Have you heard? Kim Kardashian is apparently the First Woman To Ever Get Married, or so you might think from all the media coverage of the recently-engaged star.
Kim Kardashian is a brand unto herself, making thousands of dollars in appearance fees and loaning her image to products such as Skechers Shape-Ups and various diet products. Kim Kardashian isn’t a celebrity who also does product endorsements, she’s a product endorser who occasionally appears on television, having initially risen to fame via sex tape. She’s part of the group in Hollywood often reviled as “famous for being famous” and her biggest product is really her name.
This is what makes the issue of her considering a name change so interesting. Momager Kris Jenner is quoted by several sources as saying she doesn’t think Kim should change her last name, since she’s built her fame to this point on being Kim Kardashian. Whether this is a true or not, it brings up the interesting question of what a woman gives up by considering changing her identity in a marriage, and what she might gain or lose from doing so.
As Mary Elizabeth Williams points out in her Slate article, “roughly 80 percent” of women choose to take their husband’s last name when they marry. That number seems surprisingly high for 2011. Part of the reason things like the Kardashian story have been picked up and so widely circulated is that it resonates with people in a way that reflects our own struggles within relationships. People love to see their own dilemmas projected through the lens of good-looking, rich celebrities.
Personally, although I don’t have any big objections to my name, its generic nature has proved both a blessing and a curse. First, it’s difficult to Google-stalk me because finding the right “me” is a challenge. This is a source of anonymity that I rather enjoy. Of course, I also have a really hard time getting a good email address for myself because every possibly iteration of my name was taken the year the Internet was born, pretty much.
In all seriousness though, the coverage of Kim’s last name change does reflect a larger conversation. For some, retaining identity within a marriage means hyphenating both people’s last names. For others, it means forming an entirely new name. Many women no longer necessarily feel compelled to ditch their own connections and identity by changing their last name. However, since 80% of women do still change their name, obviously that change is slow, and perhaps fraught. We say it’s in need of a role reboot. Like the institution of marriage itself, name changes may be something that is part of a past that no longer fits today’s needs.
After all, even the institution of marriage itself is undergoing celebrity scrutiny. Actress Cameron Diaz also recently made headlines when she declared that marriage is an outdated institution, saying, “I think we have to make our own rules. I don’t think we should live our lives in relationships based off old traditions that don’t suit our world any longer.” Coverage of this one statement was picked up by hundreds of sources, and has been widely discussed, proving that marriage is still very much part of the whole celebrity fantasy. Diaz has famously dated a number of men considered eligible bachelors, but as a woman in her late 30s who has not walked down the aisle – and who has recently been outspoken about her choice not to do so – her public declarations are indicative of a shift in consciousness afoot all over the country. Is it possible that in Celebrityville, the Hot, Eligible Single Woman is now the viable alternative to the Celebrity Wife? Is it possible that we could be changing how we think of a woman’s ultimate goals?
Look at the coverage surrounding the recent royal wedding: the “fairytale” ending of a beautiful commoner landing her prince (literally) with millions around the world tuning in to watch and discuss the event. Marriage is still viewed as the happy ending every woman deserves and is incomplete without. In fact, so much emphasis was placed on Kate Middleton’s long “wait” to become princess that the British press nicknamed her Waity Katy, because obviously she was just waiting for William to pop the question and couldn’t possibly be complete or happy until he did so.
The fascination with celebrity marriage (or singledom), as well as name changes, is a reflection on what is happening in society overall. Perhaps it’s easy to write off the media attention to the Kardiashian wedding or Diaz’s opinions about marriage as idle celebrity chatter, but it’s also an interesting lesson in how this chatter reflects larger patterns in societal thinking.
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