ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the context of sexual relations. It explores the increasing prevalence of a range of sexual identities and practices means that the sexuality of participants' sexual partners was not necessarily as straightforward as 'heterosexual'. The manner in which discourses of homosexuality have been incorporated into Samoan understandings is similarly more complex than a simple division between feminine fa'afafine and masculine gay men. While palagi masculinity is also defined as aggressive, these fa'afafine experience palagi men as more amendable than most Samoan men to working within the discourse of hetero romance. For migrant fa'afafine who wishes to acculturate to Aotearoa/New Zealand society until relatively recently the only other option within the binary gender framework has been to pass as women. Peer group 'education' and reinforcement are important components of the decisions made by some fa'afafine who choose to utilise feminising medical technologies. Adoption of the 'beauty myth' indicates a complex interplay of acculturation and assimilation in terms of these participants' enactments of femininity.
