My Brother, Robby

This blog was inspired by one of my younger brothers. The baby of my family, Robby, is “girlier” than my brother, dad, stepdad, grandpa, and most of the other men in the family. I know he notices it and sometimes we tease him about it. He looks forward for when I come home so we can put facemasks (cosmetic green clay masks) on, rub each other’s backs, and watch gossip girl together. Although I love having a buddy to do all this with, our society finds it odd for guys to do stuff like that. And I find it odd too. And it makes me wonder… did I make him girly because I take part in these things with him? My cousins and I used to dress him up in girl clothes when he was little… did that influence it? Will he be gay or does he just like to do things society believes is meant for girls to do? This weekend I went home because I wasn’t feeling well. I asked him to give me a back massage to make me feel better and while he was he said “Did you notice, I cut my finger nails.” I felt happy for him but yet kind of sad. I had made fun of him for how long he kept his nails. I know he specifically mentioned it to me because I had made fun of him for it before. He had acted like he didn’t care because he said he liked his nails longer because he could use them as tools and I didn’t think it bothered him that much because he shrugged it off. But that made me realize he did. And now I just feel bad. I wish I could help him to feel like he fit in more but not sure what I can do? Anybody that reads these have any suggestions haha?