It's ironic that we're having this conversation today because today is the Transgender Day of Remembrance. It was set aside to memorialize those who were killed due to anti-transgender hatred or prejudice. I know this is porn and we use many colorful ways to describe the models in order to get our members to indulge in their own fantasies, but let's remember one thing... these models are human beings. And nobody likes to be called an "it". Well, unless objectification is your fetish, but that's a whole other ballgame. And I know it's become and industry term but I hate seeing the word "shemale" being used anywhere. I think it's crass and ignorant. I also hate seeing the "N" word used in black guy sites and the "F" word used by straight people who build gay sites. Yes, believe it or not, when you are a trans person the word "shemale" fits in that category.

If you don't know someone's gender look at how they present themselves. People make such a big deal about this but it's pretty easy, actually. If a person is dressed mostly as a female you refer to her as "she" (and yes, this is the case for drag queens when they are in drag) and if a person has the outward appearance of a man you call him "he". If someone is totally androgynous you could go as far as calling them "they" if you really can't tell. But androgyny is a different thing. A trans person usually identifies as one or the other.

Most times when someone calls a transgendered woman "he" because they know she used to be a man or because she is pre-op, it's the person's own prejudice (even if it's unconscious) that's causing them to use the improper pronoun. It all boils down to respect. If you know a person has gone through the trouble the present themselves as a particular gender, for whatever reason (true gender, entertainment, or otherwise) it is a matter of respect that you call them by the gender they are portraying rather than the one you think they should or should not be called. And I can't reiterate this enough... under no circumstances should you ever refer to another human being as an "it".