Third Gender

Third gender, neither man/woman, identifies or is identified as — other — defined by gender identity/role particular to their culture. If not a gender binary cultures, third-genders can be distinctive, but it may be more about devaluing women than valuing them as individuals. Indigenous scholars stress the importance of representing third-gender people correctly:

• Māhū, native Hawaiians and Tahitians, is an intermediate state known as “gender liminality.”
• Diné Native Americans in U.S. southwest is a spectrum of four genders: feminine woman, masculine woman, feminine man, and masculine man.
• Hijras are South Asian socio-religious and legal groups, often trans women and intersex people.
• Fa’afafine of Samoa, Polynesia are men whose femininity tends to be recognized in early childhood.
• Balkan sworn virgins are celibate women who live as men in patriarchal societies in Kosovo, Montenegro, and northern Albania.