Fa'afafine

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For those who are unfamiliar Fa'afafine is the Samoan 3rd gender.
When I first read about fa'afafine, The article said families that had all boys would choose one to raise as a girl to help in the home and look after the parents in old age.

I wrote a story called The Fa'afafine Bill set on an alternative earth. One comment said that it was stupid premiss as men could do the same jobs as women without being women.

That is 100% true and mostly in Western society most of the stigma has disappeared from men doing traditional women's jobs. Samoa has/ or had different views though.

Later articles I read said that they only raised boys who expressed an interest in being girls that way. None were forced into the role. Some also said they looked for the slightest hint of female behavior and encouraged it. Nearly all of these were written by Western reports with a Western bias.

Fa'afafine covers a wide range, some are truly transgender, some fa'afafine present as male. They are accepted as a third gender. They have female and male attributes.

This video shows a mix of the different types. One of the men did come from a large family of boys, however, and was "forced".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9xvkCa63Js