The Fa’afafine (Samoa & Samoan Diaspora)

The evolution of the role of fa’afafine (literally translated: ‘in the manner of a woman’) in Samoan culture is quite similar to that of the burrnesha, while this time it is boys who were raised as girls to suit the needs of their families and the community. Quite simply, in families where there were not enough girls and too many boys, some boys were raised to be women.

This decision was not necessarily based on a child exhibiting any non-heteronormative or effeminate traits. Their parents would merely begin assigning them ‘women’s work’ and dressing them as girls. No attempt was made to hide their birth sex, and in fact, when they grew to adulthood and married (which was not restricted, unlike the burrnesha), they were expected to marry women.

Modern-day fa’afafine almost unilaterally claim their identity by choice. If a male child exhibits feminine traits, parents generally take a hands-off approach and late nature and development take their course, while being available to teach them women’s work at their request. Many easily adapt to performing double-duty:

“I think there’s a little bit difference between fa’afafine here in Samoa and overseas, because here the fa’afafine can help the mother [by] doing the same job… and they can do the men’s job as well. I think that’s why the fa’afafine here are so popular, because they are hard working people.”

These roles are not strictly work-oriented and utilitarian. There is a focus on all things feminine (including beauty pageants) and nurturing, including child-rearing. In terms of sexuality, modern fa’afafine tend to be involved for the most part with cis-gendered men (and occasionally women), but rarely other fa’afafine.

Acceptance of fa’afafine outside of Samoa (most notably within the large Samoan community of New Zealand), is somewhat less universal, due partly to homophobia and transphobia from other other cultures, as well as due to the strong influence of the Christian church within the Samoan community.

In spite of its early roots in cultural engineering, fa’afafine seems to have evolved (for the most part) into a freely chosen self-identified gender designation, with free expression of sexuality. Although there is clearly a strong identification with stereotypical characteristics of femininity, these seem to be self-directed rather than imposed upon them by society.

Given this modern freedom of choice, it is curious that we do not see a similar female-to-male equivalent in Samoan society — but the obvious answer is that this population does exist — they simply don’t have the same level of cultural identity and history that the fa’afafine do.

Two-Spirit (North American Indigenous Peoples)

Among North America’s indigenous communities, the term two-spirit (also wíŋkte, nádleehé, hwame and other tribe-specific variants) has long been used to describe persons who embody any combination of male and female gender and/or non-binary sexuality. Historically, clothing was typically a combination of traditionally male and female garb (or varied day-to-day), and sexual relations might be with either men or women. It wasn’t until the advent of colonialization that this was regarded as non-heteronormative. Prior to that there was no sub-categorization of homosexuality, and two-spiritedness was regarded as an indication of dual gender alone.

This is not to say that the choice of being two-spirited was solely determined by the individual. As with the fa’afafine and burrnesha, if a child presented early on with signs of non-binary gender identity, this shaped how they would be raised.

“If parents noticed that a son was disinterested in boyish play or manly work, they would set up a ceremony to determine which way the boy would be brought up. They would make an enclosure of brush, and place in the center both a man’s bow and a woman’s basket. The boy was told to go inside the circle of brush and to bring something out, and as he entered the brush would be set on fire. The tribe watched what he took with him as he ran out, and if it was the basketry materials they reconciled themselves to his being [two-spirited].”

If boys were then identified as two-spirited, they were educated in the ways of women, and vice versa. While this clearly demonstrates a culture of acceptance, it is hard to surmise how much those early interventions merely complemented the development of gender identity, or how much they inadvertently shaped it through reinforcement. Ultimately though, with the focus being on acceptance of gender fluidity over reinforcing non-binary gender roles, it seems reasonable to acknowledge much more freedom of the individual to control both their gender expression and sexuality. The fact that this identity seems to be bestowed fairly equally to male-born and female-born persons without bias also makes this example rather unique.

Unfortunately, with the advent of colonialism (and early Jesuit Christian ‘re-education’), modern two-spirited indigenous peoples now face bigotry both from outside and within their communities.