Pynchme,
Nina might welcome your assistance in argueing for her frivalous article but there was nothing tongue in cheek about it nor was it intended to be light hearted as her attacks on other posters shows.

I don't know why you find it annoying that mainstream expectations that others obey our laws and behavioural standards. After all it is our country and newcomers are here at our behest. If one were to go to any other country we would be expected to abide by their laws and standards.

But it is disheartening that persons like Nina and the 3 state politicians, on the public purse, cannot find anything more important to discuss than a womans married name or bare boobs on a beach.

You may not realize it, but it is most likely that a fair number of little girls will have to endure the cruelty of having pieces of flesh cut off their genitals this school holidays and spend a few weeks immobilised, with legs bound together, until the wounds heal. They are damaged for life with having to be cut again later to allow intercourse and then more cutting for each childbirth. Why we do not enforce our laws to stop this is beyond beleif. There is also likely a numbe of girls right now that are truamatized and stressed about having to go through a marriage they do not agree to, but are forced by their families to do so. They are threatehed and coerced to do this.

These are just a couple of issues I consider of far more benefit to women than a stupid article about a changed surname.

I also changed my name on marriage, partly because my maiden name is too difficult and it was nice to have an easy surname to contend with.

The main reason was I wanted to have the same name as my children and husband because we were to become ONE family. Without exception, every woman I know who retained her name, the children took the father's name. I did not want to be the outcast just to be able to carry my father's name on and his father before him.

Double barrelled could work with some of the suggestions and including SJF's register which would make life easier from a genealogical point of view.

At the end of the day it is our genes that go forward, our names are just dressing. I don't mean to demean the importance of the family name being carried on for some people but even a double barrelled name will be different.

Perhaps the couple in question could choose whose family name to adopt if it was a concern to some people.

Steel I would really love to know what your idea of a perfect woman is. I don't think your ideal exists if your rigid views on women are any indication.

Banjo: << ...would it not be far more productive to use the space to lobby for lessening of the oppression of women in some of our ethnic communities and to seek enforcement of our laws regarding FGM and forced marriages that are taking place in Aaustralia (sic). >>

Banjo, you're always banging on about this supposed epidemic of "FGM" in Australia, but I don't recall you ever referring to any supporting statistics or other valid evidence. Perhaps it might be "far more productive to use the space" to research, write and publish an article about this issue, rather than introducing it into every extraneous discussion you can.

As it stands, I can't see what your obsession with "FGM" has to do with Nina Funnell's light article about marital name taking.

Ninaf:"The reason why I'm a feminist is because there are women in the world who are still being stoned to death for being raped."

How many cases of that occurred in Australia in (say) the last 100 years? Take your time...

The fact is that you ard the rest of the pampered little grrrls of your generation are at the peak of female preferment in nearly any aspect of Australian life. If a woman and a man are even approximately equally qulaified for any kind of public position and many private ones the woman will be selected almost as a matter of course. If a woman and a man have an argument, the man will be hauled away - no questions asked. If a woman and a man have a marriage breakdown and cannot agree on how the children are to be cared for, the Courts will nearly always choose her as the primary carer, even in today's world of "equal shared parenting". In education, the professions, the bureaucracy, politics and on social matters, women are doing better than men. Low-paid women are seen as a social problem, while low-paid men are viewed as a social necessity.

At any social gathering of men, it takes only one to mention feminism for a surge of angry responses to be released. Make no mistake, men are very definitely unhappy with the way you grrrls want to run the world. The hypocrisy, lack of empathy with male issues, discriminatory language and practise and the constant barrage of anti-male advertising and legislation, all in the name of "feminism" has had an impact all right; it's created massive resentment.

Now, if you are concerned about the treatment of women in Iran or the Sudan, I suggest you go to those places and show them how it should be done or even write an article about them, instead of using those poor people to further your own career-oriented ride on the bandwagon.

How many male victims did you say the NSWRCC served last year? I seem to have missed your response.

I wonder how many children born in Australia this century will remember their feminist mothers for giving them their vote, and how many for less noble behaviour?

Antiseptic,

What a sad and pathetic response. So the men you know gather to pool their 'massive resentment' at women exercising their rights. Poor sooks. Real men are happy to share their privileges and power.

You remind me of the story in today's Age about the clubs in Melbourne that refuse point blank to talk about admitting women - the Athenaeum, the Melbourne Club, the Australian Club and the Savage Club. The Athenaeum is so misogynist that even the very talk about membership for women is now banned.

http://www.theage.com.au/national/antibias-chief-chides-mens-club-20090101-78jw.html

As for your comments about inequality in Iran or the Sudan, Angry Ant, I'd happily go and talk to the women there if you'd go and talk to the men!