By Watsamon June Tri-yasakda

One of the most asked questions is “what do you want to be when you grow up?”. But nobody ever asks the youth, “what do you want to be now?”

For young Thais who were born male but do not identify as male or live up to the norms of masculinity, they are forced to embrace the male uniform by wearing a white shirt with shorts and a military hairstyle. Their only option is to wear a school uniform that they cannot choose.

Thai student uniform represents unity, hegemony, hierarchical, class distinction, and patronage. Students are required to dress in the school uniform according to their biological sex— male and female. Some uniform has a name and student ID number on its shirt, but do represent the identity of student who wear them at all?

“7465” represents the hidden identify of youths that cannot being freely expressed. Under the uniformity, they tried to be themselves as much as possible. “7465” is not just a student number sewed on their uniform, but also a fight for their own identification. ‘Young, free and being me’ is what they want to be.