Transwoman or Shemale? (Inspiration Blog) (Patreon)

CW: Slurs and graphic language

A shemale is a gynemorph, a character with predominately female characteristics but is not a woman. In the pornography I draw these are largely feminine characters who lack a vagina but have a penis. Such characters are either born this way or made this way through circumstance, be it either against their will or in order to fulfill a personal fetish*.

A transwoman is a woman who was unfortunately assigned the male gender at birth due to their biological sex. Suffering from dysphoria as the result, these women may take steps to reinforce and solidify their true gender identity so that they may live their lives happily.

There may be times were an outside observer will not be able to discern the two apart based on appearances alone.

*One of my characters, Ariana, is largely a "woman" in all aspects except for her penis. She even uses female pronouns. However, Ariana is NOT a transwoman. She's a pervert. Her motivations to be this way are based solely from the sex appeal and not because her gender identity has a critical impact on her life. She is very much a man who gets off on having big breasts and big hips because this arouses him <-- and there's no insult to be had in misgendering him because gender was never the point.

Lets now contrast this with Maisy and Mako. These two certainly wouldn't mind appearing more feminine, but not because it turns them on. Maisy and Mako want to look more feminine because they're women. they've always been women,  and they've always felt that way on the inside. Currently Maisy is taking gender reassigning hormones, and Mako is embracing her true self after a lifetime of hiding in the closet and suffering from dysphoria in secret. As such these changes in appearance and behavior are not merely for pleasure but as a means to improve their emotional and psychological well being.

Very different scenarios with very different intentions.

And of course there are characters and scenarios that blur the lines and muddy the waters. 

I today argue that these blurred scenarios were created solely for the sake of porn, but I am well aware of how offensive these things may be when removed from their original context.

Terms like Shemale or even Herm have been used to disparage trans people for ages, and I have no desire to add to that. But as a pornographer, these terms and more make up the linguistic jargon for my work. The implicit contract between me and the audience that states that we are all adults and we are engaging in something that is already socially taboo. Wherein our day-to-day lives we will be mindful, polite, and progressive, yet when comes the time to masturbate, we understand that things may get messy.

But don't worry. I have always been quite deliberate with my word choices, even if some of the terms I use could be used as slurs.

--My point being is that I call shemales shemales,  transpeople transpeople, and that those terms mean very different things.