Abstract
In both Hawaiian and Tahitian, the central meaning of mahu denotes gender-variant individuals, particularly male-bodied persons who have a significant investment in femininity. However, in Hawai‘i, unlike Tahiti, the word mahu is now more commonly used as an insult against gay or transgender people. The negative connotation of the term in Hawaiian indexes lower levels of social acceptability for mahu identity on O‘ahu (Hawai‘i’s most populous island) as compared to Tahiti. The article argues that these differences are partly due to a historical legacy of sexually repressive laws. The article traces the history of sodomy laws in these two Polynesian societies and argues that this history supports the hypothesis that sodomy laws (in conjunction with such social processes as urbanisation and Christianisation) are partially to blame for the diminished social status of mahu on O‘ahu. A different social and legal history in Tahiti accounts for the fact that the loss of social status experienced by Tahitian mahu has been lesser than that of their Hawaiian counterparts.
Highlights
Visitors to the Hawaiian island of O‘ahu are likely, sooner or later, to come across the ‘Stones of life’—four large boulders on Kuhio Beach in Waikiki
The term māhū may be applied to gender-variant female-bodied individuals in Tahitian [2], and to same-sex attracted people in Hawaiian [3], in either language the central meaning of the word denotes male-bodied persons of Polynesian descent who have a significant investment in femininity
Some of the factors that, together with the discursive sexualisation of māhū identity, have brought about this state of affairs on O‘ahu include the importation after colonisation of a Christian sexual morality suspicious of all forms of non-procreative sexuality, as well as the larger proportion of non-Polynesian settlers in Hawai‘i, who do not share in the pre-colonial indigenous epistemologies accepting of gender-variance and same-sex sexuality
Summary
Visitors to the Hawaiian island of O‘ahu are likely, sooner or later, to come across the ‘Stones of life’—four large boulders on Kuhio Beach in Waikiki. The term māhū may be applied to gender-variant female-bodied individuals in Tahitian [2], and to same-sex attracted people (regardless of gender) in Hawaiian [3], in either language the central meaning of the word denotes male-bodied persons of Polynesian descent who have a significant investment in femininity This may be displayed by such features as the donning of female attire, the preference for consorting with women, the adoption of feminine mannerisms, or the performance of women’s work. Some of the factors that, together with the discursive sexualisation of māhū identity, have brought about this state of affairs on O‘ahu include the importation after colonisation of a Christian sexual morality suspicious of all forms of non-procreative sexuality, as well as the larger proportion of non-Polynesian settlers in Hawai‘i, who do not share in the pre-colonial indigenous epistemologies accepting of gender-variance and same-sex sexuality. Law has a peculiar power to effect socio-cultural transformation by creating and redefining social meanings, as it can rely on its coercive power, and on its nature as an authoritative discourse [11]
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