Fa’afafine claim is a myth, it’s offensive

Paradise Camp (2021) explores the Faʻafafine experience including struggles and triumphs that comes with being part of Samoan culture, laws and customs. The following text jointly written by Leasiolagi Dr Malama Meleisea and Dr Penelope Schoeffel responds to an Australian SBS story on THE FEED that sensationalize the lives of Fa’afafine in Sāmoa. The text was published in the Sunday Sāmoan newspaper on 21st July 2013.

‘Fa’afafine claim is a myth, it’s offensive’

Leasiolagi Dr Malama Meleisea and Dr Penelope Schoeffel

The assertion that Samoans raise boys to be girls has often been made; most recently in the SBS story on THE FEED by Patrick Abboud (16 July) reproduced in the Observer on July 18. This claim is a myth. It is also offensive to Samoan families. It is as damaging to the way Samoan culture is perceived by outsiders, as the infamously false claims by Margaret Mead that Samoan culture encourages sexual promiscuity.

We are writing to place Abboud’s story in a scientific perspective for your readers. Gender dysphoria is a universal human condition, occurring in all societies, when a biological male or female feels born into the wrong body, or has the “spirit” of the opposite sex; when a boy feel he is really a girl, or vice versa. Science does not have a complete explanation of how transgender identity occurs, but the evidence suggests that it may result from a hormonal dysfunction when the child is still in the womb.

The evidence also demonstrates that gender dysphoria is not learned, and is very unlikely to be a choice. (We would be happy to direct any of your readers who are interested to the large scientific literature on this subject).

Some cultures are more accepting than others of transgendered males; males with feminine rather than masculine identities.

For example there is, to a certain degree, acceptance of transgendered males throughout Polynesia, among Malay peoples of Indonesia, Malaysia and Philippines, in Thailand and Laos, and in indigenous cultures of the Americas.

These cultures have terms (for example mahu, fa’afafine, waria, kathoey) for transgendered males, and accepted social roles for them.

In these cultures transgendered behavior is neither encouraged in childhood nor is it socially welcomed; but it is accepted when it occurs, because it cannot be changed. However, in these cultures, transgendered males are usually valued as talented, kind and sensitive people.

Gender dysphoria is not usually the same as homosexuality. Transgendered males may desire or fall in love with normatively gendered males (heterosexual, masculine men) because transgendered males have the same feelings as women. They do not usually desire or fall in love with “gay” men any more than women do. ‘Homosexual’ is the term for a male person with a masculine gender Identity, or a female person with a feminine gender identity, who prefers an intimate partner of the same sex.

Homosexuality is found in all human societies; it occurs among Samoans, just as it does among people everywhere else in the world.

It is also likely to be an inborn characteristic rather than a lifestyle choice.

Patrick Abboud claims that boys in Samoa cannot do “girls work” – so a family that is short of girls has to select a boy and bring him up as a girl. This is nonsense. In Samoan culture children and youths serve their families. There are Samoan cultural norms defining what “boys work” and: “girls work” is, as in all societies, but if a family has mainly boys, or mainly girls, the children and youths of their family will do whatever has to be done, whether it is sweeping the house or making the umu.

As the case of Leo shows, in Patrick Abboud’s story, you cannot raise a normatively gendered male to be a female. This was conclusively demonstrated in the 1960s and ‘70s in the United States. Back in those days it was believed that gender identity was ‘nurture not nature’ – learned not inborn. So, the families of a number of baby boys with damaged private parts were advised by experts to raise their sons as daughters. But those baby boys raised as girls grew up to be masculine teenagers who rejected their feminine identity and insisted on becoming boys again.

It is true that some of our families think that little boys who act like little girls are cute, but when this behavior persists into the teenage years, effeminate behavior is usually mocked and punished. While mothers may be more accepting, fathers often try to beat it out of their sons.

Such cultural insults, propagated by the likes of Patrick Abboud, should be confronted. We were shocked that a SBS, a usually reputable, Australian government-owned broadcasting organization would be allowed to publish and broadcast such misleading nonsense online without consultation with experts on Samoan culture and gender. (We have tried to make an online complaint to SBS without success).

We are also surprised that the Observer reproduced this story without comment.

Leasiolagi Dr Malama Meleisea and Dr Penelope Schoeffel

Centre for Sāmoan Studies
National University of Sāmoa
www.samoanstudies.ws.