Well, I’ve finally started to run out of steam on my epic post-a-day marathon, so I’m resorting to the second-cheapest of tricks* – a link round-up.
The National Party cares so much about the correct way to run a parliamentary motion that they’re happy to look like they endorse (or at least, don’t strongly oppose) anti-gay laws.
Oh look, the Greens do really care about climate change. Like anyone who doesn’t believe in Bilderberg lizard people were confused about that.
The Onion may now be out of the realm of daily trawls thanks to the paywall, but they nail objectification of women in this one.
This is serious bravery: Pro-choice on Amtrak: The time I told a group of anti-choice teenagers about my abortion.
Hetero men who take their wives’ surnames on marriage face a lot of shit. And sometimes they get accused of fraud. Bonus for almost-certain racist overtones!
~
*Cheapest = non-contextual YouTube videos
“Hetero men who take their wives’ surnames on marriage face a lot of shit. And sometimes they get accused of fraud. Bonus for almost-certain racist overtones!”
One of my previous partners wanted to take my surname if we’d gotten married (we didn’t). Though in the end it was her decision, I found it a strange tradition. As if the woman is subsuming herself in my persona.
I understand that this was a means,in the past, by which men could establish proprietorial rights over their wives, I would have thought this quaint tradition would have died out, like other gener-oriented anachronisms…
It’s changed, Frank, but the fact is that as long as we have surnames people will have various reasons for being attached or not attached to the one they were born with.
A lot of people – men and women – have either no investment in their own surname or negative feelings about their surname, so taking a partner’s name on marriage is a radical act for them, forming their own identity. Some people even choose to take entirely new surnames with no connection to either family.
Basically, if you see getting married as a way of cementing your own identity and freeing yourself of a family you don’t want to be connected to, changing your surname is a pretty good step to take.
My brother changed his name by deed poll, to his fiance’s name, just before they married. Why? Her family were immigrants and the father worried that with four daughters, the family name would die out in New Zealand.
Way to win BIG brownie points with the in-laws! My brother walks on water and can do no wrong in their eyes….
Carrying on a family name is another big reason I’ve seen people change one way or the other.