Raerae
A Tahitian word for transfeminine people who live openly as women. It belongs to Māʻohi people, and it is not the same as māhū.
- One of twenty-two Cultural identities
- No settled flag
- 4 min read
A word that belongs to a people. This identity is held within a specific culture. The page is here to understand it, not to adopt it.
A shorter entry: the essentials, written to the same standard. The fuller guides are on the main identities.
What it is
Raerae — also written rae-rae — is a Tahitian word for Tahitian people. Assigned male at birth, living openly as women: women's names, women's clothes, and often hormones and surgery. Wikipedia's article describes it as a category related to māhū but distinct from it — māhū being the older, in-the-middle position, rae-rae the people who have crossed over and live as women.
The word is not neutral inside Tahiti. Wikipedia records that it came into use in the 1960s, that some māhū object to it as a reference to sex, and that rae-rae face ridicule and harassment in ways māhū often do not, with acceptance easier in the larger towns than on smaller, more conservative islands. Some people use both words about themselves. Others hold the line between them hard. That argument is live, and it belongs to Tahitians.
Now the closed part, plainly. If you are not Māʻohi — not Tahitian, not of French Polynesia — this is not your word. Not by feeling, not by admiration, not because your life looks like the description. Read this page to understand someone. Do not take the word home.
Pronouns
Rae-rae live as women and are addressed as women — elle in French, she in English. The word itself is not a pronoun and not a polite way of saying trans. Ask a person, not a page.
Does this sound like you?
Not sure where you fit?
Twenty questions, about four minutes, nothing leaves your phone. It suggests. You decide.
Nearby identities
The distinction is the useful part.
The older Tahitian and Hawaiian word for a person in the middle, with cultural roles attached. Rae-rae are usually described as having moved past the middle to live as women. Not a synonym, even inside Tahiti.
Compare Raerae and Māhū →The word that travels — clinic, law, any country. Many rae-rae are also trans women and use each word in a different room. Trans woman says the gender; rae-rae says the people and the place.
Compare Raerae and Transgender Female →Samoan, and Samoa's own. Same ocean, different people, different word, and equally closed.
Compare Raerae and Fa’afafine →It might not be you if…
- You are not Tahitian or otherwise Māʻohi. However well the description fits, the word is not available to you.
- You are Māʻohi and in the middle is where you are — not a woman, not a man. That is māhū, and it is the older word.
- You are Māʻohi and a man who loves men. That is a different fact about you, and rae-rae is not the word for it.
- You met the word in a travel article or a documentary, and nobody in your actual life would use it about you.
Questions people ask
What is the difference between rae-rae and māhū?
Māhū is the older Polynesian category for someone in the middle — between man and woman, historically with roles in the community attached. Rae-rae is a more recent Tahitian word, in use since the 1960s according to Wikipedia, for people who live openly as women, often with hormones or surgery. Some Tahitians use both about themselves. Some māhū reject rae-rae entirely as carrying a stigma. It is their argument to have.
Can I call myself rae-rae if I'm not Tahitian?
No. It is a Māʻohi word for Māʻohi people, and no one from that community has asked outsiders to adopt it. If your life matches the description and you are not Tahitian, the words you are looking for are trans woman or transfeminine. They are not lesser.
Is rae-rae a slur?
It depends on the mouth. Wikipedia records that some māhū object to it, and that rae-rae face harassment on Tahiti. It is also used plainly by rae-rae about themselves. If you are an outsider, do not use it about anyone who has not used it about themselves first.
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