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fishpatrolSo I totally wasted time today by bumming around in my office (I was going to do my article readings, I swear!) and taking advantage of the Wi-fi by downloading useless iPod apps. \o/ What are your favourite (useless or otherwise) apps?
Speaking of electronic toys, I ordered a Kindle the other day, and bweee, I can't wait to get my hands on it. Hurrah for wasting my scholarship on time-wasting toys~ \o/
On a completely different note, I was reading this article on why women give up their last names when entering a marriage. I've always found that practise a bit peculiar. I can understand why children acquire their father's last name (paternity confidence, as the article mentions), but what reason do women have to change their name, especially in modern society? If it's merely an issue of convenience for both partners to have the same last name or a symbolic gesture to say, "Hey, we're part of the same family", then we should also see the occurrence of some men giving up their last names (which is pretty darn rare). I'm not judging women who do change their last names (because, hey, long-standing tradition entangled with societal norms -- who am I to challenge that, yeah?), but some of the comments to the article irked me. Each individual has her own reason to change or retain her last name (following tradition, switching out her difficult-to-pronounce maiden name for something better sounding...whatever); the problem is the underlying societal expectation that if anyone's going to be giving up a part of their identity (as teeny and inconsequential as it may be) it will always be the woman because she's the one leaving her family to join her partner's. In cultures that don't have this last-name-changing practise -- China, for example -- other practises with the same underlying message exist. I'm by no means saying that women who take on their husband's last name are obstructing the progression towards gender equality or anything remotely as radical as that, but I do wonder what the prevailing reason is for continuing this practise, if it's simply people continuing a long-standing tradition where women expect to give up their last names upon entering a marriage and men expect their wives to take their last name without questioning the rationale behind this practise.
In other news, Kurt Fuller guest starred on last week's Psych and Glee and I was all, "Omg, Zachariah is invading my shows! \o\" Speaking of teevee, so how awesome was last night's episode of SPN? :>:>:>
Speaking of electronic toys, I ordered a Kindle the other day, and bweee, I can't wait to get my hands on it. Hurrah for wasting my scholarship on time-wasting toys~ \o/
On a completely different note, I was reading this article on why women give up their last names when entering a marriage. I've always found that practise a bit peculiar. I can understand why children acquire their father's last name (paternity confidence, as the article mentions), but what reason do women have to change their name, especially in modern society? If it's merely an issue of convenience for both partners to have the same last name or a symbolic gesture to say, "Hey, we're part of the same family", then we should also see the occurrence of some men giving up their last names (which is pretty darn rare). I'm not judging women who do change their last names (because, hey, long-standing tradition entangled with societal norms -- who am I to challenge that, yeah?), but some of the comments to the article irked me. Each individual has her own reason to change or retain her last name (following tradition, switching out her difficult-to-pronounce maiden name for something better sounding...whatever); the problem is the underlying societal expectation that if anyone's going to be giving up a part of their identity (as teeny and inconsequential as it may be) it will always be the woman because she's the one leaving her family to join her partner's. In cultures that don't have this last-name-changing practise -- China, for example -- other practises with the same underlying message exist. I'm by no means saying that women who take on their husband's last name are obstructing the progression towards gender equality or anything remotely as radical as that, but I do wonder what the prevailing reason is for continuing this practise, if it's simply people continuing a long-standing tradition where women expect to give up their last names upon entering a marriage and men expect their wives to take their last name without questioning the rationale behind this practise.
In other news, Kurt Fuller guest starred on last week's Psych and Glee and I was all, "Omg, Zachariah is invading my shows! \o\" Speaking of teevee, so how awesome was last night's episode of SPN? :>:>:>
