Shemale (sometimes she-male or she-man) is a noun in the English language, most notable for its slang usage in a pejorative context referring to male-to-female transsexuals (transwomen). Shemale is widely used in sex industries to refer to transsexual people who have breasts of an adult female (through hormone replacement therapy and/or breast implants) and may have other female secondary sex characteristics, but have not undergone genital reassignment surgery. Shemale, along with tranny, ladyboy, and other terms with similar connotations, are commonly used in pornography, escorting, and associated sex industries; videos and magazines involving such people are a common sub-genre of pornography. Melissa Hope Ditmore, of the Trafficked Persons Rights Project, notes the term “is an invention of the sex industry, and most transwomen find the term abhorrent.”
According to Philip H. Herbst’s Wimmin, Wimps & Wallflowers, shemale has been applied to “almost anyone who appears to have bridged gender lines”, including effeminate men and lesbians. In LGBT communities, especially amongst transgender individuals, the term is considered offensive for its connotations, associations with sex industries and implication that one’s gender identity is less than genuine. It is often seen by transsexual people as a term of abuse. According to Professors Laura Castañeda and Shannon Campbell at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School of Journalism, using the term for a transwoman is considered “highly offensive and inaccurate” because it implies “she is working ‘in the [sex] trade and retains her male genitalia.’ It may be considered libellous.”
