Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Week 9


I will focus on my own personal experience. I first learned of this fa'afafine through my uncle. He informed of this third gender in the Samoan culture and told us about how they were accepted and embraced into the Samoan lifestyle. This was disturbing at the time being, because I had always thought that Samoans were super human and super masculine like this picture depicts. Although, I was enlightened that this third gender was a huge part of the Samoan culture especially in the earlier stages in Samoan history. The fa'afafine was a key factor in the raising of Samoan youth and especially important in the household chorse in and around the home. The Samoan community is greatly effected by the fa'afafine. Especially, in American and Western Samoa where the fa'afafine is accepted and treated as an separate gender. In the United States there are groups and programs that are assembled to gain rights for this third gender.

5 comments:

quanah said...

I really enjoyed your blog especially when you presented it in class and you were able to speak on your view of it how you were discriminant against it when you first learned about it but became very accepting as it is a large part of your culture. I thought it was very interesting because I have several Samoan friends but I have never heard of a a fa'afafine.

Matt way said...

I had no idea this was your blog topic otherwise i would have talked to you about it. being part samoan myself i have heard of the fa'afafine and have spoken to my grandmother about it. However she is from Samoa and moved to Alaska with my grandfather. She was telling me that there is some descrimination of this third gender but isn't descraminatory against the Fa'afafine but instead the descrimination is aimed at other males that form relationships with a fa'afafine.

Anonymous said...

I think that acceptance of more than two genders is very important, and the dominant culture here in the US could learn quite a bit from more accepting cultures. Gender, sex, and sexuality has been such a delicate topic and many people do not like things that are not fully conformed and fitting nicely in a box. There are so many different combinations that can occur, and all should be accepted equally.

Anonymous said...

i found your blog very interesting. I never knew of the faafafine before you talked about it, despite having lots of samoan friends. after looking through everything, i see how this can be very useful for their around-the-house tasks. I asked a friend of mine about this who lived there up until about 4 years ago, and she had lots of information for me about it. She even showed me pictures of some of her friends that weren't faafafine, but were transgender i guess...I know that the whole faafafine idea can be shocking to some, but being that where i'm from a lot of pacific islander males are "soft" or "feminine", or "mahu" as we call them, it came as no big surprise that this is practiced. im glad that the samoan society can embrace this cultural practice and make it work for them.

Unknown said...

I'm glad to have come across your topic on fa'afafine. I have lived in American Samoa for 15 years and have planned to revisit to film a documentary on the topic of gender identity and the role of fa'afafine in the Samoan culture before and after Christianity. Please reply if you'd in any way be interested on my venture.