Fa'afafine -- The Third Gender

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/26/sports/soccer/jonny-saelua-transgender-player-helps-american-samoa-to-first-international-soccer-win.html

Despite the less than immediate currency of this article, I felt that it's topic remains extremely relevant to a few of our previous in class discussions. This article discusses the story of Jonny Saelua. She is the center back for American Samoa's men's team who is currently working to complete her performing arts major in dance at the University of Hawaii. Saelua is described in Samoan culture as a person who was born a man, identifies herself as a woman and is sexually attracted to men. This group of around 1,500 woman are labeled fa'afafine.

This term and the cultural acceptance of fa'afafine is a time honored tradition in Samoan culture. The head of the Samoa Fa'afafine Society, Alex Su'a, said, "Fa'afafine are culturally accepted...They have a role in samoan society. They are the caretakers of the elders because their brothers and sisters get married but fa'afafine traditionally don't."

Fa'afafine appear to be regarded as a type of third gender, not a gray area between the two traditional options. Though the idea that fa'afafine traditionally do not marry implies inequality, this fact has also allowed fa'afafine to make themselves societally useful and therefore accepted. Saelua was easily welcomed by her teammates. She described herself as "just a soccer player" without reference to either sex or gender. She seems unconcerned with changing her apparently falsely gender indicative nam: Jonny. She just is.

However, this third gender though culturally defined can also seem ambiguous. A player on the team commented, "He is like a brother to us and he's like a sister to us". Somehow fa'afafine seem to be both. This player also uses "he", while the article describes Saelua as "she". Interestingly, the discrepancies don't seem to bother any of the Samoans. Though Saelua has fielded outside criticism, her fellow team makes appear to take her for exactly who she is: an excellent addition to the team.

In light of Saelua's apparent acceptance in this alien culture, do you think that issues with transgender alienation are completely imposed by our society or is the discomfort innate?