody Twilight films won Movie of the Year every year one of it's insufferable retellings was nominated, so Katniss can win again and she sure as hell should at least get a nomination. I'm not even the biggest Jennifer Lawrence fan, I find her goofy schtick a bit too phony and her portrayal of characters with accents diabolical, but I love how she brings Katniss to life. For those of you who haven't read The Hunger Games books, please do. Katniss is not only a hero for being a badass with a bow and arrow and for standing as tribute for her little sister; she's a hero for fighting for what's right, for not knowing how she feels about two very fit boys and for wearing incredibly fierce gowns designed by fucking Lenny Kravitz.

We owe it to ourselves to support positive role models for women and there is none more true and more flawed than Ms. Everdeen. Jennifer deserved the win for being the Best Female and the Best Hero. These two things are not mutually exclusive in life and so should not be at awards ceremonies. Hopefully we'll be able to redeem ourselves the next time a strong, positive role model for women is portrayed on our screens. Superheroes will always be popular. Sometimes female heroes need a little help from us to recognize them as such and to celebrate them.