And to clarify that so it's a bit less offensive. When I read a fic where a character like Hermione is changing her name, I tend to think two things:
1. The person writing this fic is a person who would choose to change her name, and for whatever reason has not bothered to apply whatever they know about Hermione herself to this decision, and so it has been written in a throwaway line. Apart from anything else, this perpetuates a mindset I dislike, and will generally ruin a fic for me, because it reinforces the idea that changing the name is automatic, rather than a decision that is made (this is true even in fic where Hermione is not a significant character.)
2. When I speak to women my age, or about a decade older than myself, and especially women like Hermione, about changing their names, they will typically justify their decision to change their name - that is to say, they are aware of it as a decision they have made, not something they did automatically. When Hermione in a fic in which she is a main character chooses to change her name with no explanation of that, I find it annoying for all of the reasons above. On the other hand, some people do offer reasons, and they tend to be the same reasons that women who I speak to offer: they don't see a distinction between their husband's name and their father's name (a rationale that, I think Hermione would agree with me, could just as easily recommend the idea of changing her name to Parker Bowles); their husband is traditional and it was a deal-breaker for them, or even more mildly their husband preferred it; their husband has no male siblings to carry on the name (although I don't find this especially convincing since children tend to take the father's name, as unnatural as I find this); they particularly disliked their last name or particularly liked their partner's; they are lesbian and wanted to make a statement. There are one or two others but they generally are similar to these. And most of these just aren't applicable to Hermione - she's never had a problem with her name which is in any case a lot prettier than Weasley; he has tonnes of male siblings; she's generally heterosexual (at least in the stuff I'm complaining about). etc. The only ones that really apply are 'pressure from the partner', which is the point at which I start getting extremely upset, because we actually don't have an opinion from Ron (or anyone in the books) on that and there is absolutely no need for him to want Hermione to have his name. It's just not a matter that I think is intrinsic. So I read it as forcing the issue and get mad.
I hope you read this one before the other one because it was written in haste!
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2010-01-26 10:31 am (UTC)1. The person writing this fic is a person who would choose to change her name, and for whatever reason has not bothered to apply whatever they know about Hermione herself to this decision, and so it has been written in a throwaway line. Apart from anything else, this perpetuates a mindset I dislike, and will generally ruin a fic for me, because it reinforces the idea that changing the name is automatic, rather than a decision that is made (this is true even in fic where Hermione is not a significant character.)
2. When I speak to women my age, or about a decade older than myself, and especially women like Hermione, about changing their names, they will typically justify their decision to change their name - that is to say, they are aware of it as a decision they have made, not something they did automatically. When Hermione in a fic in which she is a main character chooses to change her name with no explanation of that, I find it annoying for all of the reasons above. On the other hand, some people do offer reasons, and they tend to be the same reasons that women who I speak to offer: they don't see a distinction between their husband's name and their father's name (a rationale that, I think Hermione would agree with me, could just as easily recommend the idea of changing her name to Parker Bowles); their husband is traditional and it was a deal-breaker for them, or even more mildly their husband preferred it; their husband has no male siblings to carry on the name (although I don't find this especially convincing since children tend to take the father's name, as unnatural as I find this); they particularly disliked their last name or particularly liked their partner's; they are lesbian and wanted to make a statement. There are one or two others but they generally are similar to these. And most of these just aren't applicable to Hermione - she's never had a problem with her name which is in any case a lot prettier than Weasley; he has tonnes of male siblings; she's generally heterosexual (at least in the stuff I'm complaining about). etc. The only ones that really apply are 'pressure from the partner', which is the point at which I start getting extremely upset, because we actually don't have an opinion from Ron (or anyone in the books) on that and there is absolutely no need for him to want Hermione to have his name. It's just not a matter that I think is intrinsic. So I read it as forcing the issue and get mad.
I hope you read this one before the other one because it was written in haste!