I recently stumbled upon an article that discussed the states with the highest number of LGBTQ+ identified individuals. While scrolling down, I was perplexed to see Hawaii ranked number two on the list right behind Washington D.C.. Coming from Kauai, I was interested in this. I knew Hawaii as a state was liberal leaning and that the citizens were comparatively accepting, but to see it ranked as number two was another story. Hawaii was the only state other than D.C. to have more than 5% of people openly identify as LGBTQ+. Why was this so? The more I thought about it, the more my mind kept wandering back to how historical ideals of addressing sexuality and gender were different in Hawaii compared to Europe or North America.
The first thing I looked up was the word 'Mahu' The term was sometimes used by my peers growing up when teasing a boy about being less masculine than the others. The term 'mahu' was used in Hawaiian and Tahitian cultures to identify a third gendered person who had traditional roles in society and were respected and regarded as important members of the community, just as the two other identified genders. This identification was only suitable to take on when a male identified as a female (not vice versa.) Due to this, many males had sexual relations with the mahus, regardless of their born sex and male genitalia. This homosexual relationship was referred to as 'aikane' and it was practiced by many men, especially the more powerful male figures of the civilizations. The terms 'aikane' and 'mahu' had nowhere near the negative connotation than the term 'fag' had when analyzed in Dude You're a Fag by C. J. Pascoe. In Pascoe's book, we saw that the term 'fag' was used as a negative phrase to label the less masculine males in social settings, but in particular Pascoe analyzed the term used in context by North American high schools students.
This acceptance of mahus and the aikane sexual practices was only appropriate prior to the arrival of the catholic missionaries and not until recently has the term mahu been adopted as a more casual term. When the missionaries came to Hawaii, many cultural practices changed, but in particular the traditional sexual and marriage practices. The missionaries came to the islands in 1820 and immediately overthrew the old indigenous kapu religious system and instead forcefully introduced ideas of monotheism. This new Christian evangelical pentecostal religion taught the Hawaiians that all sex was morally wrong unless it was engaged in strictly to procreate and within a church sanctified marriage.
After the missionaries forced their religion onto the Hawaiians, the mahu subculture was forced to remain hidden from the public, and the ‘aikane’ tradition was condemned and viewed as disgustingly deviant and a sin against God. Because of these new ideas, homophobia became dominant in the islands, just as it was in the American mainland. Today, the 'aikane' tradition has disappeared, or rather it has been absorbed into homosexuality and bisexuality. The 'mahu' tradition almost vanished also but it has made a comeback as a renewed (mostly positive) identification for transexuals and transgenders.
As Americans, we like to think of ourselves as progressing forward when it comes to our belief in and adoption of liberal ideas of gay and transgender identified individuals. But has it ever occurred to you that maybe these ideas aren't new and liberal? That this acceptance has been practiced by civilizations centuries before us? The definition of liberal is: open to new behavior or opinions and willing to discard traditional values. But what if the traditional values are the ones that accept and value homosexual and transgender individuals. I can’t assume that Hawaii has more identified LGBTQ+ members because of their history, but it’s fair to reckon that this might be the connection. By looking at historical ideals and practices we can learn that stereotypes and social norms vary from culture to culture and that the term “fag” may have a negative connotation in some places, but the very similar defined terms of “aikane” or “mahu” had no negative implications in ancient cultures and traditions.
- Gates, Gary J. "LGBT Percentage Highest in D.C., Lowest in North Dakota." Gallup(web log), February 15, 2013. Accessed March 26, 2017. http://www.gallup.com/poll/160517/lgbt-percentage-highest-lowest-north-dakota.aspx.
- Kalei, Kalikiano . "Hawaiian Sexuality and the 'Mahu' Tradition." Culture Articles. Accessed March 26, 2017. http://www.authorsden.com/categories/article_top.asp?catid=62&id=46603.
Awesome read! I especially liked how you illustrated how religious colonialism changed the perspective of people toward homosexuality. This is something I have also seen in many African cultures where gender and sexuality were fluid before colonialism and after the spread of Christianity these identities were marginalised and to an extent demonised with the loss of culture.
ReplyDeleteThis was so interesting! It is important to remember that societies change over time and place, and "comebacks" can occur with any norm or trend. It would be interesting to study this more in depth, as I never knew Hawaii had the second largest LGBTQ+ group in the states in the first place. I hope this is the kind of new stuff introduced to children's history classes to show that even though something has not been a norm for a while, it used to be, and it could be again without too much fuss.
ReplyDeleteIt would be really interesting to see which mainland states would have higher percentages of identifying LGBTQIA+ people if they had something similar to aikaine or mahu. Since Hawaii has a comparatively smaller population to other states in the US, I wouldn't be surprised if percentages of out of the closet people were higher. It also makes me wonder if Native American populations, prior to colonization, had similar traditions where same sex couples/queer culture was accepted as normal.
ReplyDeleteI thought it was particularly interesting to think about how we define "tradition" and it isn't always what we think or expect. In this case, "Mahus" are traditional, however I always think of "tradition" as something old-fashioned and not "progressive" compared to todays standards. I usually think of tradition as a woman being a stay at home mother or only marrying the opposite sex or even in this case staying the gender that one was born with. I think it's extremely cool and significant that traditional in this case has a different definition than what we usually think.
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting to me how we both chose topics that have to do with gender/having both genders. Through both of our presentations, we can see the side as an adult, and the side as a young child. However, there are some obvious differences, such as the mahu are choosing to do this, and the bacha posh are not. What advice do you think the mahus would give to the girls in afghanistan being forced into another gender? And since it's the opposite, (the bacha poses going from female to male, and the mahus the opposite), what do you think society feels about both of them in regards to which one is more "okay" in their communities?
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