I was browsing the story tags and got stumped when I saw both "Futanari" and "Hermaphrotite." They sounded the same to me.
Wikipedia says "Futanari" is the Japanese word for hermaphroditism. I know "futanari" is a porn genre, but aren't they the same?
"Futanari" sounds cooler since it's Japanese. :)
On a more serious note, I've seen people argue that there is a difference.
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/rkce3j/in_your_opinion_whats_the_difference_between_a/
A Futa would have a cock and pussy but no ovaries. A hermaphrodite would have a dick balls puss and ovaries.
The wiki article on Futanari disagrees with that assessment.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Futanari
Beyond Japan, the term has come to be used to describe a commonly pornographic genre of eroge, manga, and anime, which includes characters that show primary sexual characteristics from both females and males.[1] In today's language, it refers almost exclusively to characters who have a gynomorph-female or overall feminine body, but have both female and male primary genitalia (although a scrotum is not always present, while breasts, a penis, and a vulva are). In rare cases of otokofutanari, instead of a woman, it's a andromorphic-male or overall masculine body, with a penis, a vagina, and muscles instead of breasts. In gyaku-futanari ("reverse"-futanari), instead of replacing a woman's vagina with a penis, replace a man's penis with a vagina (this never counts as a hermaphrodite; in English, analogous term for it is "cuntboy"). The term is also often abbreviated as futa(s), which is also used as a generalized term for the works themselves.[2]
There's another thread on this: https://storiesonline.net/d/s1/t11426/new-tag-futanari
Mostly I agree that the denotation of the words is very similar, though my understanding is that most hermaphrodites don't have two sets of 'normal', fully functional genitalia or sex organs.
The connotation of the two tends to be different. AFAIK, in most cases Futanari are present as female, but they have the addition of a penis (with or without testicles.) The penis may or may not replace the clitoris. Both sets of genitalia are fully functional. They may have both testicles and ovaries, as well.
For an example of what seems to be a more 'proper' hermaphrodite, see dotB's Things Change
Something more like a futanari would be Shakes Peer2B's Bodyguards or Girl From Impanema, though both predate the Futanari tag.
, though my understanding is that most hermaphrodites don't have two sets of 'normal', fully functional genitalia or sex organs.
Those are intersex (ambiguous external genitalia), technically pseudo hermaphrodites, not true hermaphrodites.
A true hermaphrodite is necessarily fully functional as both sexes. There are no human hermaphrodites in the real world.
There are some animal species that are true hermaphrodites.
Fair enough. I was using them in the context of the thread, but that was sloppy of me.