For this French Fries magazine editorial, photographer Asafe Ghalib (@asafeghalib ) takes us to the world of Cameron and how he relates to gender expression. Model Cameron Macgregor (@coco_cha__fuckyou_no5 ) .

Cameron Macgregor originates from Edinburgh but now lives in London, currently finishing his last year at college. He is studying at Alleyn’s School, London.

He explained to me how he relates to gender expression.

I want to explore the link between what should happen and what does happen, and how we make decisions about our future dependent on this disparity.

Judging a situation with ethics based in what ideally should happen could cause one to act as if the ideal is existing and so, via believing that it does exist, our subsequent influenced actions will be towards that end ideal, or what “should be”. Therefor, even if the end ideal or “the should” doesn’t exist, it will be brought into existence via something similar to the placebo effect. Applying this to gender, if a transgender woman acts confidently female, her confidence will make other people normalize her femininity, and therefore accept her as female.

Judging a situation with ethics based on what does happen and what is happening can e taken to the more logical and therefore less humane. It’s saying “a vividly and visibly non-gender-conforming person SHOULD NOT feel, and therefore ISN’T, threatened in a public place”.

Relating said disparity to gender expression within fashion specifically, is how we can deal with adverse and violent reaction to any gender or sexuality non-conformity. In my opinion, it is important to have a balance of both what should and does happen. Leaning too far towards what does, can cause people to be treated inhumanely, as it relies on logic and disregards human emotion, where as leaning too far towards what should happen is idealistic and impractical, and won’t get anything done. We need to look at the oppression and where we want to get and act as if this “end goal” is achieved (the “should”) while making logical and realistic plans that deal with the everyday reality of the oppression of non-conforming gender and sexuality (the “does”).

Finally I would like to highlight the disparity in how people choose to look. I feel that how we choose to present ourselves should be separate from our gender and sexuality identity. But realistically this self presentation IS our identity, inescapably, as humans. This is a though I’ve been mulling over a while and struggle to make peace with, but hope that I can find a balance of what should and does happen within it.

Words Cameron Macgregor