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Faʻafafine (Samoan pronunciation: [faʔafafine]; lit. ' in the manner of a woman ') are natal males who align with a third gender or gender role in Samoa. [1] Fa'afafine are not assigned the role at birth, nor raised as girls due to a lack of daughters, as is often claimed in western media.
Fa'afafine are people who identify themselves as having a third-gender or non-binary role in Samoa, American Samoa and the Samoan diaspora. A recognized gender identity/gender role in traditional Samoan society, and an integral part of Samoan culture, fa'afafine are assigned male at birth, and explicitly embody both masculine and feminine gender traits in a way unique to Polynesia.
Samoa Faʻafafine Association (SFA) is an organisation based in Samoa, which provides support for LGBTQ+ communities. It organises the annual Miss Faʻafafine pageant, provides sexual health educational programming and advocates for the rights of LGBTQ+ people in Samoa, in particular its faʻafafine communities.
In Redefining Fa'afafine: Western Discourses and the Construction of Transgenderism in Samoa, Johanna Schmidt argues that the Western attempts to reinterpret fa'afafine, the third gender in Samoan culture, make it have more to do with sexual orientation than gender. She also argues that this is actually changing the nature of fa'afafine itself ...
Samoa is fairly progressive in terms of gender identity and expression as it has a large transgender or "third gender" community called the fa'afafine. Fa'afafine are a recognised part of traditional Samoan customs, allowing for transgender people in particular trans women to be accepted as they have always been a part of Samoan culture. On 1 ...
It is sometimes said that a fa'afafine is a relatively new role in Samoan society beginning with the advent of foreign influence, however the role of fa'afafine in prevalent throughout Polynesia and is indicated by indigenous words such as fakafafine in Tonga, and mahu in eastern Polynesia. These indigenous words are without foreign etymology." [6]
Sele retired in 2005 and in 2007 published her autobiography "Memoirs of a Samoan, Catholic and Fa’afafine". Sele is widely known to have inspired many fa'afafines to pursue education many of whom affectionately call her "Mama". Sele lives in Tacoma, WA. [6] Leroy Lutu rose to great success with the Department of Education and retired in 2011.
Akava'ine is a Cook Islands Māori word which has come, since the 2000s, to refer to transgender people of Māori descent from the Cook Islands.. It may be an old custom but has a contemporary identity influenced by other Polynesians, through cross-cultural interaction of Polynesians living in New Zealand, especially the Samoan fa'afafine, Third Gender people who hold a special place in Samoan ...