Shemale

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The term shemale refers to transwomen (male-to-female transgender or transsexual people) who have breasts typical of an adult female (through hormone replacement therapy and/or through breast augmentation), and who usually have other female secondary sex characteristics, but who have not undergone genital reassignment surgery.

However, other transwomen never undergo genital reassignment surgery even if they can afford it, or come to accept their genitalia, because they consider the surgery to be unnecessary for their individual gender transition. Some transwomen have said they prefer the genitalia with which they were born^{[citation needed]}.

The term "shemale" (along with tranny, LadyBoy and "chick with dick") is commonly, but not exclusively, used in pornography and the sex industry; videos and magazines involving such people are a common sub-genre of pornography. It is often seen by transsexual people as a powerful term of abuse.

Many transwomen are offended by this term for one or more of the following reasons:

because of the association with the sex industry, like pornography, escorting, and sex party scenes,
because many transwomen who have not undergone genital reassignment surgery want it and/or
because their gender identity is female, not "male", nor do they feel they are only "half-female".