Gender Roles – The Third Gender in Samoa, the Fa’afafine

Gender Roles in Samoa – The Third Gender

The fa’afafine is unique to Samoan culture and is often referred to as the ‘third gender’. This is where someone is born biolically male, but is brought up as a female, and has both male and female characteristics as Gender Roles. Now, I’m still trying to get my head around all of this myself, but the fa’afafine Gender Roles are an essential and highly respected aspect of Samoan culture – and you would be hard pressed to find anything else similar to this cultural difference anywhere in the world.

The word fa’afafine includes the prefix “fa’a”, meaning “in the manner of”, and the word fafine, meaning “woman”. Hence the term, in the manner of being a woman.

Now if you’re thinking something else, a fa’afafine is not ‘gay’ either. As mentioned before, the fa’afafine is viewed as a gender in it’s own right – the third gender. In terms of social dynamics, a fa’afafine can be with a man or a woman, but not another fa’afafine – as far as I can fathom.

I don’t pretend to understand it, but find the concept intriguing and why it’s great to travel to other countries to come across unusual things like this.

You might see the odd fa’afafine in your travels around Samoa – especially if you go to a fa’afafine show in Apia, the capital of this tiny, but great South Pacific country.

This group of fa’afafines put on a show every Thursday night and I had a good laugh because they don’t take themselves too seriously!

Like so..

Fa’afafine Show Video!

Anyway, I was allowed to take some funny footage of the fa’afafine show, and be warned, there are some adult concepts here!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6UXKajzhL4[/youtube]

More Gender Role Stuff

For more about Samoa, check out the Samoa Tourism Authority website and Fa’afafine: the Pacific’s “third gender”.