What are shemales?

Answer 1

A "shemale" is a male (ie., born with a penis) who does not intend to complete finish surgical transformation into a woman, and they typically pose in adult publications. Such a person still has a penis, but also has female features due to hormone treatments. They cannot be called female as being female means you have female parts. Referring to a person who was born with male anatomy and who wishes to keep their male anatomy as "female" can be taken as insulting to those born with female parts.

People who have both male and female organs are called intersexed, and are usually raised as either a boy or a girl - often, the parents choose to have the less prominent organ(s) removed at birth so that the child can grow up looking like a normal boy or a normal girl.

A person who feels that they have been born in the wrong body (aka "feels like a woman trapped in the wrong body") has transsexualism. Someone who is gender-variant and who typically has no plans for corrective surgery is transgender. Most transgender persons do not have surgery, but simply live as a woman (or a man if they are a female-to-male transgender) - they dress and act like a woman instead of a man.

Answer 2

The term shemale is considered an offensive term outside of a pornographic context. They are males who choose to look like women, often for the purposes of making pornographic materials. They usually never get full sex reassignment. They may or may not be taking/ or have taken hormones. They are usually attracted to males.

Please note they are not the same as someone born with transsexualism and the need to surgically eliminate it. "Shemales" are however, a subset of the transgender community.