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calling you by your old name as an insult?

Started by JohnAlex, March 19, 2011, 04:12:29 PM

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JohnAlex

My sister does this to me.  As normal siblings do, we sometimes fight about real petty things.  We'll argue over what looks better, or who cheated in a game, or who has to share what.  It's not uncommon for us to call each other things in an argument like, "You're being unreasonable."  "Yeah, well you're being a jerk."  We're only arguing for the sake of arguing.  And we're not really mad at each other and we get over it in like 2 minutes. 

Now I haven't told people in my family that I consider myself transgender.  I just have told them that I don't want to be a girl and I want to wear boy clothes.  and I legally changed my name.  So I don't know how clear that was to them. 

but now my sister has decided that every time we get into an argument, she will just start calling me by my old name and call me a girl, as opposed to calling me a jerk or something else.

Now I don't know if she thinks that's funny, if she thinks it's no big deal, or if she honestly wants to hurt me.  but it is honestly insulting to me.  I already told her that, and she won't stop.  If she doesn't mean it to be insulting then I shouldn't take it that way, but I still do.   It makes me way more pissed off in our "petty arguments" than I otherwise would be.  but I'm only acting pissed off to hide how insulted I actually feel.

Does anyone who knew you before you changed your name use your old name as an insult word for you now?  How did you take that or deal with that?

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Arch

I haven't had this happen, and I would have few misgivings about permanently cutting off such a family member or "friend." But it's too easy for me to do such things. In the past, whenever I've reached the tipping point with anyone, I've cut that person off. Now I'm trying to cut back. :P

But I have to say that I'm a little confused about your confusion. Maybe you're just trying to keep the peace or cut your sister a break, but IMHO, when you make it quite clear that calling you by your birth name is an insult, but she still does it willfully...well, isn't that a continuing insult? If you've told her how you feel and she keeps doing it, then it seems to me that she's either terribly slow to understand (and by that, I mean perhaps she has a recognized disability that you haven't mentioned), or she honestly wants to hurt you.

If she's just being "funny" and you've told her that it's hurtful rather than comedic, then you might want to review your relationship with her.

One solution, I suppose, is to stop giving her the reaction she so obviously craves. This is how I handled "mean girls" when I was younger. They still tried to torture me, and it still hurt, but the torture always fizzled out pretty damned quickly. I would just give them a deadpan, say nothing, and go back to whatever I was doing. Now, granted, I learned this technique because I was too scared and too shy to say anything, but it still works great. Another solution? Just ignore her completely (that is, don't interact with her at all) or have nothing to do with her for a little while, if that's an option. If you don't live with her, you might even tell her that until she starts treating you with more respect, she's out of your life. Leave the ball in her court, and tell her the consequences up front.

Some might say that you should give her a taste of her own medicine and find something that's as important to her as your boyness is to you. In U.S. society, with all of the insecurities that we internalize, this probably wouldn't be hard to do. But this type of action tends to escalate and frequently results in bad feelings on both sides. Sometimes long-term rancor. If you want a good relationship with your sister in the future, don't retaliate.
"The hammer is my penis." --Captain Hammer

"When all you have is a hammer . . ." --Anonymous carpenter
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Silver

Nobody worth dealing with.

It's a real dick move imo, aiming low like that.
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lancem27

Yeah, definitely a low blow and unacceptable. Easier said than done when it's your sister but if she does that you need to make it clear that those types of insults are out of bounds. Don't give her a big reaction, just let her know, maybe a silent treatment, haha.
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JohnAlex

Yeah, I supposed I should try again to make it more clear to her.  I have a habit of hiding my real emotions with anger or just pretending some other way.

Normally, if someone else was doing this to me, I would have no problem just ignoring them and having nothing to do with them.  But I really don't want to ruin my relationship with my sister.  We don't live together, but she is still a minor.  And our parents don't care what she does, so I try to be there for her to give her advice and such.  however that's actually how we end up in a lot of arguments.  oh well.

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FebruaryFalls

If she doesn't listen next time, just get up and walk away from her..Actions speak louder than words
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Yakshini

Because I don't intend to change my name I haven't run into that problem, but people have intentionally called me "she" as a way to hurt me.
"She... sorry, he is a bad person"
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