Talk:Māhū

Meaning of Hawaiian word
My Bio professor claims that the alternative definition of Mahu is not derogatory; rather it was regarded "as a natural way of living" (her words, not mine) and that "transvesti" (variation of transvestitisms) are considered derogatory. Perhaps a Disamb should be made, and the definition changed. Zidel333 16:03, 3 April 2007 (UTC)


 * The "Pocket Hawaiian Dictionary" defines it as homosexual, hermaphrodite... AnonMoos (talk) 12:57, 3 June 2010 (UTC)

Well when considering the use of the word Māhū and people today trying to question whether or not it must be identified or can be used as a derogatory term we need to remember that this is a HAWAIIAN term. The whole ideal of homosexuality and transgender come from westernized ideas and truthfully a lot of it was forced upon the Native Hawaiians when the missionaries tried to bring Christianity to Hawaii. Obviously they forced the Native Hawaiians to conform to their religion as they felt as though they were superior and to anyone who rebelled it was seen as weakness. The term Māhū has no context or relation to these western ideas such as homosexuality or transgender even though thatʻs what people today would see them as. In fact, I donʻt think that you can call it homosexuality or transgender as people who identified as this in Old Hawaii were treated with a lot more respect and acceptance. A famous Native Hawaiian who embodies this term would be Hinaleimoana Wong-Kalu or as most people know her as Kumu Hina. Itʻs funny because it clearly states in the first sentence of her bio on wikipedia that Māhū is a Native Hawaiian term that means someone accepts both female and male spirits but they also state itʻs like "a modern transgender woman". I personally think that the two should be separated and Māhū kept in regards as purely a Native Hawaiian word. — Preceding unsigned comment added by TokoUso6Tree (talk • contribs) 18:50, 5 February 2018 (UTC)

Recent addtions and revert
Many of the recent additions were good, but they need to be sourced or it looks like a personal essay. Let's discuss here and find sources so we don't have to have the article filled with "citation needed" flags. - Co rb ie V    ☊ ☼ 23:42, 25 July 2017 (UTC)

The long quote under "meaning" was also a copyvio. - Co rb ie V    ☊ ☼ 00:01, 26 July 2017 (UTC)

These sources will need links so we can see what content is there, or publication data if they are in hardcopy, otherwise it's hard to evaluate them. - Co rb ie V    ☊ ☼ 00:07, 26 July 2017 (UTC)

Edit: What Roles the Mahu Play Within the Family in Modern Day
Hi! I’m Brinney22. I have been reading this page dedicated to the Māhū/Māhūwahine/RaeRae discussing their traditional roles, roles during post World War II, and plan on adding information to the page discussing the role of these third gender people within the modern-day world with a focus on familial life, how they are incorporated into the family, and what sorts of lifestyles in general they lead. I will be doing this from research gathered on databases such as AnthroSource and JSTOR. I am Native Hawaiian and love learning more about my culture and would love to add to a page discussing it. Please feel free to give me any feedback on my writing – greatly appreciated.--Brinney22 (talk) 18:26, 24 June 2019 (UTC).

Why does this page use the phrase "assigned male at birth"?
I'm not Tahitian or Hawaiian, but I find the use of this phrase strange in the context of this article. It implies that in Tahitian/Hawaiian native culture they would have assigned children male and then decided later that they were Māhū. But I get the impression this is not the case from the rest of the article. As I understand it, assigning children a western binary gender at birth is more of a European colonial phenomenon. So I'm a bit confused about the meaning of the phrase. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 220.244.1.63 (talk) 07:16, 15 April 2022 (UTC)