Week 12, Post 3: Name Changing

On page 457 of Chapter 35, name changing is discussed. When Cheris Kramarae was married she took the last name of her husband, which was Kramer. Ohio law required that she take her husband's last name. I don't consider myself an outright feminist but when I think about the "tradition" of taking your husband's last name, I suddenly realize how much we as women give up. I like Kramarae's idea of combining her last name Rae, with her husband's, Kramer. Apparantly, her husband did not change his last name. This "tradition" is really part of the law. And while you as a woman can choose to keep your last name, society will raise its eyebrow at you.



I also appreciated some of the terms that were shown in the excerpt from Kramarae and Treichler's Feminist Dictionary. Again, some of the common, traditional terms we use everyday are completely male-centered or gender-biased. Take the term "family man". As Kramarae points out, no one says that "family woman" because it's practically redundant. But a "family man", well that's a special thing. Not all men are all about their wife and kids. Again, we assume that women HAVE to be all about their husband and kids and if they aren't, there is something seriously wrong with them. Start thinking about some of the words that are in our everyday vocabularly. I know I have, and I realize there's a whole lot more behind a word than just it's definition.