About

Shemale (sometimes she-male) is a usually derogatory term for a person who appears to be female, possessing both breasts and male genitalia.

The term, along with tranny, ladyboy and others, is often used in sex industries to refer to a pre-operative transsexual who has not had sex reassignment surgery; although the industry is known to advertise catering to customer’s interests. Less frequently, it is used to describe intersex people.[citation needed]

Many people within the LGBT communities, particularly transgender individuals, consider the term offensive. However, like many potentially derogatory labels, some have adopted the term as an endearment or as a form of self-empowermen

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 regard 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 be used disparagingly for “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: The Making of the She-Male in which she argues that from a feminist point of view, transsexuals constitute an attack by males upon femininity. In 1990, Jennifer Anne Stevens defined a she-male as “Usually a gay male who lives full time as a woman; a gay transgenderist” in her book From Masculine To Feminine And All points In Between