Freedom from Blog

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Wednesday, May 18, 2005

Last Name Question

Matt is just wrong in saying that "Adopting your husband's name isn't the worst thing in the world to do, but it's still wrong." And I would be the last person to argue that women should adopt their husband's last name. I see this as purely a matter of personal choice. There's no "right" or "wrong" choice here.

Matt should remember that a woman's last name is usually her father's last name, which her mother typically adopted at marriage. So a woman's typical choice is keeping one man's name or adopting another man's name. I don't see the feminist principle at work here.

The better half and I run into this from time to time, because we have the same last name. Many academics think this is strange. One female colleague once asked me what my last name was. I smiled at her. I said "Lee." She replied: "I don't know any married couples with the same last name." So that makes us, um, non-conformists, I guess.

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