Comments on: Failing to see the wood for the trees http://hoydenabouttown.com/20080313.1533/failing-to-see-the-wood-for-the-trees/ Acting Out For No Reason Wed, 10 Mar 2010 19:33:34 +0000 hourly 1 By: More for my collection of “keeping your own surname” « blue milk http://hoydenabouttown.com/20080313.1533/failing-to-see-the-wood-for-the-trees/comment-page-1/#comment-24754 More for my collection of “keeping your own surname” « blue milk Sun, 16 Mar 2008 00:03:46 +0000 http://viv.id.au/blog/?p=1533#comment-24754 [...] Hoyden About Town have found a perfect example of it here in this article about women choosing to keep their surnames. The author of the article said this - In the past, women who declined to take their husbands’ names might be considered careerists or feminists. Today, a new breed of women who cling to their maiden names is emerging, and it’s one that did not grow up with Gloria Steinem as a symbol of female independence. It is a generation of women who have been raised to be proud of their ethnic identities and are reluctant to sacrifice the strong cultural connections they feel to their family names. [...] [...] Hoyden About Town have found a perfect example of it here in this article about women choosing to keep their surnames. The author of the article said this – In the past, women who declined to take their husbands’ names might be considered careerists or feminists. Today, a new breed of women who cling to their maiden names is emerging, and it’s one that did not grow up with Gloria Steinem as a symbol of female independence. It is a generation of women who have been raised to be proud of their ethnic identities and are reluctant to sacrifice the strong cultural connections they feel to their family names. [...]

]]> By: tigtog http://hoydenabouttown.com/20080313.1533/failing-to-see-the-wood-for-the-trees/comment-page-1/#comment-24557 tigtog Thu, 13 Mar 2008 05:48:14 +0000 http://viv.id.au/blog/?p=1533#comment-24557 Of course there's some intersectionality with motives going on, but only a generation ago most of these women would not have even thought about keeping their own name, because of the hegemony of patriarchal naming traditions. The reason that they feel free to keep their own family name now is because of the way that feminism has dismantled expectations that women <em>belong</em> to the men who marry them. Of course there’s some intersectionality with motives going on, but only a generation ago most of these women would not have even thought about keeping their own name, because of the hegemony of patriarchal naming traditions. The reason that they feel free to keep their own family name now is because of the way that feminism has dismantled expectations that women belong to the men who marry them.

]]> By: kate http://hoydenabouttown.com/20080313.1533/failing-to-see-the-wood-for-the-trees/comment-page-1/#comment-24517 kate Thu, 13 Mar 2008 00:16:12 +0000 http://viv.id.au/blog/?p=1533#comment-24517 Someone I was working with argued to me that she had always thought she'd change her name until it occurred to her that her name and her cultural identity and her relationship with her father were really important to her. And her partner's name is Smith. Which has it's own cultural significance, but she wasn't impressed with it and didn't feel the need to take on one of the most common names in the country when it wasn't even important to her partner. While I agree it's a feminist act to value your own identity (however you define it) equally with your partner's, she wasn't describing it that way, and was surprised that I did. Conversely, while I wouldn't change my own name for feminist reasons, I was happy for our son to have his father's name for cultural reasons. My family's surname was anglicised several generations ago, and I'm not particularly attached to it. My partner's name is unusual (in spelling anyway) and not anglicised. His name more accurately reflects our shared Celtic heritage. Someone I was working with argued to me that she had always thought she’d change her name until it occurred to her that her name and her cultural identity and her relationship with her father were really important to her. And her partner’s name is Smith. Which has it’s own cultural significance, but she wasn’t impressed with it and didn’t feel the need to take on one of the most common names in the country when it wasn’t even important to her partner. While I agree it’s a feminist act to value your own identity (however you define it) equally with your partner’s, she wasn’t describing it that way, and was surprised that I did.

Conversely, while I wouldn’t change my own name for feminist reasons, I was happy for our son to have his father’s name for cultural reasons. My family’s surname was anglicised several generations ago, and I’m not particularly attached to it. My partner’s name is unusual (in spelling anyway) and not anglicised. His name more accurately reflects our shared Celtic heritage.

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