Ditch The Disclaimer

I spent the majority of last week surfing TG home pages in my quest to promote the petition. I ran across something on several home pages that really bothered me. I can’t for the life of me figure out why girls would put up disclaimers on their websites such as:

“WARNING This site deals with subjects such as crossdressing, transvestism, transsexualism and related issues. If you are uncomfortable with any of these things please leave now.Please note that there is no pornographic material on these pages and you must be 18 to view them”

To me that’s just saying to people that you think there is something wrong with it. Why else would you put that up there? If there is no pornographic material, then why must you be 18 years old to view it?

Sure some of the sites contained pictures of girls wearing lingerie that was a little risqué, some of them had links to adult sites, but most of them I would not think twice about letting my 12 year old look at. Are these people ashamed of who they are? Is that why they put that up? Perhaps it started with a few sites with that disclaimer and then other TG’s who were making home pages figured that’s what your suppose to do.

If someone comes across your page and doesn’t want to look they have the option of closing the page or hitting the back button. If I was a vegetarian (which I am not) and accidentally clicked on a page belonging to a meat packaging plant, there would be no warning for me. Spiders…. now there is something that I would rather not see. I have yet to find a page that warns me they are going to be on it and to hit the back button.

Please dear friends..... We are trying to promote equality here. It makes it a little difficult when you yourself don’t think you are equal. Perhaps you never really thought about what that message sends to other people or perhaps I am the only one that sees the disclaimer as the wrong sort of message, but I have a feeling there are others that see the same way I do.

If you have a home page with a disclaimer up, please take it down. If you need it up there because you have adult pictures or adult links, then state that is the reason.

Warn us if your page has annoying music, warn us if your page contains traces of peanuts but please never warn us because your page has to do with crossdressing.

Be proud of who you are because that’s beautiful.

Comments

Anonymous said…
I agree!! Being what you are shouldn't require a "warning."
It's one thing for "mainstream"
society treating the TG community as an aberration or something that
is bizarre. We shouldn't be falling into the same ignorant rut.
But then, I'm a hypocrite myself, because I'm scared of going out and about in my neighborhood or telling my friends and family; not so much because I'm ashamed, but I just can deal with the potential
headaches and heartbreaks.
Go figure!
Jeri from NYC
RE: Ditch the Disclaimer
http://genderevolve.blogspot.com/2006/05/ditch-disclaimer.html
--------

Dear Sweet,

The disclaimer is a matter of opinion, and everyone is entitled to theirs. My opinion about this topic happens to be the same as yours Sweet. Unless the site contains content which might be legitimately offensive to the public, there is no need for a "WARNING". The question is what is *legitimately* offensive to society? I think "WARNINGS" should be placed on sites with sex-oriented, pornography, and violence. As well "DISCLAIMERS" should be placed on sites where the viewer might misunderstand the information and harm themselves ie: financial, legal, medical advice or others that have similar fiduciary duty attached.

Most personal pages in the trans community are neither offensive nor dangerous, so there is no reason to have a warning or disclaimer. Those which do have such content, should indeed have a warning, but as you said Sweet, it should state the real reason for the warning (ie: sex, nudity, porn). I think a WARNING is a good idea even if they are only linking to xxx sites. However if the transperson's website is free from porn and nudity photos, stories or links, the "WARNING" actually makes it look like they're doing something they are not. Crossdressing and/or being trans are not offensive, so there's no need to make it seem that way.

This said, if it makes a transperson more comfortable to plainly state "This website is about transgenderism, etc", right upfront, so be it. Just don't be ashamed or expect that others might be offended... in other words, don't "WARN"... instead merely "INFORM". If people are offended with transness, it's them who has a problem, not you. If you have a respectable personal site that has no xxx, then please darlings, "Ditch the Disclaimer"!

You are beautiful!

Lots of love,
Michele
~Sweet~ said…
Most of the times you end up on a TG page it is because you wanted to go there. The people that did not intentionaly want to end up at a TG page usually end up there after googling something.

When you google something more times then not you won't end up on the page that has the disclaimer anyway.
For example, I googled "Twenty-Five Rules to Live By" and it took me to one of Lauren's pages and it wasn't the page with the disclaimer on it.
I don't think mommy and daddy can do anything if their child stumbles upon your page because there is nothing wrong with your page. I think your lawyer is just trying to make a few extra bucks.
Rikki said…
Hi, Sweet. I read with interest your blog about "Disclaimers" and it makes me think that maybe on some subconscious level, some of us feel that we are still viewed as sexual deviants and we must protect ourselves. It makes me sad.

Take care,
Rikki

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