‘American Boys Project’ wants to flood your Instagram feed with diverse trans men
As our society’s relationship with gender and the language surrounding it slowly begins to shift, trans people are finally being permitted to carve out an authentic, multi-dimensional place for themselves within pop culture. But while the roles for trans characters in movies and TV are starting to move beyond token stereotypes and bad cliches, there’s still a whole lot of work that needs to be done and a greater diversity of non-binary stories that need to be told.
One person putting in that work is photographer Soraya Zaman whose “American Boys Project” is helping to expand our perceptions of the trans-masculine community, presenting viewers with a diversity of trans identities and experiences, while creating a safe space on Instagram for anyone who’s ever felt like they don’t fit tidily into culture’s strict conceptions of gender.
Identifying as gender queer themselves, Soraya says, “Growing up and not having language or people to relate to and correctly explain how I felt in relation to my gender was hard. It took me a long time to come into my own sense of self. So the project is very personal in that way.” The youth of today, on the other hand, are finding new language and new means of forging their unique identities online. “I think its really exciting that the narrative around gender is changing and I wanted to explore that through my photography,” they say. “It makes me happy that young people might not have to sit and wonder why they feel different any longer and instead have a safe space to explore their expression.”
And thanks to their stunning Instagram account @americanboysproject and forthcoming book by the same title coming out April 2019 with Daylight Books, which features portraits and brief interviews with a wide range of people within the trans-masculine community, finding a gender queer person who inspires you, looks like you, or simply understands exactly what you’re going through just got a whole lot easier.