Marital naming choice rationales of same-sex couples

• Main Author: Khoury, Sarah A.
• Language: EN
• Published: California State University, Long Beach 2016
• Subjects: Sociolinguistics|Gender studies
• Online Access: http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10150597

<p> Marital naming choices are inevitably made from within the framework of the historical sociopolitical contexts and carry the potential to index particular social, cultural, and political meanings or to be made on the basis of personal, individual, or relationship-bound rationales. While same-sex couples may draw upon the choices and discursive frames put forth in the rationales provided by opposite-sex couples, there is no precedent of tradition for same-sex marital naming, allowing for flexibility and variety in the choices made and rationales invoked by married same-sex couples. This paper demonstrates that the reflexivity necessitated by being a member of a marginalized group newly entering into a normative practice influences naming decisions. Same-sex couples present highly nuanced rationales for naming choices and draw from but rework the traditional, heteronormative frame of marital naming by incorporating novel naming choices. Same-sex couples often make appeals to what &ldquo;makes sense&rdquo; for a particular couple in their own relationship in the context of traditional practice, whether regarding children and being seen as a family, biological factors in parenting, or resistance to heteronormative practice. </p>