Cultural contradictions Tafi Toleafoa explains what it means to be fa'afafine
By JULIA O'MALLEY
Anchorage Daily News
"Are you a boy or a girl?"
Now, one more time, Tafi had to explain, to untangle the contradiction of her long thick hair and plump, glossy lips with the masculine tenor of her voice and her tall, substantial body. She had to tell the girl that, no, she isn't a boy, or a girl, exactly. She's something else.
"I'm fa'afafine," Tafi said. "That means I have a boy's body, but I was raised in Samoa as a girl."
Tafi could have explained that in the islands, nobody ever asked. She could have told the girl that a Samoan mother with a fa'afafine among her children is considered lucky. Fa'afafine help with babies and cooking, they tend the elderly and the sick. They are presumed to have the best traits of both men and women.
Audio Slide ShowFa'afafine definition still shaky
