Nate Maybach – A Man In A Dress
Preferred Name
Nate Maybach
Legal Name
Nathan Maybach
Contact Email
natemaybach@gmail.com
Age
18
Gender Expression
Non-Binary
Which student are you?
College Student (The World)
Name of School
University of New Hampshire
Grade / Year in School
First-Year
Location (City, State/Province, Country)
Durham, NH 03824
If you identify with an ethnicity or culture(s), which one or ones do you identify with?
American
What is the name of your legal guardian/parent (if under 18)?
Please provide contact information for your legal guardian/parent (if under 18)
What are your social media accounts (TikTok, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Facebook)?
instagram: nathanmaybach
Please select type of project you are entering
Literature/Poetry
What is the title of your project?
A Man In A Dress
Please tell us about your submission (maximum 600 words)
This is my most vulnerable and personal essay to date. Titled “A Man In a Dress,” the submission explores a specific instance where I first tried on a dress, as well as contextualizing how I felt about my gender expression through a series of italicized flashbacks. After I try on the dress in the first few pages of the essay, I then go through a series of realizations where I end up wearing the dress to my high school prom. Throughout my own personal exploration of gender expression and learning to love myself, my trans identity, and my body, I discovered ways in which I could personally dismantle patriarchy, perhaps in the most simple way. For trans folks, where our attempted suicide rate is about 50%, it is extremely important for us to find the care we need to affirm our gender, and one of the best ways to do that is simply by increasing representation and speaking about our own lived experiences. The more we are vocal about our oppression, our gender, and the specific ways we are impacted, the more our voices will be prized, recognized, and loved. This submission isn’t a manifesto, a set of demands, or an incredibly detailed public policy proposal. Instead, it is a story of how the patriarchy impacts me, and how I try everyday to separate myself from it.
What is something you learned about patriarchy and what is something you would like to change about what you learned?
One thing I’ve learned about patriarchy throughout my time as a Women’s and Gender Studies student, as well as an 18-year old person, is that the patriarchy is interwoven into almost every institution that governs us. The patriarchy doesn’t only harm cisgender women, but it targets men, women, non-binary people, and kids. As a queer person, I’ve learned specifically how beauty standards affect the queer community; queer men are expected to be masculine, muscular, thin, and white in order to be desirable and lovable in the community. Similarly, representation of androgynous and non-binary folks are shaped by the patriarchy’s understanding of bodies; only white, thin, conventionally attractive folks are represented in the (very small) trans media sphere. Part of challenging these standards include finding our beauty beyond what other people will think of us, but the other part is actively challenging these standards everyday; I’d like to put more queer and trans folks in front of and behind the camera, and center stories from marginalized communities that aren’t about tragedy or trauma.
Project File
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