The Islands of Tahiti, which make up the country of French Polynesia, have a history of embracing a third gender known as māhū. In “Gender diversity, gender liminality in French Polynesia” published in the International Journal of Transgender Health in 2023, Jessie V. Ford and Eli Coleman explain that māhū translated from Tahitian means “in the middle.”
“Māhū are birth-assigned males with non-binary identity and feminine and gender liminal traits, while raerae are a more recent classification of birth-assigned males whose gender expression is more overtly as a woman.” They note that the word raerae originally had a negative connotation, “although increasingly raerae have a transgender role in society with growing acceptance…”
Tahiti Tourisme describes māhū as individuals who “embody both male and female qualities, blurring the lines between traditional gender roles” and raerae as “more closely aligned with transgender women in Western cultures.”
“In French Polynesia, as well as in Hawaii, male-bodied māhū were associated with government advisors, cultural affairs, spiritual functions, and the hula dance,” write Ford and Coleman. And then came the missionaries in the 18th century. “As in much of the world, the missionaries were concerned with the sexual mores of indigenous Polynesians and promoted sexual mores based upon Christian beliefs, which stigmatized public nudity and cross-dressing behavior.”
Beyond gender and sexuality, many traditional dances, languages and artforms were also policed. Only in the last 50 or so years have The Islands of Tahiti begun reclaiming ancestral forms of expression, including movement and language.
Where are we today on the road to acceptance of gender diverse individuals? The answer varies depending on who you ask. The Islands are still very religious, yet during my travels I encountered locals presenting beyond the gender binary in each of the islands I visited.
It was also clear that French Polynesia’s spectrum of sexual and gender identities do not always fit into the Western classifications of LGBTQIA+++. “For example, sexual relations between a māhū and a cisgendered male is considered normative precisely because māhū are not considered men. Thus, this is not considered sex with another man,” explain Ford and Coleman.
Related: Tahiti is a surfing paradise
And context matters when using māhū and raerae. Ford and Coleman use the term “queer” as an analogy, where the “connotation may vary substantially based on intent, as well as the individual using the terms… However, what was apparent is that there was no term on which all could agree that had a contemporary and clearly positive connotation.”
They concluded: “While not a utopia for gender variant individuals living in French Polynesia, this cultural recognition serves as a protective factor as compared to other cultures that greatly stigmatize transgender and gender diverse individuals or those who transgress socially defined roles for men.”
Read more about LGBTQ+ life in French Polynesia in my Gay Travel Tahiti article, published in GayCities.
