Voices
KATIE
RADEMACHER
HUFFINGTON
08.19.12
Whose
Name
Do You
Take?
AS MY PARTNER Ilana and I prepare to get married, we have wrestled with the question of what
to do with our last names after
we tie the knot. Although this is
the same decision that straight
couples make, I am struck by how
uncomfortable people are with the
lack of traditional script to follow.
Their discomfort often reveals
how they view our relationship
ILLUSTRATION BY PIETARI POSTI
and the ways in which patriarchal assumptions still inform the
values of even proudly self-proclaimed feminists.
Despite being a same-sex couple that challenges gender conventionality in many ways, Ilana
and I are surprisingly traditional
when it comes to marriage and
families. We look forward to rais-
Katie
Rademacher
is a teaching
assistant in
American
Studies
at George
Washington
University