Bringing the Shemale category up to date?
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Hi. I was wondering if there was any traction for the idea that the Shemale category is out of date in 2019 and should be replaced with one or more categories that would be more appropriate and accurate today?
No doubt when the category was created, the term was more common, especially in porn. But today it is definately seen as an inaccurate and hurtful pejorative.
A simple category rebranding to 'Trans' would be helpful I think. Or further still, as there is a lot more FTM (female-to-male) trans porn these days too, maybe 2 new categories replacing Shemale: FTM Trans and MTF Trans? Whilst I am aware that labels are becoming less important for many these days as gender lines blur and fade, it does still make sense I think to have such descriptive categories of porn, which after all is a product and people do want to be able to find accurately what they are looking for. Breaking down categories even further would seem counterproductive and I think the two categories of FTM and MTF would suffice.
I am in no way blaming anyone for the creation of the Shemale category back when the term was more prevelant, but I think most would agree it is outdated. Any thoughts?
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We have discussed this elsewhere.
I agree with you. I like FTM porn much more than MTF.
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I agree completely with the sentiment of the term being outdated, inaccurate and possibly insensitive and support at least changing the category name/image.
As far as other changes; I feel this would fit into a broader conversation around categories/tagging/search.
Since options around categories only affects the primary category, and the existing ones are not mutually exclusive, I find myself not really using them for browsing/search most of the time. -
Good suggestion.Â
Renaming it to "Trans" would make sense to me.
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"Trans" includes way too many groups that the category in question isnt designed for.
I love Blair White and other trans people as commentators on YouTube, but I don't want to see her get fucked in her vagina.  That would go in the hetero section, which I don't watch.
"Trans" also includes transgender. This means we could have lesbian porn, but its hetero porn because one of them sometimes claims to be male.
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I agree raphjd, that's why I thought breaking the categories down too much could become counter-productive.
Two categories of FTM and MTF whilst not perfect would sort out many of those problems and is certainly better than Shemale.
- FTM category: Where at least one performer is Trans male presenting - the majority of scenes in FTM would be classed as gay as the emphasis would be on male-presenting performers.
- MTF category: At least one performer is Trans female presenting - majority of scenes in the MTF category would be straight with some lesbian as the emphasis is on female presenting performers.
In the case of both FTM and MTF performers in the same scene as does happen, it would be at the discretion of the uploader to decide, with maybe a preference towards the MTF category as it would contain both male and female presenting performers and thus for simplicities sake lean more towards "straight" (for want of a better term).
Actually I would like to hear from any trans people on here to see their thoughts on a more appropriate rebranding of the Shemale category too.
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I finally couldn't take looking at that category name any more and came to make this very suggestion. Glad to see others beat me to it.
That name needs to go, period. If people don't like trans I'd be fine with another suggestion, but I don't think "I don't like trans so let's stick with Shemale" is really a viable position any more.
Not sure how many trans people will chime in. Surely that category name doesn't exactly scream "you are welcome in our community, SHEMALES?"
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I agree that "Shemale" is generally considered offensive and that "Trans" would be the appropriate category as it includes both transexual and transgender people and anything else between male and female.
It doesn't have anything to do with what sexual activities are involved, if any.  There are plenty of torrents of solo posing, for instance.  If the sexual activities were the determining factor, where would those go?  Sexuality is a spectrum, not discreet categories of straight, gay, etc.  Anal sex could be between any two people of any sex and/or gender if at least one of them has an anus. Same for oral sex. It's the individuals having anal or oral sex that determines the category, not the orifice.
Trying to break it down further into categories even as simple as FTM and MTF probably wouldn't work very well. Â Sex and gender are not so clearly defined these days, especially with DNA testing available. Â There are people who are not strictly genetically male or female, there are people whose sex and/or gender appearance and/or identity are different from their DNA. Â It's hard to sort out and categorize and there's really no need to.
Also, it would be a lot easier to just switch the category to Trans than to break Shemale down into more than one category and recategorize all the torrents.
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bbb, i will gently differ on a point, and that is, for my referencing the content of videos, separate FTM and MTF categories seems very useful, as much as I understand there are infinite levels of gender fluidity and types of sexual activity that could be viewed by individuals as more meaningful as a primary descriptor.
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Yesterday, an uploader released several transsexual videos at once, and I noticed that a transphobe had assigned each a "one-star" rating, before the clips had even been fully loaded. If I reported the videos, I'm pretty sure the individual could be identified, but would anything come of it?
I ask this because, as foreshadowing, these category suggestions have been around for so very, very, very long with NO change. It makes me wonder if no one in management cares, or if the website "module" even allows categories to be added, removed or renamed.
Does anyone know of an example of categories changing as such? Would be very helpful info...
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bbb, i will gently differ on a point, and that is, for my referencing the content of videos, separate FTM and MTF categories seems very useful, as much as I understand there are infinite levels of gender fluidity and types of sexual activity that could be viewed by individuals as more meaningful as a primary descriptor.
It's not something that I had given any thought to other than sort of rolling my eyes mentally every time I see the "shemale" category. I don't even watch any sort of trans porn on a regular basis. The category is probably named the way it is because so much porn is labelled that way in the first place, although it seems "trans" or "transexual" is probably more common these days than "she-male" or "she male".
Luke Hudson videos are assigned the "shemale" category by site members. He is FTM. "She male" is a neutral term that includes FTM and MTF if you think about it, even though it is most often associated with MTF trans people.
It makes me wonder if no one in management cares, or if the website "module" even allows categories to be added, removed or renamed.
I think management is probably made up of unpaid volunteers and that they have more than enough to do just keeping the site up and running. I would guess that changing anything is much more complicated, risky, and time-consuming than someone who hasn't done it (like myself) can imagine. Something that works okay is probably not a priority even if it is not ideal.
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bbb, I'm glad you do roll your eyes at the "Shemale" category, even though it's not one of your main interests – you're a good egg to comment on the need for change, simply because you know it could be better. :love:
And yes, everyone here, behind the scenes, deserves our endless thanks for what are often thankless tasks.
With all that said, I also agree with your point that changing a thing as fundamental as the Category Menu would most likely be "complicated" and "risky."
And that's why knowing if the Menu CAN change would be so very useful.
For if the Menu is too fixed or perilous to change, it would be a great favor to have someone simply SAY SO. There's really no point in our time spent offering suggestions, if there's ZERO possibility of it occurring. Wouldn't you agree?
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Site and member security are ALWAYS our 1st priority.
The site owner is looking for the cause of the recent problems at the site, after making sure the site is secure.
Updates have a low priority if they don't add security to the site.
We plan on making several of the changes requested by members, including the one in this thread, but they have low priority and may have to wait until the new forum software comes online. The site owner is also considering doing a major redo of the site software.
None of the staff is paid, in general. The site owner has on occasion has hired a temp coder to help, but that's it.
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A big  :hug: to raphjd for responding with the "long view" and overall clarity of goals.
