Naming Rights? Analysing Child Surname Disputes in Australian Courts Through a Gendered Lens
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Naming Rights? Analysing Child Surname Disputes in Australian Courts Through a Gendered Lens Zoë Goodall1 · Ceridwen Spark1 Accepted: 21 October 2020 / Published online: 16 November 2020 © Springer Nature B.V. 2020
Abstract Despite major advances in gender equality, patrilineal naming—children being granted their father’s surname—persists as a largely unquestioned norm in those Western countries with predominantly Anglo traditions, even in families where mothers retain their birth names. In Australia, when parents cannot agree on the child’s surname, the issue will go to a court or tribunal, to be decided by a judicial decision-maker. Apart from Jonathan Herring’s (2009) work in the UK, such cases have been little examined by scholars. This paper explores the question of whether child surnames chosen by Australian courts—a supposedly neutral and objective third party—uphold patriarchal logic or provide more equitable outcomes. Using a feminist critical discourse framework, we examine five recent court judgments about child surname disputes, and six news articles about these types of cases. While these cases are not a representative sample, we find that, despite the existence of specific legal principles relating to children’s surnames, decision-makers’ judgments were inconsistent and subjective. Furthermore, mothers’ names tended to be granted to children when fathers were deemed to be ‘bad dads.’ Keywords Children · Courts · Marriage · Naming · Surnames
The article was drafted at RMIT, and funded by an RMIT internal grant, but the first author’s position and email address is now with Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, Australia. * Zoë Goodall [email protected] Ceridwen Spark [email protected] 1
Social and Global Studies Centre, School of Global, Urban and Social Studies, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia
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Introduction The popular 2018 superhero film Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse features a teenage Spider-Man named Miles Morales, the son of Jefferson Davis and Rio Morales. The film—and the comics from which it is adapted—do not explain why Miles has his mother’s surname. But a Google search for ‘Miles Morales Spider-Man surname’ turns up numerous forums and articles where fans debate the rationale for his surname. One forum thread suggests the name is a mistake on Marvel’s part, while an article on a popular culture website lists Miles’s surname as one of “20 Things That Make No Sense” about the film (Comic Vine 2020; Norkey 2018). The idea that children having a surname other than their father’s is strange and requires justification reflects the entrenched norms in many Western countries with Anglo naming traditions. In another high-profile example of this norm, it was recently reported that entrepreneur Elon Musk and his partner, musician Claire ‘Grimes’ Boucher, have named their first child X Æ A-Xii Musk (originally X Æ A-12 Musk) (Musk 2020; Helmore 2020). The adherence to patrilineal surnaming traditions is notable when co
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