"Day in the Life of Dylan"

From: Vincent
     This is an image of my nephew, Dylan, in his playroom. Notice the toys he plays with fall into the masculine category which we discussed in class. For instance, the matchbox cars spread across the floor. The cars could also foreshadow the possibility that he could become a mechanic; a career largely associated with men. The cars also show how messy adolescent children can be. The mess may also have to do with the fact that in the past, cleaning was the duty of the women in the household, and this stereotype inadvertently lives on, because of the roles Dylan's mother and father demonstrate. The overall color of his toys and the playroom decorations are predominantly blue, and multi-colored, but lack stereotypical feminine color's such as pink and purple. The most obvious example of this is the sit-&-spin, which is mostly blue; the stereotypical boy's color. A notable focal point is the giant spider which has caught Dylan's fearless eye. Remaining stoic and being fearless in the face of such a monster is what is expected, by society, of the masculine identity. As a more subjective interpretation, the circular shapes that can be imagined outlining various portions of the image (such as the spider, the cars, the basket, the sit-&-spin) signify the circle of life, in which gender socialization is directly impacted by the toys a child is given to play with. One can also visualize lines (from the corner of the rug and table, the shelving units in the background, the piece of foam jutting out from the toy-box in the foreground) which direct the viewers attention toward the subject, but also symbolize how the room is influencing Dylan. I was particularly content with this image because I captured the natural state of things in the playroom, with the exception of his toy spider which I placed there, in the spirit of Halloween.