Susan's Place Logo

News:

Based on internal web log processing I show 3,417,511 Users made 5,324,115 Visits Accounting for 199,729,420 pageviews and 8.954.49 TB of data transfer for 2017, all on a little over $2,000 per month.

Help support this website by Donating or Subscribing! (Updated)

Main Menu

Jealousy of cis male siblings

Started by Algernon, May 07, 2015, 12:15:42 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Algernon

Sometimes it can be very difficult not to be! Especially in a case such as mine, when there is only one cis male sibling who gets all sorts of titles conferred on him—
"Our Son"
"The Boy in the Family"
And when his father goes out, he tells him—
"the ladies will look after you"
And mother looks fondly back on the time of his birth as the time "we finally got a boy"
even though he is five years my junior. And already he is handsome enough to be a male model if he wanted to, and he can wear his hair as long as he likes and still be "quite the young man". He has obtained, without any effort, the unquestionable right to maleness, and he will always have it, even if he should become emotional in front of others or like to knit and cook or wear 'women's' clothing or kiss boys or have no interest in sport—all of which has been held by various persons as proof that I am a woman.
He has the kindness to call me 'Bro Bro', even though we both know that as far as the rest of the world is concerned, this family only has one brother, one son, and it isn't me, no matter what I say or do it isn't me, it isn't me...



  •  

AeroZeppelin92

You will never be happy if you concern yourself with what others have and you don't. I'd say you should appreciate that you have a brother who seems as accepting of you as yours is. Jealousy will get you no where and will breed negativity and hatred towards your brother. Perhaps you need to have a conversation with your family and explain that these things bother you.
  •  

Algernon

Quote from: AeroZeppelin92 on May 07, 2015, 12:24:11 PM
You will never be happy if you concern yourself with what others have and you don't. I'd say you should appreciate that you have a brother who seems as accepting of you as yours is. Jealousy will get you no where and will breed negativity and hatred towards your brother. Perhaps you need to have a conversation with your family and explain that these things bother you.

You're absolutely right, of course. My jealousy sickens me, but I am finding it very difficult to control. That's the problem, really. I am very fond of my brother and it hurts to feel this way about him.
  •  

Hayzer12

It takes time.

I used to feel the exact same way.

I have a brother. He's 4 years older than me. And I began HRT when I was 21, and my mom and dad were very ignorant to anything trans-related. They were homophobic to a degree, and were very set in their ways, so I was frightened to come out as being trans - but I finally ripped off the bandaid one day after a long lengthy months and months of questioning whether or not I was finally going to medically transition.

My dad came around almost immediately, faltering a little in the middle - asking if I was sure, etc - but eventually came around completely. He was perfect at the pronouns and the name, and all-around no one would have known I was ever anything other than his son.

However, my parents are divorced, my brother is my mother's son and that's where the problem was.

She was happy to "finally get a girl" after my brother, and it was hard for her to adjust to not having a daughter after all.

She said she always knew I was different, and wasn't what she expected in a girl, but she still was upset that I decided to transition. And she referred to my brother as her only son.

It's only been this past year - I'm turning 25 next week - that she finally is able to 98% of the time use the correct pronouns. She always says the correct name. But some of time instead of saying she or he she will just say "that one over there" and points. That is generally her correcting herself before she says "she".

My brother's wedding was a few weeks ago, and I heard a woman come up to her and ask if my brother was her only son(this woman hadn't seen my mother in probably 26 or so years) and she said "Y-NO. I have that one right there" and pointed to me, "And that's his girlfriend" pointing to my girlfriend (whom my mother LOVES).

She came around.

She finally referred to me as another son, rather than anything else.

And she's getting great with pronouns.

It just all takes time. And the older you are, and the longer someone refers to you as one thing, I feel like the longer it could take for some people to begin calling you something different. It's all dependent on the individual, but in my experience, I feel like the people I've had the most difficulty with are the people that has known me since birth.

I choose to think of my transition as a transition for everyone in my life. And you should too. Your brother is accepting you, and eventually when they can't DENY that you're a man any longer (whether you choose to medically transition or not) by you always insisting otherwise, then they will come around.

It is all a process.

Just be you, work on yourself and try not to be jealous.

If I worried about what other men did or what they had and I didn't, I'd drive myself mad.
  •  

Elis

Hayzer12 makes some great points. To add to that I have a brother too who's very masculine, weight trains. So I feel I can never live up to that, he'll always be my dad's favourite bcos he's a guys guy, so I do get a tad jealous.  What helps me is telling myself that I'm my own person. I'm a lot more fem than he is, but that's ok bcos I can't change how I am, so I should just embrace and accept it, I can be my dad's son, just in a different way. Also if I was born cis male I'd still have the same personality. Not sure if I'm explaining it right, I hope I helped.
They/them pronouns preferred.



  •  

Tysilio

Algernon, I was jealous of my brother, too. He was 9 years older than me, and got to do all the things I wasn't allowed to. Of course, a lot of that was just his being older, and part of it was that I wanted to do stuff with him -- and he certainly didn't want his little "sister" hanging around.  My mother adored him: he was her pride and joy and could do no wrong, while I could never do anything right, or live up to her expectations. (Like Hayzer's mom, mine wanted a daughter, and didn't get one in me.)

Eventually I figured out that he had resented me just as much, because my father ended up treating me as the "son he never had" (even though he had a perfectly good one and it was really unfair to him). We finally were able to apologize to each other for all that, but it was sorta too late by then. 

It sounds to me like your feelings aren't so much about your brother at all, but more about how your parents treat you. You say your brother is supportive -- is this something you could talk with him about? Maybe you could let him know that this is hard for you: you love him, but it hurts when your parents treat him like a valued son when they don't treat you that way.  It seems to me that might be one way to let go of your feelings (or at least direct them more where they belong), and you might even find that it's a way to get closer to your brother -- sharing feelings, even though it's scary, often works that way.
Never bring an umbrella to a coyote fight.
  •  

Algernon

Thanks guys, your replies were just what I needed this morning. Reassurance, encouragement, a sense of not being the only one. Thank you.
It's strange that sharing feelings with siblings should be scarier than sharing them with strangers online. But so it is, for some reason.
  •  

hardyboy

Hey, Algernon! I definitely understand sometimes feeling jealous. Here's my experience, if it helps: I have a half-brother who looks like a clone of our father, and a stepbrother who my mom loves. I guess, for me, if I sometimes feel a twinge of envy, I just remember to be grateful that they both love me as their little brother, and that my parents have accepted me as one of their sons. I remember that I'm different but not less. I'm good at some things, they're good at others; we have different interests, and different gender histories, but we're family. I can bake and buck hay and handle horses, J is a great dad and a rad musician, and M is wicked good at fixing cars and snowboarding. We're different from each other, and we're better for it.
  •  

makipu

I can definitely relate with the jealousy because I have a cis male sibling. I know its wrong  because it's just producing more negativity.  You're fortunate that he is even acknowledging you as a brother. NONE of my family members (even extended) will ever do that.  I remember my brother telling me "I had a sister and now I don't know where she is" years ago when I told him about my condition.I guess that's the closest I would ever get. At least he knows that he doesn't have a sister. 

I am filled with so much hatred still and I say things like "May your dick get sliced in half" inside my head and refer to him as the family's 100% son with a penis.    Again, I know it's wrong but my mentality is ruined and I will never heal from my wrath as long as I have this disgusting F. parts.
I am male because I say so and nothing more.
I don't have to look or act like one therefore.
  •  

GnomeKid

Oh man.  I have thanked the gods many a time for not giving me a male sibling.  I honestly thing plans for their demise or some sort of genital disfigurement might have come to pass had I had a male sibling. 

As others have said, at least your brother accepts you and doesn't try to rub it in your face.  A lot of brothers would.  Sucks it seems your family puts a lot of emphasis on gender, though.  Completely unnecessary.  At a certain point I'd just distance myself from the rest of them.  Why bother to put up with it?  Even if they aren't specifically hateful towards you.. if something in life causes so much grief why not just move on from it?
I solemnly swear I am up to no good.

"Oh what a cute little girl, or boy if you grow up and feel thats whats inside you" - Liz Lemon

Happy to be queer!    ;)
  •  

enigmaticrorschach

you know, at one point, i was jealous of my brother. he is a man among men, smart, caring, strong, has a head screwed on the right way. but as you know, i wasnt really a man to begin with but there are still times when i am jealous of him.
  •  

saharo

I know how you feel... Especially when your family thinks in gender roles... It kinda sucks... Hell no female only do dishes...
  •  

Ayden

I'm the oldest in my family but have, with the addition of the new baby 7 little brothers (not counting a stepbrother since I've only heard about him). It may be an age thing, as I'm almost 30, but I'm actually relieved and happy for them. I think I'd have s harder time with sisters.

I sometimes have that spot of envy with how my brothers are treated, but I squash it pretty quick. In the end, I think having some envy for others is human, but if you are going to be jealous of one thing about a person, you have to be jealous of everything.
  •