The Femininity of the Shemale

Racism, after all, exists in every ethnic group. If males refuse to accept shemales as "dudes with boobs," women may also refuse to accept them as "chicks with dicks" of as "sluts with nuts." In this case, shemales suffer a fate similar to that of the racially mixed child who is rejected by the ethnic groups of both of his or her parents. Shemales who experience such twofold rejection are regarded as a third sex, of sorts, just as doubly rejected racially mixed children are regarded as being strange progeny called "half-breeds," "mulattos," or "high-yellows."

Femininity, we learn, can be affected, but, to be attained, it must also be accepted. One is not feminine unless she is accepted as such, no matter how much she may look and act the part.

Part of acting the part is having sex with men, because, whether women also have sex with others of their sex, women, also, by definition--or by most people's definition, including most women's definition (and it is the majority that determines the meanings of words, at least socially)--have sex with men. To have sex with men marks a shemale as a female for those who are willing to accept the shemale's femininity. If those who are willing to do so constitute a majority in her community or country, she will be accorded the state and the attendant status of womanhood. Her sexual acts will be considered heterosexual, as will her sex partner. However, if her femininity is rejected by the majority in her community or country, her having sex with men will mark both her and her partner as homosexuals. This is why, for some men, having sex with a shemale is an acceptable variation upon heterosexual behavior, whereas, for others, it is a decidedly homosexual act.

Just as, only a decade or so ago, having a penis and testicles would have defined one as male, regardless of any female secondary sexual characteristics he might have or how he dressed or behaved, being able, if only in theory, to conceive and carry a baby to term and to deliver it in the act of birth would have been the defining characteristics of a woman.