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A Confused and Angry Wife

Started by Confused77, March 23, 2013, 10:47:06 PM

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Nero

Quote from: Dahlia on March 26, 2013, 08:03:31 AM

It strikes me....as if women/MTF are not supposed to have their very own sexual preferences...or a personality of their own, for that matter.


Good point. There's often a kind of unspoken pressure on women (cis or trans) to always be accepting and accommodating and to show unconditional love. Plus the stereotype that 'men are visual while women don't care about looks/bodies, etc.' It's great when people are this way, but it's a lot to live up to. Society expects these basic feminine, maternal qualities taken to extremes. Women can feel they're being judged if they don't always display something like complete selflessness. They're socialized to always think of and put others before themselves.


In a situation like this, it's easy for the woman to feel like she's not being considered or heard. Even when the transitioning partner is not putting pressure on her, she still can feel bound by society's pressure and her own 'for richer or for poorer' vows. This can all conspire to make her feel trapped even though that's not the partner's intention - which is usually just to be true to herself and hopefully keep her marriage in the process.

Like most here, I'm not a cis woman (I'm ftm - going in the opposite direction of your husband) nor do I have a transitioning husband, and can only imagine what this must be like for you. But like others in this thread, I feel for you and am glad you're here Rose.
Nero was the Forum Admin here at Susan's Place for several years up to the time of his death.
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Dahlia

Quote from: Shantel on March 26, 2013, 10:23:45 AM
I began my transition at 50 and will be 70 in August, my very feminine, petite cis female spouse just turned 66, we are going on 44 years and are still sexually active together which I know is unusual. The secret has been many long two-way conversations and some compromises from both of us.

You don't seem to understand what Rose exactly wrote....she's NOT a lesbian OR a bisexual and ONLY into masculine men...she didn't ask about the things you're describing about your sexlife because she doesn't want THAT....she writes very, very clear about that. .....
And your 'secret'.... sounds a bit gross in this context  >:(
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Dahlia

Quote from: Jess42 on March 26, 2013, 10:13:59 AM

Your husband will still be the same person that you married.


That's exacty what Rose writes about: her husband ISN'T the same person that she married anymore: she's  a MTF in transition now!

Plus Rose didn't have a clue about this 'same person' MTF husband....in the first place.
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Dahlia

Quote from: kkut on March 26, 2013, 01:36:33 PM
Dahlia, most important, Rose is asking for support. Let's try and keep posts to being supportive if possible.  :)

Exactly....before we know it,  it's all about 'my wife stayed with me and we have a thriving sexlife now, because of 'good communication'....

Let alone 'your husband will be the same person you've married' etcetc.

That's not very supportive, isn't it? That's all about the MTF person and most certainly NOT about the wife.
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Jamie D

#24
No, Dahlia, the husband is the same person.  One does not become MtF or FtM or androgynous overnight.  Gender identity is most likely innate.  What the couple needs now is mutual understanding.  I sympathize with both, because I am intimately familiar with this exact type of relationship.  It is hell.  Hell for the tg/ts person, and hell for the spouse and family.

This is a support site for tg/ts persons and their families.  Our mission is to promote understanding, not to push discord and bash the choices others have made in their lives, in different times, and under different circumstances.

I want you to retire from this topic.
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Jess42

Quote from: Dahlia on March 26, 2013, 01:41:13 PM
Exactly....before we know it,  it's all about 'my wife stayed with me and we have a thriving sexlife now, because of 'good communication'....

Let alone 'your husband will be the same person you've married' etcetc.

That's not very supportive, isn't it? That's all about the MTF person and most certainly NOT about the wife.

When you fall in love and marry someone, you aren't just marrying what you see on the outside. There are also emotional connections and so on that mean just as much and sometimes more than a physical attraction. People get older and start getting wrinkles, sagging, scarred or God forbid a tragic accident in which they are unrecognizable any more. So in a sense, physically no one is married to the same person that they wedded to.
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blueconstancy

Like everyone else has said, nothing you've written or feel makes you a bad person. It's *very* early yet; you should expect to be in emotional turmoil for a while, and your spouse has no right to expect you to be fine with everything overnight. Some women can only see themselves partnered with men - and that's 100% valid, just like any other orientation. If people wouldn't expect you to "stop being gay" by choice, they also shouldn't expect you to stop being straight. My one caution there is to listen to the people here who've said that the label isn't the point, and that if (and it's a BIG if and I'm not saying you should or will get there) you find yourself at the point where the only thing holding you back from remaining with this person is "having to become a lesbian" you may want to consider saying to heck with the label part of things. I do know more than one self-defined straight woman who is with a trans woman, and more than one lesbian who is with a trans man, and some of them even insisted on keeping their "original" labels and just made an exception for a beloved. However, again, that's not the point right now; you are utterly entitled to prefer men exclusively, and if that's still the case, as the transition progresses you're going to be less and less romantically interested in your partner. Which is painful and awful and I sympathize so very much.

My wife came out to me just after our 9th wedding anniversary. She hadn't been lying to me - she only figured it out herself a few days before - but like you, it was a total shock and my entire world tipped sideways. I will say up front that by a year later, she had fully transitioned and we were still romantically involved and still very happy together... but at 2 months in, I was depressed, angry, worried beyond belief, suicidal, frustrated, and generally miserable. I couldn't go 12 hours without crying hysterically. I was a lot more upset than you sound, though possibly not as much as you feel. And I am bisexual, which meant that I and everyone else thought it'd be "easy" to adjust my sexuality and my life to this transition. It wasn't. I'm being brutally honest here : it was incredibly hard, and there were times when we had to find ways to adapt to the new state of our relationship and compromise with each other all over again, even though she was and is still fundamentally the same person. Furthermore, had she gone ahead with doctors and treatments without waiting for me to catch up to the new state of affairs, I would have been 1000X worse off at that point. (She waited until I was ready, which was about 3 months after the revelation, just to see a therapist.) Each time something changed, I had to grieve for what I'd lost before I could appreciate what we'd gained. It is a tremendous amount of work for both the trans person and their partner to weather transition together, and while it absolutely can be done, there is no shame whatsoever in deciding that you simply cannot be married to a woman.

I think my only advice at this stage would be, as others have said, to seek out a therapist for yourself and/or with her, and see how you feel about the next few weeks or months. (In fact, therapy is probably a good idea just to deal with the trauma of this revelation, regardless of where things go from here.) Don't worry about years from now yet, if you possibly can. So long as the answer to "Do I want a divorce" is "not right now," keep working through things with the therapist and your spouse. Of course, if that answer is ever "yes," or she's unwilling to meet you partway on this effort, then you'll know the time has come to end your marriage... and don't let anyone reproach you for that either. You'll know you tried your best. Good luck.


(Jess42 : I tell people that we've changed a heck of a lot more since age 17 [when we got involved] than my wife did in that transition year, although she certainly changed a lot faster that time. I barely recognize the person I was back then! I often mention the same thing about physical changes as well. :) I'm not sure anyone who hadn't seen me in 10 years would recognize me either, and yet she loves me still. The love and connection is real, definitely, even if it's not always enough to survive this drastic and unexpected a change. It's not shallow to care about the physical packaging, even to the point of dealbreaker, but it's also ridiculous to claim that a transitioning spouse becomes a stranger overnight.)
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Jess42

Yeah, blueconstancy, I know where your coming from. The 17 yr old me is long gone and if I ever passed my 17 yr old self on the street, I wouldn't even know me. If I did recognize myself though, I would probably slap me around a little to try to knock a little sense in my head at that age though. ;)
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Shantel

Quote from: Dahlia on March 26, 2013, 01:06:25 PM
You don't seem to understand what Rose exactly wrote....she's NOT a lesbian OR a bisexual and ONLY into masculine men...she didn't ask about the things you're describing about your sexlife because she doesn't want THAT....she writes very, very clear about that. .....
And your 'secret'.... sounds a bit gross in this context  >:(

I understand perfectly what Rose is talking about, my spouse is not a lesbian and I still function as a male for the most part, that is why it says MtF (meaning where I'm coming from) and Androgyne (what is the level of my compromise for her sake). Had I not been married and still young it would be much different I can assure you and everyone else. My point I am making to you Rose is that it is possible through a lot of lengthy and sometimes heart wrenching discussion to reach some kind of amicable and loving agreement between the two of you. It takes a lot of patience and endurance and requires give and take from you both.
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peky

Dear Rose,

My heart goes to you for your loss, your pain, and you anger.

Right now you need to think and look for number one, you! Look at your finacial situation, and start thinking about your future and you goals.  Your "husband" is no more, and he will never be the same, not to you anyway.

I say to you "cut your loses short," and embark into your new life, embrace the oportunity for a new beggining..

Do not let the pain, anger, and hate destroy your heart, soul, and health. Forgive him, and move on...

OO

Peky
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Sarah Louise

That paints a rather bleak picture.  It doesn't have to end that way.

My spouse is not a lesbian either.  It took a lot of work, but we have worked it out.  We've been married almost 47 years.

Talk, keep the lines of communication open, that is the only way you will understand each others needs and have a chance of coming to a solution that will work for both of you.
Nameless here for evermore!;  Merely this, and nothing more;
Tis the wind and nothing more!;  Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore!!"
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