Married Women, Fight for Your First Name

Don't give in to antiquated formalities: Catherine Rampell
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 29, 2014 2:53 PM CDT
Married Women, Fight for Your First Name
   (Shutterstock)

As she prepared for her upcoming wedding, Catherine Rampell allowed herself one "unyielding, Bridezillian demand"—she insisted that her invitations use women's first names. That is, she didn't want them going out to "Mr. and Mrs. John Doe" as tradition for some reason still dictates, she writes in the Washington Post. You might think this wouldn't be a problem in 2014, but Rampell writes of her struggle to find a stationery vendor who would comply. And though her mom finally found a calligrapher who agreed, the invitations ended up going out in the antiquated style anyway.

A scan of wedding sites finds that the Internet seems to be "conspiring to uphold this awful, antifeminist tradition," writes Rampell. While it's not confined to wedding invitations, that's where it "especially rankles" because the soon-to-be married couple is in the process of figuring out what it means to merge as one. "So I urge all you fellow brides-to-be out there: If you choose just one detail to fight over with your family, friends and vendors ... let it be this one. Call your married female friends by their given names, and then, post-wedding, insist they do the same for you." Click for her full column. (More brides stories.)

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