Overview
What raerae means.
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.
Tahitian transfeminine people who live as women — a modern category beside the older māhū, and one that belongs to Tahitians.
Raerae in one line
Origin
Where the word comes from
Raerae came into use in Tahiti in the 1960s, per Wikipedia, as French Polynesia urbanised and tourism grew around Papeete — a period in which some transfeminine Tahitians began to live more visibly and permanently as women, distinct from the older māhū role, which sat in the middle without necessarily crossing over. There is no individual credited with coining the word; it emerged from within Māʻohi communities describing a real and growing social category.
The word carries colonial and social tension that predates it: French administrative and religious authorities had already spent a century treating māhū and gender-variant Tahitians with suspicion or ridicule, and Wikipedia notes that some māhū themselves object to raerae as reducing identity to sex. Acceptance of raerae has historically been easier in larger towns than on smaller, more conservative islands — a split that reflects broader tensions between urban and rural Tahiti rather than anything inherent to the word.
Signs people describe
Common experiences
None of these is a test. Most people recognise a few and shrug at the rest.
You are Māʻohi, and someone in your family said the word about you before you had any language of your own — kindly, or not.
Māhū was close but wrong.
You are not in the middle. You are a woman, and you live as one.
You know exactly which islands you can be yourself on and which you cannot, and you have planned your life around that.
You have been called rae-rae as an insult and as a plain description, sometimes in the same week, and you can tell the difference by the mouth it comes out of.
The French paperwork and the Tahitian word do not line up, and you carry both.
"Trans woman" is true on the form and thin in the village.
Rae-rae says which village.
Pronouns
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.
Consider another path
This might not be your word if…
- 1You are not Tahitian or otherwise Māʻohi. However well the description fits, the word is not available to you.
- 2You 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.
- 3You are Māʻohi and a man who loves men. That is a different fact about you, and rae-rae is not the word for it.
- 4You met the word in a travel article or a documentary, and nobody in your actual life would use it about you.
Close by
Related identities
Māhū
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.
Read
Transgender Female
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.
ReadFa’afafine
Samoan, and Samoa's own. Same ocean, different people, different word, and equally closed.
ReadFakaleitī
Tongan. Another neighbour that is not a translation and not transferable.
ReadMVPFAFF
The acronym that holds Pacific identities together without dissolving them into LGBTQ+. Rae-rae are Māʻohi and sit in that conversation on their own terms.
ReadQuestions people ask
Frequently asked questions
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.
The flag
No page on lgbtqia.wiki (404); gender.fandom.com is closed and nonbinary.wiki is blocked by a bot-check.
Sources
- Rae-rae — Wikipedia Fetched 2026-09-03. Defines rae-rae as transfeminine people in Tahitian culture related to māhū; describes them as living openly as women, the 1960s emergence of the term, the stigma attached and the difference in acceptance between larger towns and smaller islands.
- Māhū — Wikipedia Fetched 2026-09-03. States that rae-rae is a social category that came into use in Tahiti in the 1960s and is criticised by some māhū as a reference to sex.
- Māhū — Wikipedia Background on the older māhū role and its relationship to the newer raerae category, and the 1960s emergence of raerae in Tahiti. Fetched 2026-09-06.
Still figuring things out?
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