That Cutting Edge is Soooo Passé
"The number of women who choose to keep their surname when they get married has dropped significantly in the last 20 years since the fashion's peak in the mid-1980s." Authors of a new study estimate that "a little under 20% of female college graduates around the country keep their surname when they marry." Touchstone, April 2005, p. 53.
We remember hearing about a "man" who took his wife's surname about ten years ago. When Eric Scheske questioned the guy's testosterone level, the friends and family in the circle hounded Eric. He simply defended himself, saying, in effect, "Look, I don't know the guy, but based on that one fact alone, I'm willing to bet something ain't right with him." A few years later, the couple divorced. Turns out the guy was a lecher and cruel and more than a bit unstable. Eric's been smug about that gut reaction observation for over five years now.
Speaking of gut reactions, he remembers hearing about a guy who sang to his bride as part of their wedding ceremony. Eric passed quick judgment: "Give me a break; something's wrong with him, mark my words." Again, howls of indignation. Again, rounds of vindication. Turns out the guy was a raging and active homosexual. Because the wife was a friend of Eric's, he doesn't take pleasure in the vindication, but know this: he'll never subjugate his gut reactions to knee-jerk tolerance.
