Looking to one of your patriarchy argument, I wanted to point out that there is another Spanish language tradition that keeps both names, the maiden name following the married name. I like this because both parents names get passed down to the children. Since I discovered this tradition, I have enjoyed it as I feel it allows both the woman and the man to pass on their names and this capability counters some of the patriarch issues that you and Madama bring up.

Finally, I think the biggest issue is dealing with people that feel it is unacceptable or not an indication of a true union if a woman decides to keep or hyphen her maiden name. To me, a marriage is a union between a man and a woman and the important thing is the actual union not the outward symbols of that union (this includes rings, wedding ceremonies and last names). What is the use in making a fuss that a woman didn’t take her husband’s last name if they are divorced a year later? How is their union? Are they one body? Have they worked out how they will share and run their household? etc etc. This is what we need to discuss with those who are planning to get married or are married. Whats in a name if the partnership isn’t working? Patriarchy or no patriarchy, maiden or no maiden name there is a problem with marriages in the United States – we need to solve that problem and leave the naming to the man, the woman and their god(s).

Hey, I’m in no mood for pussy-footing around the situation because I have seen enough! Right now I’m not a happy feminist warrior because it seems to me that the U.S. is in a moral/ethical vacuum and I’m mad as hell and not taking it anymore! I’m down on people right now. I’m down on people worrying more about CYA than doing the right thing.

Women hold up patriarchy as much as men do by going along with tradition. There are reasons those traditions are in place and it is to support a social order in which the dominant class gets its needs met at the expense of all others. That’s the bottom-line, baby. That’s how the world has been constructed since…well, read The Creation of Patriarchy by Gerda Lerner if you want to know…

Ok, so that’s the bad bad bad really really really bad bad bad news. The good news? There is, believe it or not, good news. Gather ’round sisters! Lissen up! Can you dig it? The patriarchy is collapsing right now, right in front of our eyes!!! This whole banking fraud disaster IS the last straw! Institutions that hold up the existing social order are coming apart and here’s what WE need to do: we need to assist them in coming apart! We need to turn the spotlight on the fraud, greed, cover-ups and wholesale smarmy lying that has turned Washington DC into a country club for liars.

Furthermore, if we don’t get unified as women’s movement and start showing some muscle, then we will have lost an unparalleled opportunity to call this system out for what it is. It’s a paradox of human consciousness: real change happens when you accept what really is. How the hell we gonna know what to change if we don’t know what it really is?????????? The reason for a woman changing her name has its roots in ownership, the husband’s ownership of his wife and her children, and in controlling who has access to her so that he doesn’t have to support any children that aren’t his and so that his wealth will be passed on to his heirs and his heirs alone.

Are these fightin’ words? Yep, you betcha. I’m fighting mad right now. I needs me a goddam bully pulpit…

But will it matter???? Not so sure. Not so sure women want to know the truth. Not so sure women are ready to fight. They’ve got kids that need raising, jobs that need doing so they can bring home the bacon. Many have husbands they’re afraid of…seriously afraid of being abused or killed by their husbands.

What’s a women’s movement to do??? Stop taking the man’s name? We did that already!!! Hate to pee on your party, sistagirl, but we did that already in the 70′s and that was good but that ain’t it!!! That’s not enough!!! So, do I think you’re wasting your breath? I’m just not sure, sistagirl. I’m just really really really aghast about the world right now. News coming down seems to suggest that the U.S. is working with Afghanistan in order to quash Al Qaeda, and that President Karzai of Afghanistan is signing off on laws that sell women’s right down the river. And that’s the way it has been in all the social movements I’ve witnessed: first let’s save the country and then we’ll worry about the human rights. First let’s save the fraudulent banks and then we’ll worry about all those people showing up in tent cities across America. First let’s win the war on terror and then we’ll worry about those women whose husbands have the right to rape them every four nights.

We are living in critical times. We are at a turning point. Patriarchy is more visible than ever, and you can observe it imploding. If WE WOMEN don’t get our act together in a powerful way right now, we are cowards, we are idiots. I’ve been putting out the call over and over and I’m hearing nada, nothing, bupkus. I’m not hearing outrage from anyone but me and you and a few other radical women who have had it up to their eyeballs for so long their ordinary everyday voice is a goddam scream…

But hey, everyone!! Hope you have a nice weekend! Remember to take all those idiotic Facebook quizzes and send your so-called friends stupid virtual crap! And let everybody know what TV programs you fill your brain with so that you can barely even tolerate reading a long blog post!!!!

furiously yours
Madama