Faʻafafine
In Samoan culture, Samoan people who were assigned male at birth but behave in feminine ways and may consider themselves women
Faʻafāfine (Samoan pronunciation: [faʔafafine]; lit. 'in the manner of a woman') are natal males who align with a third gender or feminine gender role in the Sāmoan Islands. Faʻafāfine are not assigned the role at birth, nor raised as girls due to a lack of daughters, as is often claimed in western media. Rather, their femininity emerges in early childhood, and Sāmoans recognize them as distinct from typical boys.
Faʻafāfine are androphilic (attracted to males) and are usually very feminine. They comprise up to 3.5% of the natal male population, similar to the number of androphilic natal males in the west.
Most self-identify as faʻafāfine, rather than men, while a small number identify as women. However, they recognize that they are distinct from females.
Faʻafāfine enjoy relatively high levels of acceptance in Sāmoa. They can be seen in all areas of Sāmoan society, whether assisting as caregivers or working in government. Sāmoa's former Prime Minister Malielegaoi spoke publicly about the value of faʻafāfine in Sāmoan society.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Faʻafafine” is in Samoan culture, Samoan people who were assigned male at birth but behave in feminine ways and may consider themselves women. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Faʻafafine, Samoan and culture, not as a finished interpretation.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 15, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1399232. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Faʻafafine” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.