Thrive or Fail? Top Model show welcomes transgender model, how will she do? [VOTE] - http://www.thriveorfail.com/2931f

Last I checked, models were supposed to have very slim hips and thighs, which one is more likely to see in a man than a woman.

"Tyra Banks' reality TV show will feature a transgender..."

You mean other than Tyra herself, right?

Well, most supermodels out there are androgynously skinny - with the chests and butts of 10 year-old boys, so I don't think that a she-male model will really stand out tha much.

Thank God for the Victoria's Secret Brazilian girls: while still slim, Alessandra, Adriana, Ana etc. all have real feminine curves...actual breasts and curvy buttocks. You KNOW when you look at them that there ain't no Y chromosome (or dick & balls) anywhere to be found!

So by all means rock yourself some she-males, Calvin Lagerfeld Klein Armani. Boys will know they can at least trust Vicki's catalogs for real women to beat off to...=)

Simply because they want models bodies to be like very skinny male bodies, little hips, flat chested. I suppose there will be the requisite cat fights and ignorant remarks. Well hey, last season genital mutilation, next season MTF transgenders, what will Tyra do next to bring peace and love to the world though the shallow enterprise of modeling?

She's beautiful!

If they care more about politics, she'll win. If they care more about talent, she won't. My bet is those on the show will be progressive enough to let her into the top three, but not win it.

Please no tell!

"Shemales" is a great word for transgendered men to women. It's clever and it gets the point across.

"Transgender" sounds like an engineering term, or the name of a Kraftwerk song.

Thanks. Mighty decent of you.

Regarding your gay friends in the clubs, I think they took ugly liberties. I don't think that being gay permits such penetration of intimate space.

Regarding ni**er, you raise a good question and one I also considered while on my evening walk. I think ni**er raises images of slavery and lynchings. Of course, gay people are also mutilated, so faggot should be fa**ot, another slur we dare not spell. Likewise with ki*e and others. Is this your take?

I think the whole point of being trans is to cross. That's what trans means. Shemale, which you consider clever, is used by the crotch-obsessed right, which makes it wrong right there. It also denies crossing and fixates on the former crotch, rather than the current social role. It is a reductive term and a dismissive term. Ask a transwoman friend what she thinks.

Or just say, "Hey, shemale!" and see what she says.

I don't think she'll say, "Clever lad."

The right probably uses words which I won't even print here. Shemales is what they say in porn circles, which are, I think, creatures of the left, even if the right loves them in secret.

If you tell me that most transgendered invididuals consider it a slur, then I'll stop using it. I get the point that "Trans" means "to cross," but biologically a transgendered invidivual is not a female, or male if it's the other way. They are something not quite one or the other, biologically. Culturally, they are a man or a woman, for those who accept them as such.

As for my using that term with a transgendered person, I wouldn't, but that's because unless I knew the person, I wouldn't even allude to their sexuality/gender. That's just common courtesy.

Are you transgendered, Bigguns? If not, or even if you are, I hope some transgendered individuals respond here. After they finish yelling at me for saying that biologically they are not women (or men, if the other way), I'd like to hear how they feel about the term "shemales."

...to have chatted with two transwomen.

Thanks for being open to change.

De nada. You know us misanthropes: polite to a fault.

do not exist for straight men to beat off to. Actually, high-fashion photography represents essentially the only images of women in the public sphere that are not intended to be wank fodder for straight men, so I don't really blame the guys for looking at fashion models and going "guh, why is that girl's picture on that bus shelter if I don't want to stick my dick in her?" and being genuinely confused about why models look the way they do.

FWIW, Victoria's Secret models look like that because VS is attempting to sell fuckability to women in the form of cheap, shiny undies. So it's important that straight men want to put their penises in those girls. It's not rocket science.

As someone with several trans friends I can confirm that "she-male" is considered offensive by transsexual women. They are women, with a female gender identity and presentation, so to refer to them using a term associated with porn and objectification is offensive. I'm glad to see you meant no offense. For future reference, just because you read it on a porn site or heard some guys use it in a club doesn't make it a good idea to refer to women as "sluts" either. Probably safer to assume porn-related terms are vulgar and not for non-porn/sex-work related conversation. BTW, other bad terms: tranny, she-he, lady-boy, it.

It is almost a fashion designer's dream, let's dispense with female bodies altogether. All those yucky curves and that natural body fat that turns heterosexual men on. Ick. Women must look like prepubescent boys in order to be attractive. This is, apparently, non-negotiable in the fashion industry.

What would be more interesting is something other than the stereotype.

Isn't anyone bored with the fashion model stereotype?

Do women really welcome unfair competition for men or former men who have an advantage for approximating the stereotype with thin hips, small breasts and low body fat?

Are not other stereotypes just as beautiful and desirable?

Are not those who are not stereotypes just as beautiful and desirable?

Pretty soon robots will be able to do the jobs cheaper and with more precision.

Then we can start selling high fashion to robots as well. It will just take a little programming. Just like with people.