Fa'afafine people of Samoa

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fa%27afafine

After class this week I decided to look up the Island that was briefly mentioned in which it is normal and accepted for children to start out as females but to develop their male bodies and hormones later. I came upon this Wikipedia page that details the 3rd gender of Samoans, Fa'afafine. These are people who were male at birth, but loved playing with feminine toys and gravitated to much more stereotypical feminine activities as children, and had mostly female friends. However, as they got older they realized that they are of the 3rd gender and are neither female nor male. This has become so accepted in that society that they reject the ideas of homosexuality and transgender.

The most interesting thing to me was how the parents and society as a whole responded to this group of people, making it completely normal. Parents rarely discourage their male children from engaging in feminine activities, because it would be totally acceptable for the child to be Fa'afafine. In fact, most Samoans have at least one Fa'afafine friend.

This make me think about how our society views this type of behavior, with children acting outside of their gender stereotypes. The fact that we feel the need to label it as abnormal and dysfunctional says a lot about how little our society can tolerate. It also is evidence that gender is a social construct, which is something I believe.

In relating this back to therapy, this week's readings on cultural sensitivity and the readings we did on LGBTQ are that much more important. The most important point that I take away from all of these readings is not to make assumptions, and to ask about something if you are not sure and don't want to offend anyone. People come from all different types of societies that could be totally opposite from everything we have been taught, so it is that much more important to try to understand where they are coming from even if we don't personally believe in it or subscribe to those values.