Think About Choice

This article appeared in my Facebook feed sometime last week: "Men Should Consider Changing Their Last Names When They Get Married." I've never been a proponent of women changing their names upon marriage, so the article piqued my curiosity. However, my jaw about dropped to the floor (to engage in a bit of hyperbole...) when I read the first line of the article: "More then 50% of Americans think the woman should be legally required to take her husband's name in heterosexual marriages." What?!! Really?!! I wonder if these are the same people who think that women shouldn't have choices regarding their own reproductive health.

Because that's what it all comes down to: choice.

If a woman chooses to change her name when she marries, I certainly don't have a problem with that. I do, however, have a problem with people who think women should take their spouses' last name. In modern-day America, women are not their husbands' property. While, fortunately, I'm pretty sure that such a law would never happen, it's frightening to me that so many people think this way--"legally required"!  Laws are created to protect people and to protect justice. Legally requiring (i.e., forcing) women to take their spouses' names--besides erasing much of the equal rights work that people have fought for tirelessly for hundreds of years--does nothing for justice.