User:Vitamin dean/Evaluate an Article

Which article are you evaluating?
Fa'afafine

Why you have chosen this article to evaluate?
I have chosen this article to evaluate to draw attention to some of the inconsistencies and broad use of the term Fa'afafine in digital spaces.

Evaluate the article
Considering that most of the cited sources here are given by outsiders of the Samoan community the veracity of even census data is questionable at best. Understanding the context and subtext with which Fa'afafine operate is touchy, sensitive, emotionally-charged, private and ever changing. What passed for Fa'afafine in the past does not necessarily pan out in modern society and oral traditions are much more reliable than the judgmental eyes of onlookers who do not understand Fa'asamoa or the Samoan way of life. Heirarchy is paramount in Samoa, as is respect, service and decorum. It is through this lens that all aspects of Fa'afafine should be viewed and understood. To look at Fa'afafine as merely a sexual oddity or deviants who live outside the scope of respectable Samoan society is wrong and narrow minded. There are duties and functions that Samoan men and women must observe. In the past one hundred years the strains and stresses of adjusting to Western life have taken a toll on the psyche of the Samoan people. Fa'afafine may have been viewed very positively in the past or at least may have existed in relative obscurity or without the revulsion they endure today. Christianity played an important role in powerfully transforming the Samoan culture and the taboos that were brought by the West radically altered the value system and hierarchy of island life. Tufugas were replaced with faifeaus (pastors) and social roles were rigidly defined. Samoan oral tradition maintains that women were fierce warriors and warlords in the days before contact and that third genders enjoyed privileged roles in society serving as a functionary and go between between men and women. These nuances were lost when Christianity was embraced by the islands and gender norms that were present in other parts of the world were adopted overwriting centuries old traditions of non normative identities. I do not have all the answers and I am likely to get as much of this wrong as anyone else is but I believe that we should compile as many stories and interviews with our elders and with our Fa'afafine communities as possible to clean up this post and to provide an area where Fa'afafine can feel represented and a place where curious community members can get an unbiased but culturally intelligent accurate and informed representation.