Making A Case for Stoners

If you don't remember Lucy Stone...neither do I; apparently, though, her influence continues, at least for the folks at Oprah.com (don't ask why I was reading that column today!)
Columnist FAith Salle bemoans the fact that approximately 80% of all women who marry in the United States today take on an assumed identity: that of their husband's family. They do this, of course, by changing their last name upon being wed. Salle is so obsessed by this that she scans the New York Times' wedding announcements every Sunday simply to be "gobsmacked" at the number of women who change their names at this time. Of course, if you watched "27 Dresses," (again, don't ask why I did) the wedding section of the Times takes on a greater significance (called by some "the sports page for women"). Anyhow...
Salle suggests that we are one of a handful of countries which hang on to some patrilineal tradition; she even bemoans the fact that even in Iran, women get to keep their own names. I suspect she's never been to Iran, or she would realize that the name thing is small potatoes to the freedoms she has as a woman in this misogynistic society.
Of course, the ideal occurs in Spain where a woman has two surnames, one from her father and one from her mother. We, on the other hand, have a whole list of hyphenated names because people try to accommodate everyone. Personally, I like the Smerlinder's idea. Don and Julienne began life as a Schollander and a Smerlinski; following the joining of hands in matrimony, they became the Smerlinders. Now THAT'S an idea to get the Stoners rolling.
Oh yeah...Lucy Stone. she was the first woman in this country reputed to have retained her maiden name following marriage to a (supposedly) enlightened man. That being the 19th century or so, it must have caused quite a stir among the gentry.
Me? Being male, I guess it never really occurred to me. Capulet or Montague? "A rose by any other name..."
I've got bigger things to worry about, though there are fewer now that the World Series is over.
But, like I said, I'm guy.
I've always had it all.