Steven Grooby and I have had a LONG running dialog on the topic of trans porn marketing of which I’m not proud. It kind of got out of control and I wrote a LOT of critical blog and message board posts. I was pushing him to do more to get rid of the word as his is the top company in the niche. But I should have seen the writing on the wall; it was going to sort itself culturally, and now it is. Usually I’m pretty good at predicting long-term trends, but I was too focused on the debate itself that I couldn’t see much else. That was my fail.

So…

When I first started in this industry, I despised the word shemale because it is, in fact, derogatory and othering. But since then, I have landed in the center on this issue. I feel that the word ‘shemale’ will eventually transition to ‘trans’ or ‘ts’ organically with more public awareness.

Bottom line? It’s a degrading word, but it’s the one in use right now.Β I take Rodney Moore’s stance on this. We can’t ban the word completely… yet. But we can minimize its use as the market demands it. We’ll have to wait and see how long that takes.

And I hope the mainstream industry follows suit and cuts down on the use of degrading descriptions for females as well. Porn doesn’t HAVE to be about degradation. Maybe I’m an idealist (OK, I am), but I think porn can be hot AND beautiful, and even empowering. I personally feel that degradation scenes should be in a niche of their own since they reduceΒ our mainstream viability.

I also think that many copy writers still use sensational terminology for its shock value. It makes it easier to turn on a potential viewer. But what happens when the shock wears off? It’s just another boring word. There are so many ways to describe scenes, and I think we as an industry need to focus a bit more on improving the way we present ourselves in writing, again due to mainstreaming.

Add to that the fact that we need to up our game to compete with all of the free content out there, and I think stronger and maybe even safe-for-work writing might be one of the keys to mainstream success.

On a personal note, I’m pretty submissive, so when a dominant calls me a sh***le, I think its super hot because I’m into objectification. But really, it’s just a roleplay. Nobody has ever called me that in real life, at least not to my face. I did have a drug addict call me a tr***y once, but it was only because we were arguing and my voice was cracking. I ignored the comment and kept arguing.

I’m so glad that I moved.