the word "shemale"

[tsluva]

it's always going to be labelled and in association with porn.
(see shemale yum) we won't hear that term when transexuals make
documentaries, interviews, or guest talk show appearances.

[werwt22]

shemale. she is male. ? Am I missing anything here?

[MacShreach]

shemale. she is male. ? Am I missing anything here?

Nope, that is exactly the point. And of course it is one reason why the term offends so many MtF transsexuals, since they do not consider themselves to be male, but female. There are others, such as the word's association with the porn industry, but that is a pretty major one.

[meghanchavalier]

I wrote an article on this recently for the Stopping The Hate website. Read it if you get a chance.

http://stoppingthehate.com/News-Arti..._Two_Faces.htm

Have a good weekend

Meg C.

[MacShreach]

I wrote an article on this recently for the Stopping The Hate website. Read it if you get a chance.

http://stoppingthehate.com/News-Arti..._Two_Faces.htm

Have a good weekend

Meg C.

Seconded. Nice piece, Meghan.

[ezed]

FUCK, CAN YOU BELIEVE IT? I was about to go to bed but said to myself, "Let's see what's happening in HA!" So I started rummaging around the threads looking for a place to take a leak. So I stopped into a discussion on the term shemale. PC has invaded HA. Back to labels again. Who really gives a shit. I call a beautiful woman with a cock by her first name. I call a beautiful woman with out a cock by her first name. I love them all. Why do I need to box them. Why are they concerned about being boxed.

You can can call me a shemale chaser, a tranny chaser, a woman chaser or .... dare I say, it gay!!!! I'm not. No I'm kidding, not really I'm not kidding I am gay but not into guys unless they look like beautiful women and then only if they define themselves as shemale and not CD's or TV's. Then again there are some really nice looking CD's and TV's. Jesus, I'm conflicted!

We have evolved into a bar code society. Do you like the person in front of you? Would you like to make love to them ? Go with your desire.

BUT BEWARE OF THE FUCKING GUY WITH THE BAR CODE LABELS TRYING TO SLAP ONE ON YOUR ASS WHILE YOUR MAKING PASSIONATE LOVE!

[MacShreach]

?

And your point is?

[Larry_Toronto]

I have met many ladies of all types... cd, tv, ts, post op. From most, I have heard that they find the term "shemale" to be derogatory. After listening to everyone, I finally came up with a definition of "shemale" which is suitable to me, and to most people who hear it. I am NOT trying to force this definition on everyone, I just present it for those who may wish to consider it.

In my view a shemale is someone who meets the following three criteria...

a) a transsexual (definied to be someone who has modified their body in some manner to take on the appearance of the opposite sex),

b) a person who uses their transsexual nature to make money in some manner, and

c) self-identifies as a "shemale"

[MacShreach]

In my view a shemale is someone who meets the following three criteria...

a) a transsexual (definied to be someone who has modified their body in some manner to take on the appearance of the opposite sex),

b) a person who uses their transsexual nature to make money in some manner, and

c) self-identifies as a "shemale"

I think you mean well, but, taking these in reverse order,

c) is fine-- people have the right to be known as what they wish to be known as, within reason.

b) I think might upset quite a few women who work in the sex business, though not all; many transsexual women work in this business because they have no other way of funding their transition. Just because she makes money with her body doesn't make a woman any less a woman , even if you do have moral issues with prostitution. Since the term "shemale" contains the very strong suggestion that the subject is actually male, transsexual women working in the sex business have every right to be miffed by people calling them it--even Bible-thumping moral ayatollahs don't consider GG prostitutes to be less female because they fuck for money, after all.

a)Your definition of "transsexual" looks to me like a confusion between the notions of "transgender" and "transsexual." "Transgender" is a very broad church and includes everyone from cross-dressers and drag queens right through to transvestites, who may live full-time as women. Although it is also often used to include transsexual women too, many dislike this. As far as these women are concerned, they are exactly the gender they are supposed to be and there's nothing "trans" about it-- it is their birth sex, ie their genitalia, that is trans, or was trans for a post-op, since they were born with the wrong equipment.These women are not modifying their bodies in order to take on the appearance of the opposite sex, they are correcting physical anomalies that already make them appear to be of the wrong gender (male in this case.)

However, there are also many, many examples of transgender people who have had surgeries to make them appear more feminine, but who are most emphatically not transsexual.The distinction may be subtle but it is real and the point is that the two terms are not interchangeable; transsexual women were born women and always have been women, but they suffer from a condition that slapped them with an "outie" instead of an "innie;" they are not men who want to look like women.

In the end, since you require all three to be satisfied anyway, your criterion c) is the only important one--the self-identification. If she calls herself a shemale, that's fine; if she don't, it ain't. That seems to me a pretty safe guide and it's the one I use.

[Tara Emory]

I personally identify myself as transgender (or transsexual), but I don't care for the term "tranny" because it always seems to imply "transvestite", which is just a guy in a dress.

To me, all the "trans" terms imply that you're travelling from A to B, and since I was never fully "A" how can I have travelled (saying that even as a "boy" everybody mistook me for a girl). It's sort of like the idea that some of us who pose nude can't be labelled as "crossdressers" - if we're not dressed!

"Shemale" is really a marketing term, but I've come to be comfortable with it as sort of a mythical creature label, like a "unicorn" or a "mermaid". "Shemale" also just flows better off the tongue and works better in movie titles. But call me a "shemale" to my face and I won't be happy.

Case in point. I'm making a sci-fi porn called "Uranus Needs Shemales". Since I don't like "trannies", I can't really go and call it "Uranus Needs Transgender People". That's really way, way too many words.

-Tara