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Reply #77: What on earth makes a surname inherently male? [View All]

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laconicsax Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Aug-19-09 01:52 AM
Response to Reply #74
77. What on earth makes a surname inherently male?
Yes, tradition has passed surnames on through the male line, but that doesn't make the name exclusively male. Are you seriously arguing that it's a male name so long as you can trace a name back to a male ancestor? Does reductio ad absurdum mean anything to you?

Are we just supposed to resign ourselves to perpetuating a sexist tradition because it's been around for a while? Talk about defeatism.

If you don't believe that this form of sexism affects people's lives, talk to my partner's mom, whose husband demanded that she take his name or he wouldn't marry her. Talk to the DUers or DU spouses who have the same story--there was recent thread with some men bragging about demanding the same of their wives.

A person's name is an ingrained part of one's identity and if we stick to the notion that a woman has to give up part of her identity just because she gets married, then that's a pretty significant form of sexism. Saying that it doesn't matter because it's never a woman's name is basically saying that women are always defined by their fathers or husbands--that women are unable to define themselves.

What a classic anti-feminist line: forget about it--there are other more important problems. Guess what, I can walk and chew gum at the same time.
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