Here’s a sadly common thing I see, especially on Hentai Foundry: A decent, well crafted image of a lady fucking another girl using her dick. The artist’s tags mention futa and futanari are in place. There’s just one problem: The girl with the dick doesn’t have a pussy. In other words, she’s not a futanari. She’s, for lack of a better term at the better term for the moment, a shemale.
You might not think much of the term, but there’s a very specific definition to futanari. However, it gets ignored frequently by many artists with regularity for the sake of “sales” or “traffic.” Such things dilute what it means, and can make customers believe that any girl with a dick is a futa, which limits what future artists can do creatively.
Recently, Marie Fasolt pointed out that our mascot futanari Sayako’s pussy needs some quality fucking, possibly from Tara growing her own dick as shown above (one can dream). Most artists who use the term “futa” wouldn’t even consider that a possibility, because they don’t make futas. It’s time to set the record straight on the term, and where to go from here.
But What Is A Futa?
It’s time for a Vox-level explainer, only without the stuck-up attitude that comes with it. Futanari, in kana ふたなり, literally translates to “two kinds” or “two forms.” Applying this on a sexual level, the closest equivalent translation is hermaphrodite – a term that comes from a Greek god who fused with a female water nymph and liked the results. In ancient and medieval times, when Japanese culture wasn’t influenced by Jewish/Christian/Islamic gender binaries, the term more broadly encompassed androgyny. There was a lot of folklore related to the term, such as the belief that certain people could change their gender at the half-moon – not unlike werewolves at a full moon but with a lot less fur and silly furry ideas.
Modern terminology of futanari applied the hermaphrodite idea in a way that was unique and specific. It now means a complete female who also possesses a dick. The complete and also is what makes it specific, for they are still hermaphrodites. I mean, it’s in the name: They have two forms, i.e. two sets of genitals!
Now, there’s definitely some room to question why the modern term came to be. As dezmondel of the famous Stone Sorceress series once asked me, why aren’t guys with vaginas as common? But the point here is futanari are hermaphrodites, pure and simple.
So why do artists screw up on such a simple concept and use futanari to describe women who aren’t that?
Shemales and Excess Baggage
Arguably, the common refrain I hear from artists who get called out on what seems to be semantics is “that’s what the fans want,” and I shouldn’t complain. But is that what the fans really want, that they’re that dick-obsessed? Or are artists just uncomfortable with using the term “shemale?”
If the latter, it wouldn’t exactly be a surprise. Our culture now obsesses over individual identity and creating a politics around it. Thus the term shemale – which usually means a pre-op trans woman – is now as loaded as Sayako would be if she avoided sexual contact for about a month. What was once the best option to describe women with dicks in real life is now borderline transphobic.
Moreover, fiction eschews the biological realities often associated with a person’s sex. While shemales have a specific look to them, the women with dicks (but not pussies) in 3DX and 2D/hentai porn still appear visually female. It’s essentially as if all that happened to the woman as her genitals. Or, it may be a woman who is able turn her clit into a dick while closing up her labia and vagina (which sounds painful), because the latter for some reason is necessary.
(This opens up the question of why it’s necessary to remove the vagina from the equation to begin with, but that’s for another time)
There’s nothing wrong with any of these types of characters, mind you. Some of our best artists specialize in those types of women. It’s just that there’s not really a name for them that fits them specifically, or even just in general. Which brings up another possibility: The reason these women are called futanari is artists are too lazy to come up with a term on their own. As someone who has lived with messy and flaky artists, that would be the least surprising reason of all.
A Better Term: Dickgirl
Perhaps the best solution is to create a new term all together. One that encompasses not only women with dicks, but futanari, shemales, and others.
We, thankfully, already came up with a better, more straightforward term in porn: Dickgirl. It’s not SEO friendly yet, but now’s a good a time as any to work on it. The term works because of its generality and simplicity: The name implies the girl has a dick. Whether she’s a futanari or not is irrelevant. There’s no need for semantics because it answers its own primary question.
Our site style guide (yes, we have one) uses this as our catch-all term for such matters. It keeps things simple: Instead of having to figure out whether the girl with a dick also has a vagina, we just conclude at the first point and move on.
Miro recently proposed a mainstream term for it: D-Girl. Feel free to poke fun of him for it in the comments, as I doubt anyone can take a term like that seriously.
Hentai Foundry also uses the “dickgirl” term in its category system. However, they join it with “Futanari,” which only sows further confusion. We suggest they just drop “futanari” outright from their categories, and let their audience figure out themselves what they want, and understand what the original term means.
Porn, especially 3DX, benefits from clarity. By knowing what fetishes they’re toying with, artists can actually create quality work. Moreover, by understanding what a futanari actually is, an artist has more options on what to do with her than they would before. Oh, the possibilities…
Patrick
July 24, 2021I couldn’t agree more, thanks for your post. It seems people are confused by this subject.
Xavier
October 19, 2017I wish this site did animated porn like bible black, rough and aggressive sex. Hard to believe anyone here would use that for an example. Likewise I prefer the Dickgirls with the balls attached, it’s fine if they have both the balls and the female part too, looks rather odd though when theyve got them both or no balls at all. But then again I’m open minded enough to accept these things.
siyanan
September 26, 2017writer
Dennis hook
November 24, 2016The last time I tried to download the affect3d girlfriends 4ever it said my Mac would not except the program because it was not an apple vetted program. What can I do to resolve this. I love the girlfriends 4ever
andi guinness
November 25, 2016I can answer this. Go to System Preferences, click on Security and Privacy. Click the lock to unlock, and where it says “Allow apps downloaded from:” Select “Anywhere.” Click the lock to save the changes (you may need to type in your password), and it should work. If you have further issues, contact [email protected].
Emmanuel Wilson-Jeffers
November 5, 2016this article was great i really got the in depth information on this whole topic, i discovered shemales from a young age so it’s not hard to see how i got here but im wondering if it was the same for everyone else bc it begs to question like how did average lives and events end us up here nothing against futanari and such just kinda thought provoking in a way bc this is not simple path to get here i assume
cikame
November 2, 2016I’m attracted to women, but discovering futa introduced to me the concept of a womans own penis, the idea of a female version of the organ and not just the male organ stuck on, which for me at the moment is only really covered by the Futa description, it’s less about the presence of a vagina as well, and more that the penis always belonged to a female.
The Trans, Shemale and other tags introduce too much of a male aspect to me, it implies that the woman is part man or boy, which as a straight man doesn’t quite sit right with me.
DB Spencer
November 1, 2016Andi and I have discussed this before to an extent. I’m glad to see this become an article. 😀
All of my Dickgirls are what this article would call Shemales (a term created by the sex industry and only appropriate to use in that context). However, I am one of those artists who does use the tags ‘Futa’ and ‘Futanari’ when the characters involved are ‘Shemale’. Why? Why would I do that, when you know I’m a detail freak? I do it because of the unfortunate fact that most fans don’t the difference. For the majority of fans ‘Shemale’, ‘TG’ and similar terms are incorrectly part of their definition of ‘Futa’. So, until the difference becomes mainstream, I feel the need to include both ‘Futa’ and ‘Shemale’ in my tagging.
I’m hoping this article will be the first in many good steps toward fandom knowledge of the differences. 😀
Lostar Mallein
November 1, 2016Really nice article, andi guinness!
I think the problem and confusion comes from the fact that there can be three kind of girls with a dick: the original futanari (if I’m correct) which is a girl with pussy+dick; then a shemale, which is a girl with dick+balls and no pussy; and then there are the girls with dick+balls+pussy, which I would actually call them dickgirls. Personally, I think it would be nice to use correctly the terms futanari, shemales and dickgirls, in order to let people know which kind of content they’re going to find. But yeah, futanari is kind of an extended and friendly term that everyone ended up using for almost any case. I think calling all of them just “dickgirls” can be kinda misleading, but I also think that creating too many words to describe too many specific changes can be quite a pain in the ass.
Also, I get the impression that this kind of girls were not that much appreciated up until this latest years, thanks to 3DX. Maybe I’m wrong, but I never thought I would see a lot of people eager to see a dickgirl pounding a lady until Girlfriends 4 Ever came up! So is kind of a new flavor that many people are starting to appreciate now, with many artists being willing to experiment not only with girls that only has a pussy, but also a dick/dick+balls, whether is it maintaining the pussy or not. Since is somewhat a new ground for many people, as you say, maybe now is the time to establish the foundation for this kind of girls, while it’s still growing its fanbase.
I would just like to keep futanari, shemale and dickgirl for clarity but, if not, then… what about D-Girl? Oh wait.
andi guinness
November 2, 2016Well, what’s interesting is you make the distinction in that manner, which I actually don’t see from most people. Futa fans who ride on the distinction between futanari and shemale see a girl with dick, balls and pussy as still a futanari. If they get semantic about it, they add the adjective “full,” but they see the testes as kind of secondary to the point of discussion, more an added bonus than a point of contention.
jack pinder
November 1, 2016Engaging article. Dickgirls or futas as long as they are pretty get my total approval. I for the record am straight hetro. What I do enjoy is seeing the cum much as I enjoy seeing some female gushing or light squirting. (Would like to see more of this) Always good to see a pretty woman cum. With a futa or dickgirl that is easily accomplished. You did not cover hanging nutsacks or the hidden interior option.
borsten
November 1, 2016Wait! You said “For now”? Does that mean Breanna will grow a cock as well? So that she, together with Kayla and Tati, can triple-team Yelena? In a 200-pic-set? Out this christmas? I’m sure you said that.
Kingsizednuts
November 2, 2016No, I believe he said Breanna is gonna grow a penis. So what means in an animated 2 hour long orgy with a sibling Breanna, Kayla, Yelena and Tatiana
Crosseyed John
November 1, 2016Assuming we accept for the moment the term of futanari for full double genetalia, I’ve been trying to figure out the mechanics of two futas together, in other words each penetrating the other. Has anyone ever attempted a picture of that?
Doctor Vulva has created some morphs of true futa, which he terms “best of both”. Perhaps we need a series of names, rather than just one, perhaps using the generic term futa as the starting point
andi guinness
November 2, 2016I’ve seen it in a couple mangas, but the mechanisms in place seem to further defy the laws of anatomy in such a way that’s almost to the level of Rob Liefeld. I think it has that sorta mystical connotation that scissoring does.
Crosseyed John
November 1, 2016As an addition, why not start a thread in the forum?
Wobbegong
October 31, 2016Hmm this could cause some confusion for people who really enjoy the girl having both genitals and not making the viewer feel they are watching a male fuck a female. Because for me personally, dickgirls are fine but I enjoy the idea of a girl having a dick more. Just like quite a few people dislike futa-on-futa since it has the feeling of watching to homosexual men do it.
There is a person I follow on twitter who is a lesbian who LOVES Futanaris to bits because they have all the bits of the female but with a full fledged cock to please her female partner but she makes two conditions: 1. the girl HAS to have BOTH genitals and 2. the girl must not have balls (thats her personal preference, maybe).
To a person like that, putting futanaris and dickgirls together under the name dickgirl in general would be confusing and maybe irritating. Personally I find that futanaris are a fantasy wheras dickgirls are something very real, so I enjoy watching and immersing myself in that fantasy as the idea of a transexual woman does not turn me on.
andi guinness
November 2, 2016You have a point, in that it may sow some confusion. But at the same time, the reason I wrote this article is that most Western artists REFUSE to make a distinction between a dickgirl and futanari anyway. Your lesbian twitter user would get even more annoyed because futanari is being completely misused, with nobody bothering to correct them. I think by doing this, those looking for futas will have less chances of someone mistakenly using the term for a girl who has a dick but no pussy.
As for the term “dickgirl” itself, I feel like it’s kind of difficult to use any term at this point when it comes to live-action, simply because the identity politics of late has made that concept messy. That’s why I refrained from discussing anything related to live-action and limited it to 3D/2D.