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Cultural

MVPFAFF

MVPFAFF is a Pacific acronym — māhū, vakasalewalewa, palopa, fa'afafine, akava'ine, fakaleitī, fakafifine. A coalition, not a gender.

  • One of twenty-two Cultural identities
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  • 4 min read
A character with a cup of tea in a shop full of plants and pottery

A grouping, not a gender. MVPFAFF is an acronym for seven Pacific peoples' own words, not a gender of its own. The test never returns it, because there is nothing here to be — read the words inside it instead.

A shorter entry: the essentials, written to the same standard. The fuller guides are on the main identities.

What it is

MVPFAFF is not a gender. It is an acronym, and each letter is a people's own word: māhū (Hawaiʻi and Tahiti), vakasalewalewa (Fiji), palopa (Papua New Guinea), fa'afafine (Sāmoa), akava'ine (Cook Islands), fakaleitī or leitī (Tonga), fakafifine (Niue). The plus sign came later and stands for the ones the letters miss.

Phylesha Brown-Acton, a Niuean fakafifine activist, introduced it at the 2011 Asia-Pacific Outgames Human Rights Conference, according to her Wikipedia entry — the first Pacific-specific acronym offered to Western LGBTQ+ organisations. Wikipedia's page on LGBTQ acronyms lists it among the alternatives, for identities in the Pacific Islander community. Her stated purpose, as quoted on the Fakafifine page, was to raise awareness of Pasifika gender diversity alongside the term LGBTQI, not to replace anyone's word.

So nobody is MVPFAFF. A fa'afafine is fa'afafine; a leitī is a leitī. The acronym is the room they stand in together when talking to governments, funders and organisations that need one word. It belongs to Pasifika people. If you are not from one of these peoples, none of the seven words is yours, and the acronym is not a way round that.

Pronouns

There is no MVPFAFF pronoun, because there is no MVPFAFF person. Each community has its own languages and habits — in Hawaiian, ia covers he, she and they; in English many use she, some he, some they, some their name. Ask the person. Do not derive it from the letter.

Does this sound like you?

You are fa'afafine, or leitī, or akava'ine, and you have watched a form try to file you under LGBT and felt something go missing.
You have said the acronym in a meeting so a funder would understand that Pacific is not one thing, then gone home and not used it again for a year.
Your own word is older than the acronym, and you reach for the acronym only when standing with people from other islands.
You have heard third gender applied to you by someone who had never heard your actual word.
You know which letters stand for which island without thinking, because those are your cousins.

Nearby identities

The distinction is the useful part.

Māhū

The M. Hawaiian and Tahitian, belonging to Kānaka Maoli and Māʻohi. The site's māhū page already calls MVPFAFF+ a coalition, not a definition, and that is the right way round.

Compare MVPFAFF and Māhū →
Fa’afafine

The first F. Samoan, in the manner of a woman, with its own obligations to family. Not interchangeable with any other letter.

Compare MVPFAFF and Fa’afafine →
Fakaleitī

The second F, with leitī as the short form. Tongan, with its own community and its own long argument with the church.

Compare MVPFAFF and Fakaleitī →
Takatāpui

Māori, and not in the acronym. A reclaimed umbrella for Māori who are queer or gender-diverse. Same ocean, a different people, a word that stands on its own.

Compare MVPFAFF and Takatāpui →
Third gender

The outsider's category that these words are often flattened into. MVPFAFF exists partly so that a Pasifika person can decline that flattening and name the actual word.

Compare MVPFAFF and Third gender →

It might not be you if…

  • You have no Pasifika ancestry. The acronym is not a loophole into any of the words inside it.
  • You are looking for a gender identity to hold. This is an acronym for a coalition. The identity is one of the seven, and it comes with a people and a place attached.
  • You are Pasifika but your people's word is not in the letters. That is what the plus sign is for — and your word, not the acronym, is what you are.

Questions people ask

What does MVPFAFF stand for?

Māhū, vakasalewalewa, palopa, fa'afafine, akava'ine, fakaleitī (or leitī) and fakafifine, per Wikipedia's page on LGBTQ acronyms: Hawaiʻi and Tahiti, Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Sāmoa, the Cook Islands, Tonga and Niue. MVPFAFF+ adds the plus for other Pacific genders the letters leave out.

Can I identify as MVPFAFF?

No, and not because of gatekeeping. It is an acronym for a coalition, the way LGBTQ+ is; nobody is LGBTQ+ as a gender. A person is fa'afafine, or māhū, or leitī. Those words belong to their peoples, and the acronym was built to hold them together, not to be a new word for anyone.

Why not just say LGBTQ+?

Because it kept failing to hold any of these. Brown-Acton's stated purpose, as quoted on Wikipedia, was to raise awareness of Pasifika gender diversity in addition to LGBTQI — the Western acronym describes orientation and transition in Western terms, and a fa'afafine or a leitī is a position in a family and a community first. The acronym makes that visible to people who would otherwise file everyone under T.

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Last updated · How these pages are written and checked

No flag is shown because none is settled. Text: written from how people who use the word MVPFAFF describe it.

Sources:

  • LGBTQ acronyms — Wikipedia — Lists MVPFAFF under alternatives to LGBTQ, with the seven expansions, for identities in the Pacific Islander community.
  • Phylesha Brown-Acton — Wikipedia — Introduced MVPFAFF at the 2011 Asia-Pacific Outgames Human Rights Conference; described as a Niuean fakafifine activist.
  • Fakafifine — Wikipedia — Quotes the stated purpose of MVPFAFF+: to enhance Pasifika gender diversity awareness in addition to the term LGBTQI.

This is not a clinical instrument, not a diagnosis, and not evidence of anything about anyone. It describes experiences so you can recognise your own — or rule them out.