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The Incongruity of the Shemale

By: Cal Y. Pygia



One of the first rules of writing an essay, especially concerning a topic the understanding of which remains as fluid and changeable as it is controversial, is to define one's terms. I have two to define: "transsexual" and "shemale." As I employ these words in this essay, the former refers to transwomen--that is, to male-to-female transsexuals who have, as it were, gone all the way, beyond mere hormone treatments and through sex-reassignment surgery, trading their male genitalia for the female variety. They are no longer "cocks in frocks," as a crude description of their transgender status expresses their situation; rather, they are all-woman women, as feminine as they can ever hope to be who were not born as such. I use the term "shemale" to refer to individuals who are sometimes called "pre-operative transsexuals," but with this caveat; as I use the term, a "shemale" is a person who has undergone all, or most, feminizing treatments, but opts to exclude sex-reassignment surgery and retain her penis and testicles. The shemale has a beautiful, feminine appearance, both in face and in form, excluding her cock and balls. It is of the latter, the shemale, as my essay's title indicates, of whom I write.

The shemale is an incongruity, a self-contradiction, at once both male and female while, at the same time, neither male nor female. As such, one's contemplation of her takes him or her--and especially him--into uncharted waters, so to speak, particularly into the realm of homosexuality, for, whether male or female (but especially in the case of the penis-equipped male), he or she is likely to consider what it would be like to engage the shemale in intercourse, and, of course, only one means lies open to him, so to speak, by which to accomplish this act, namely, her anus. Intercourse with a shemale must, of necessity, be per anum (that is, by way of the anus), for she offers no alternative, having no vagina. Breasts there may be, and womanly buttocks there may be, but there is not, and, barring surgery (which, for shemales, by definition, we have already ruled out), there never will, nor can there ever, be, a vagina.

The shemale's secondary sexual characteristics all point toward femininity, but the pesky penis and testicles, her primary sexual characteristics, testify of her essential manhood, which is why, even in slang, we speak of "chicks with dicks" instead of "men with boobs." Of course, for the shemale, her male genitals are not really pesky; they are chosen in the sense that she could have rid herself of them but, instead, opted to retain them. Therefore, her masculinity, although it is suppressed, as it were, by the more overt charms of her femininity, often being stuffed upward and backward between her thighs and buttocks, where they are restrained so as to present a smooth contour at her crotch, remains a vital part of her identity. She is not fully feminine, although she could have chosen to be so, nor is she fully masculine, although, again, she could have chosen to be. She is, as it were, a novelty, a third sex.

The shemale should not be confused with intersexed individuals, such as Jamie Lee Curtis, for example, is alleged to be. Such persons are hermaphrodites, having partially formed genitals of both sexes. They choose--or their parents choose for them--which sex they shall be, and medical services are provided to make their transformation total and complete. They become either a male or a female; they are not, therefore, shemales as the term is defined in this essay. Why should a person opt to be both male and female and, at the same time, neither male nor female, but shemale? There are probably as many reasons as there are shemales. However, their motivation is not the subject of this essay; rather, we are concerned here with the incongruity of the shemale.

As the third sex, so to speak, the shemale stands out. With a feminine face and figure, combined with fully functional male sex organs, she is emphatic (to say the least). She creates a stir wherever she goes. Often, she is accepted and admired, but, too frequently (one is too frequent), she attracts the attention of homophobic individuals (mostly males) who feel threatened by them. Why threatened? No doubt, such men have concerns about their own masculinity, and a merger of masculine and feminine, of male and female, in the figure of the shemale makes them uneasy and fearful--and, unfortunately--angry, even enraged.

To prove their manhood, they feel it necessary to lash out, or even to kill, the "freak" that they see--or claim to see--in the shemale's presence or, for that matter, existence. (Although the actor James Marsters--Spike on the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer) didn't lash out or attempt to kill the male costar with whom he exchanged a kiss in a recent movie, he is said to have immediately afterward kissed his girlfriend so as to "reassert his masculinity.") However, there may be another, broader reason that people in general--society, if you will--fears shemales and finds them to be more or less disgusting. As anomalies, they do not fit the heterosexual scheme of things that is of paramount importance in a sexist and chauvinistic patriarchy. By being neither clearly male nor clearly female, shemales are threats to the status quo. They are Others, such as outsiders, freaks, or monsters. As such, they must be cast into outer darkness (that is, exiled) or destroyed.

From the earliest days, anyone who was different in a significant way (for example, someone who, as a result of a genetic mutation or a birth defect, had two heads, three breasts, four arms, twelve fingers or toes, or a hermaphroditic combination of sexual organs) was considered a monster and, as such, a threat to the larger, normal community. In fact, the etymology of the word "monster" itself indicates this. The word derives from the Old French "monstre" word, which, in turn, comes from the Latin word "monstrum," which refers to a malformed animal or a creature afflicted with a birth defect. Monsters were once regarded as signs or omens which warned of coming catastrophes, and monsters were regarded as holy. The gist of the meaning, thereafter, however was of something that is unnatural or hideous and as deviant from the norm; a monster was something regarded as not merely wrong but as shockingly erroneous and offensive. Often, because men have ruled at least since the time that, according to some thinkers, the original matriarchy gave way, following men's discovery that they, too, play a role in women's pregnancy and that women do not get themselves magically or supernaturally with child, to the patriarchy and the vested interests of men. There were gorgons, lamia, sirens, Furies, and a host of other female monstrosities that male heroes fought and slew, preserving the status quo against the threats of the feminine.

Foreigners, Native Americans, Asians, blacks, Hispanics, the poor, homosexuals, woman, and many other minority and marginalized groups have, at one time or another, served the role of being the threatening Other against whom the patriarchy's white male majority defined themselves and maintained the existing order in which they, at the expense of the Other, enjoyed most of the benefits, including wealth and women--or, more specifically, white women. However, are any set of characteristics more obviously different to those of men's characteristics than a pair of breasts, a pair of well-rounded, womanly buttocks, and a vagina? Women are the most obvious and complete antithesis of men, both physically and mentally; science has demonstrated that the female brain is structurally and functionally different than the male brain, which means that it operates differently, to some extent, than the male brain as well.

As a female mimic of sorts, the shemale, who opts to retain his male genitals rather than to undergo sex-change surgery, so that she remains an incongruity, halfway between male and female and between masculinity and femininity, is something of a mystery. On one hand, she is obviously and unmistakably a "he." Therefore, he is a member of the ruling elite, the patriarchy. On the other hand, she is obviously, if only apparently, a "she." Therefore, she represents the Other, those who are, if not exiled or destroyed, suppressed and controlled. Her existence as a both-and-neither combination of sex and gender is not only confusing, but it also makes people (especially men) uneasy, for she is a constant reminder of the artificiality of the self-other dichotomy through which power is retained and exercised by some against others, or the ruling Self of the male patriarchy against the ruled Other of the female.

During slavery, whites regarded blacks as animals, and it was only with the U. S. Supreme Court's Dred Scott decision that they were accounted as three-fifths of a person, strictly for voting purposes. Likewise, Native Americans were considered to be "savages"; Asians were "Chinks" or "Japs"; Hispanics were "Spics" or "wetbacks"; the poor were "bums"; and homosexuals were "queers" and "fags." Women can be regarded, by sexists, as "twats" or "cunts" or "bitches" (or even as "butches"), but it is more difficult to dismiss them with a stereotypical and sexist slur when they also possess the equipment of the very men who would so disrespectfully and summarily dismiss them, for, in doing so, are men not also, at least tacitly, devaluing themselves? The best that sexists will allow, perhaps, is to grant shemales the grudging recognition, as second-class citizens, of a hybrid status akin to that of "half-breeds" and "mulattoes."

Of course, such recognition is not enough; it's not even logically correct. It is morally wrong and repugnant. It is also evasive, of both ethical and legal considerations. Like all the Others who have gone before her (and the many who continue to exist alongside her), the shemale deserves full recognition and respect. A little admiration wouldn't be amiss, either. Unfortunately, as long as, despite her beauty and grace, the shemale remains an incongruity, she will be slow in realizing these basic human rights. It is time to retire the threatening "Other" and to embrace all men, women, transmen, transwomen, and shemales everywhere, without regard for race, color, creed, sex, sexual orientation, or, for that matter, genitalia.