Open Letter to MySpace

[athene]

Dear MySpace,

Thank you for coming up with ways in which I can connect with people that I have lost touch with. However, I am offended at your assumption that I changed my name when I got married. I did not. In fact, my husband took my last name. Do you have a way for him to add in his former name in a way that is not going to be listed as "Maiden" name, because he was not a maiden? Former name would be more gender neutral and open to people who may have changed their name for reasons other than getting married.

Sincerely,
Athene

Comments

[muninwing.livejournal.com]

the percentage of people who even hyphenate, never mind do something else nontraditional, is so low (outside of certain areas, especially) that it might just not be much of a consideration for them. my family just automatically assumed that my wife would take my name, and they thought of it as a symbolic welcoming of her into the family.

inconvenient, yes. definitely a thought-provoker as a resource for people who have changed their names. but i doubt any special consideration will be seen as necessary, or any offense at lack of such heeded, when it is your choice to do something unlike the vast majority of the country.

even people who legally change their names are a vast minority -- statistically, people who claim that their name is something they decided upon and took for "very personal reasons" (pauncy, flighty, or "cool" sounding) far outnumber the people who actually go through legal channels to do so... and for someone to take things as seriously as to go through the legal process, or to desire an identity different from their old one (including trans, victims of abuse reinventing themselves, and a number of other serious reasons to change records), often they might not want a connection to their "former" name.

in short, yeah it's convenient. and i'm betting other people have complained before you. but anything used by the mass public needs to be tailored to the mass public, without a ton of extra options that might just confuse them without an explanation... though that same explanation is also probably not wanted. in other words, it's easier to deal with a ton of people ignorant than one in a great while offended at the normative (since they're probably already used to it).

isn't modern america grand?