Talk:Shemale/DRV proposal

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A shemale (sometimes she-male) is a person who has a female body, including fully developed breasts, and is a woman in all respects except that the shemale has male genitalia. In other words, a shemale displays characteristically female secondary sex characteristics, such as  breasts, but includes male primary sex characteristics, like a penis and testicles. With clothes on, a shemale looks like a woman.

Shemale is a pre-op transexual, typically having breasts of an adult female, and usually have other female secondary sex characteristics, but have not undergone genital reassignment surgery. Breasts(and other secondary sex characteristics) are formed through hormone replacement therapy and/or through breast augmentation or due to intersexuality.

This term is used mainly in the porn industry. The term (along with tranny, ladyboy and "chick with a dick") is frequently used in the adult entertainment industry. The term shemale is generally considered a derogatory term to refer to transwomen. Many people, especially transgendered individuals themselves, consider the term highly offensive. Transwoman is male-to-female transgender or transsexual differs from shemale and is a wider term.

Etymology
In the early 19th century, "she-male" was used as a colloquialism in American literature for "Female" Davy Crockett is quoted as using the term in regards to a shooting match, when his opponent challenges Davy Crockett to shoot near his opponent's wife, Davy Crockett is reported to have replied:

"No, No, Mike," sez I, Davy Crockett's hand would be sure to shake, if his iron pointed within a hundred miles of a shemale, and I give up beat..."

According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, by 1970 the term shemale had come to mean "Masculine Lesbian", although this is no longer common usage.

In 1979, Janice Raymond employed the term's modern usage in her controversial book, The Transsexual Empire in which she argues that from a feminist point of view, transsexuals constitute an attack by males upon femininity.

Use in Anime and Manga
The term Shemale is often used in English translations for Futanari, a subtype of hentai. However the most correct term for Futanari is perhaps intersexuals or hermaphrodites. Futanari are most traditionally drawn with both Male and Female reproductive organs, and female secondary sexual characteristics, although there are several modern variations on the theme.