I'm sorry, my feminist streak is showing...

I want to start by saying that I am not a super extreme feminist. I do believe that feminism is a good thing, but I've never gone over the edge. I stay at home with my kids and rely on support from a man...pretty much the opposite.

However, every once in awhile, my feminist streak shines and that could cause some arguments.

Having a wedding is probably one of the most anti-feminist things a woman can do. She's escorted down the aisle by her father who 'gives' her away. Then she promises to love, honor, and in some vows OBEY her new husband.

Really?

And the invitations. Mr. and Mrs. Blah Blah invite you to the wedding of their daughter. So my mother is reduced to a Mrs. Someone else. Her own name is silenced.

I'm not ok with this.

Women have been silenced for centuries. It is a practice that is still continued today. A woman who cries is a hormonal, emotional, basketcase. If she yells or even asserts herself in any way, she is irrational or unstable. If a man is assertive, he's a ball-buster, a real man.

I understand that this is how things used to be, but I don't understand why it has to remain like this. I don't want my mother, or my future mother-in-law's name silenced next to her husband's name.

I will wear a white dress and walk down the aisle with my dad. I can handle that. I'm not going to get my panties in a twist over changing my last name, because I WANT to change my last name. But I am still Emily. And I deserve to have my own first name.

Just how I think our mothers should have their own first name recognized on the wedding invitations.

Because I am a woman, I must make unusual efforts to succeed.
If I fail, no one will say, "She doesn't have what it takes."
They will say, "Women don't have what it takes." ~Clare Boothe Luce


I myself have never been able to find out precisely what feminism is: I only know that people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a door mat or a prostitute. ~Rebecca West, "Mr Chesterton in Hysterics: A Study in Prejudice," The Clarion, 14 Nov 1913, reprinted in The Young Rebecca, 1982