Could Your Privacy Mean You Are Lying?

Almost everyone uses or has at least heard of YouTube. This video-sharing platform allows creators to upload videos of many varieties. One popular variety is beauty, where men and women post tutorials and reviews of makeup products. This has grown into a large community with many popular creators. A creator who has been put in the headlights recently is NikkieTutorials.

NikkieTutorials, legally known as Nikkie de Jager, is a Dutch makeup artist and Youtube content creator. Originally becoming popular for her video “The Power of Makeup,” she has gained a large following and has become one of the more prominent Beuty Gurus. Nikkie has taken the spotlight once again, but this time because of her privacy. Nikkie recently released a video titled “I’m Coming Out.” In this video, which has gained a whopping 33.6 million views, Nikkie lets her viewers know she is transgender, explaining that she was born a man and is now a woman physically, but has always been a woman mentally. In this video, Nikkie gets very emotional talking about this topic, stating that she was receiving messages stating she was lying to her viewers by not telling them. She goes on to state that by doing this she is taking back her power, and that it is in her own power to give this information out.

Nikkie goes on to say that she does not like labels, but if someone must label her, then she is transgender. However, Nikkie has stated that she is “fully woman,” meaning she had all the surgeries and is now legally female. This brings us to where the problem lies. Nikkie has been presenting herself as female online, which she legally is, but one person discovered that she is transgender and decided she was lying to her followers.

This information was strictly private in Nikkie’s life. Nikkie is legally a woman and the information is only needed for medical purposes, family members, or someone of a romantic interest. Nikkie states that her cisgendered male fiance, Dylan, knows she is transgender, as well as her family, who both support her. Even a person who is not a follower of Nikkie, when prompted with this situation, stated that this information was Nikkie’s private life and she did not have to tell others that were beyond family or loved ones if she did not wish.

Nikkie has stated that she did not intend to hide this information for her followers forever, she was just not ready to put it out there. Nikkie was almost a victim of being “outed.” The practice of “outing” an LGBT+ person is to tell others the personal information you have received about this person, such as they are transgender or gay. This can be done by accident or on purpose, and it can have very regrettable consequences. When asking an LGBTQ person about this topic, they stated that an LGBTQ person’s private life is theirs and it is not meant as a lie if they do not tell you. They simply do not feel comfortable enough to let this information be known.

In the end, we are all humans, and each of us have our own lives we live. Every one of us has parts of our lives we keep from others. Just because we keep certain things private does not mean we are lying. A lie is defined as making an untruthful statement with intent to deceive. If we simply choose not to talk about our private lives, then how are we lying? You are unable to lie about something if it is not spoken about. In Nikkie’s case, she is legally recognized as a woman, so by saying she was a woman, she was telling the truth. Privacy is an aspect of respect, and one should respect all people.