Title: Male, Female, And Muxes: Places Where A Third Gender Is Accepted
Headings: Male, Female, And Muxes: Places Where A Third Gender Is Accepted
Male, Female, And Muxes: Places Where A Third Gender Is Accepted
For these cultures, the idea of nonconforming gender is ancient.
Muxes in Juchitán de Zaragoza
Two-spirit in Native North American Navajo culture
Fa’Afafines in Samoa
Hijras in South Asia
Sekrata in Madagascar
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Content: The fa'afafines of the Samoa islands in Apia, Samoa in 2005-Tara and her parents at their home. Her father worked as Samoan ambassador in New Zealand. ( Photo by Olivier CHOUCHANA/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images)
Gamma-Rapho Olivier CHOUCHANA
In traditional Samoan culture, boys born into male bodies who identify as female as known as Fa’Afafines. They are fully accepted into Samoan culture while in Western culture the concept may be hard to grasp. “Gender roles, even sexual desire, is shaped to suit society. That means gender identity is often hugely shaped by culture. Being a woman in Samoa is quite different from being a woman in Western society,” says a woman in the video above. Gender identity in Samoan culture is as simple as being accepted by society if you say and feel you are male or female. This is a social norm the rest of the world could learn from. Check out this video ​ on Sexual Identity in Samoan culture from National Geographic.