Surname choices - a hot topic!

We had an incredible response to our survey on the choices that people make in relation to their surnames and marriage. Over 1,000 people completed our survey in just four weeks, meaning that we've now got plenty of data to go through in order to learn more about how people feel about changing their name (or not) if or when they marry. Of course, the survey doesn't reflect the whole opinion of the UK, but it can certainly tell us about some popular ideas. Some of the things we hope to learn from our data include:

• How do many women in heterosexual relationships feel about the tradition of women taking their husband's surname upon marriage?
• How do many men in heterosexual relationships feel about the same tradition?
• What are the views of those in same-sex relationships, and what decisions would they take/have they taken?
• Can we see any trends in our data in terms of what women in same-sex relationships would do/have done upon marriage or civil partnership, compared to men in same-sex relationships?
• What about bisexual people who are in either same-sex or opposite-sex marriages? Does their sexual identity have an impact on their views?
• What alternative options have those in heterosexual marriages chosen from? For example, how common is it to find a man that has take his wife's name, or a couple who have both double-barreled their surnames?
• What impact does it have on people's choices if they have children?
• How common is it for a couple or an individual to change their name without getting married/civil partnered?
• Do the views of younger respondents seem to differ to those of older respondents?
• Do those who identify as lesbian, gay or bisexual typically articulate different feelings about marriage and surnames to those who identify as straight?
• What relevance does a person's gender identity (whether transgender or cisgender) have on their views about naming strategies?

What we know already, judging by the huge response we've had, is that lots of people have an opinion about this issue! When we've talked about the survey on Twitter, it's prompted a lot of discussion and debate - it seems that everybody has something to say! Even before we're able to share any results, the survey has also been discussed elsewhere in the media - we've been on BBC Radio Sheffield to talk to Rony Robinson about the study, as well as on Liverpool City Talk FM to discuss the issues with Larry Neild. We've been mentioned in a fantastic essay on marriage and identity by Sophie Coulombeau ('Why should women change their names on getting married?') as well as in a feature on a Chinese news blog ('What's in a name?').

We're delighted that the issue of married names has sparked debate and discussion, and look forward to reviewing our data and reporting on our findings. Thanks again to all those who took part!

The surnames choices survey is now closed!

Our surnames choices survey is now CLOSED! We'd like to say an enormous thank you to all the people who completed it and told us about their views and experiences. We've got a lot to work our way through (with just over 1,000 people completing the survey) but will report back via this blog as soon as we've got some facts and figures we can share. We're delighted with the positive response and can see that the question of surname choices is of concern to lots of people - whether gay or straight, old or young, unmarried or married, female or male....we can't wait to delve deep into the data!

Thank you to all who completed, shared, and promoted the survey: watch this space!

Lucy Jones
Georgina Turner
Laura Paterson
Laura Coffey-Glover
Sara Mills

Surname choices survey

The Discourses of Marriage research group have now embarked on an additional project, in which we hope to investigate the choices a range of people in a variety of situations have made (or would make) in relation to their surnames if/when they marry. With same-sex marriages now recognised in England, Wales and Scotland, marriage traditions appear less one-size-fits-all than ever, so we'd like to know what impact this might have on our names. We've got a survey *out now!*, in which we hope to find out how widespread various practices are, and what sorts of things - such as putting children into the equation - might influence the decision.

Please complete our survey! It's available at https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/surnames. We'll be back to share our findings soon....

Thanks!

The Discourses of Marriage Research Group

Thank you!

We would just like to say thank you to the great audience at the BAAL Gender and Language Special Interest Group conference last week. Three members of the Discourses of Marriage Research group presented our first article on implicit homophobia at the end of a very long day full of interesting research papers. It was great that the audience, many of whom had been up since the crack of dawn, were so receptive to our work and engaged in a thought-provoking debate! The feedback we got on our paper was very useful to us and we’ve tried to incorporate much of it into our final article. Furthermore, as our work on discourses of marriage is ongoing, you gave us lots to think about for the future...watch this space!

Our transcriptions of the Moral Maze

The Discourses of Marriage group have now prepared and submitted a full write-up of our analysis into equal-marriage discourses in the Moral Maze. The abstract for this paper, now submitted for review to the Journal of Language and Sexuality, is below.

We're also pleased to be able share the full transcripts of the three Moral Maze broadcasts. These can be downloaded from Google Drive by clicking here. 

'Implicit Homophobic Argument Structure: Equal Marriage Discourse in the Moral Maze

This article analyses the linguistic and discursive elements which contribute to the production of implicit homophobia. Explicit homophobia has been well documented and strategies for countering discriminatory language have been developed (Baker, 2014; Leap, 2012). However, our interest here is in documenting implicit homophobia, where homophobic beliefs are only hinted at, are disassociated from the speaker, or are embedded within discursive and argument structures.

We decided to analyse the debate in the media around the introduction of equal or same-sex marriage legislation in the UK. We focused our analysis on a series of radio programmes on BBC Radio 4, The Moral Maze, where the issue of same-sex marriage was debated with a team of panellists and invited guests from a range of different organisations. Different perspectives on same sex marriage were discussed, in a seemingly objective and dispassionate way, where the interactants distanced themselves from homophobic beliefs and yet, implicitly subscribed to implicit homophobia. We used an analysis drawing on argumentation structure (Fairclough and Fairclough, 2012) and through focusing on stance, recontextualisation, imaginaries, and metaphor, we developed an analysis which made the way that implicit homophobia works more visible. In this way, we hope to foreground implicit homophobia, and develop a linguistic and discursive `toolkit’ which will enable it to be challenged and countered.