Chelsea Clinton: 'No-one asked dad to change his name'

[Eugene]

Source: BBC

Chelsea Clinton: 'No-one asked dad to change his name'

22 November 2018

Chelsea Clinton has said the public's expectations of her mother were "very different" compared to her father.

The daughter of former US president Bill Clinton, and former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, was speaking to the BBC after being named one of this year's BBC 100 Women.

"The expectations, at least publicly outside of our family, were very different for my mum versus my dad.

"No-one was asking him to change his name."

Ms Clinton said her father had always been supportive of her mother and her work, but added: "It would be disingenuous to say that her achievements were given the same clear-eyed assessment as my dad's were.

"I even remember in Arkansas in the 1980s, there was tremendous pressure for my mom to change her name from Hillary Rodham to Hillary Rodham Clinton, which she ultimately did because it seemed to her such a silly fight and she wanted to move that out to then focus on the work she felt called to."

-snip-

Read more: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-46293506

[CatMor]

1. Also, no one asks Ivanka to change her name ...

from trump to Kushner. The right wing repubs in Arkansas were the ones criticizing Hillary.

[Spider Jerusalem]

2. They were mostly still right-wing Democrats, back then

it took until the '90's/early '00's for the old Democratic "Solid South" to completely disappear (look at electoral vote maps for Carter in '76 and Clinton in '92).

[MichMan]

3. Don't think anyone has asked Chelsea to change either?

to Chelsea Mezvinsky .

[Small-Axe]

4. But Bill Clinton did change his name...

as he was born William Jefferson Blythe III.

[displacedtexan]

5. His bio dad died 3 months before he was born.

Clinton was his stepfather's name.

Another Republican tidbit: the attacks on Hillary turned vicious when she used her maiden name as her middle name as First Lady. Add that to her law degree, Watergate position at the prosecution table and her unladylike affinity for wearing pants instead of skirts and you've got the beginning of almost 30 years of ridiculous accusations.

"Some people are saying" didn't begin with Trump.

[fescuerescue]

6. Why would they ask Bill Clinton to change his name?

As for Hillary. Ok I get that, but that's pressure on all women, not just Hillary.

[Poiuyt]

7. My wife was very defensive about not changing her name

"Hey, that's MY name. Why should I change it?"

To be honest, I would sound better with her last name. Has anyone heard of a man changing his name to his wife's?

[Jim Lane]

8. Yes, men occasionally do change their names.

Years ago I read Kristin Kimball's book The Dirty Life. As I recall it, she was a writer who interviewed a farmer, one thing led to another, and they married. They wanted to have the same last name because they thought that, especially when they had children, it would be easier all around in their rural community (she had moved to the farm). She wrote that she had some accumulated name recognition for her writing and didn't want to have to start over from scratch with a different name. Besides, she admitted, she liked her name, the alliteration of the two trochees. They solved the problem by her husband taking her surname. I read the book quite some time ago and I won't stand by all the details, but I'm confident of the gist of it.

I personally know a couple who wanted to have the same last name, but didn't want to hyphenate or give one spouse's name a privileged status. They knew that one of them was of French ancestry and the other Italian. With some genealogical research, they found one Italian surname lurking in the French partner's family tree. They both changed to that name. It reflected an ancestor of one and the ethnicity of the other -- a very elegant solution, IMO.

[WhiskeyWulf]

9. I know one guy who did. nt

[Raine]

10. My aunt's husband

my aunt was a professional woman and when they married she kept her name "Smith". Her husband "Jones" (who I loved and considered my uncle) was referred to by everyone as Mr Smith anyway so he decided to legally take her name.

[obamanut2012]

11. Why shouldn't he have been asked to change his name, if his wife was?

That is the damned point, which you are handwaving on purpose: women are pressured, hounded, and shamed by society, friends, religion, and even close family to change THEIR names.

[fescuerescue]

13. Why shouldn't?

Given that the number of things that we shouldn't do at any one point in time is infinite, but the number of things we should do is usually a reasonable number, it's just the logical route.

Bill shouldn't be required to change his name. Neither should Hillary. Neither should anyone.

This isn't a unique problem for Hillary. It's a problem that millions of women have.

But the solution isn't to create the same problem for millions of men. Or Bill. The solution is to solve for all women. Including Hillary.

But I'll answer your specific question. Bill Changing his name to Bill Rodham while Hillary changing it to Hillary Clinton, would just be kind of stupid. That's why.

[CousinIT]

12. Women can put a stop to this. Just stop changing their name upon marriage.

Unless they dislike their last name, then marriage is a good opportunity to change it something they like better.

Other than that, there's no reason for it.

It has the effect of conferring or suggesting male ownership of her as property and it also has the effect of changing, burying or disappearing her former identity -- something a woman may not want even if she's not an actress or professional whose unmarried name her brand was built upon.

Women can just refuse to do it unless they just like their husbands (or wife's) name better.

The pressure is HEAVY upon women and girls to marry, change their names, have kids. It's ridiculous. Smart parents will tell their female (and male for that matter) children that they don't have to do ANYTHING just because society or other people think they should. Just like in school, when they grow up, there will be a lot of peer pressure to do certain things like get married, have kids, change their name, etc. Today's parents should tell kids they only should do these things if they themselves truly want to -- not just because someone else or society, teachers, clergy, family, friends are trying to pressure them into it.

And women - yea, just don't change your name when you get married. It has the effect of erasing who YOU are / were previous to marriage. Or at least that's the intent, IMO.

America's women bend to too much of this crap. Even Hillary gave in. Of course that was Arkansas but still.

The name change says: men remain men when they marry. Women become WIVES. (servants, slaves, property?) Huh.