Feminism is for Everybody: Passionate Athletes

From: Jenn 

The subject in this photograph is Matt, a 14 year-old high school student athlete.  Throughout his life, Matt has been heavily involved with many sports and has been a fan of professional athletes and teams.  Sports have not only has developed his character, but also helped to create a gender schema for him.  In the photograph there are muscular male athletes in strong positions and in-action on the wall behind the subject as well as the figures on the trophies.  Matt, as part of developing a gender schema, has learned that men take up space and are muscular.  He reflects this in his seated position with his legs open wide, something that most men do.  The wall color is blue because blue has been socialized as a boy’s color and Matt has therefore always been partial to the color, eventually painting his walls a very masculine blue.  Everything about the subject and the setting is extremely reflective of the boxed boy gender society has created--everything except what he is reading.  Sports, in this photo can only be assumed as a socializing agent.  Society’s typical high school boy is supposed to love sports, play sports, lust after girls, and not deviate too far from those standards.    Matt, however, has other interests in addition to the gender roles society has generated for him.  The photograph shows Matt reading a book entitled Feminism is for Everybody: Passionate Politics written by bell hooks.  His interest in reading about and practicing feminism is not something that many boys do, let alone many full-grown men do.  Matt breaks the codes of his gender by having this interest, yet there are no shown consequences for him doing so in the photo.  The subject looks comfortable and interested in what he is reading; He is not showing any insecurity.    Even though he is doing something atypical from his gender and age group, the trophies and awards show that there are no problems with doing so on the field, and probably in his social life.  Matt is genuinely showing that feminism is a subject that even a boy who is well-condition in his gender can get involved in.