Name Hyphenation

I thought all my mid-40's friends were having some sort of mid-life crisis because they started hyphenating their names...all of them...and all at once.

Which lead me to wonder: why? What's the point of that? Is it to gain some sort of independence from the shadow of their husband? You know, not want to be known under someone else's identity? Which lead me to wonder...

Is there something wrong with their marriage? Their perception of the arrangement of their marriage? Are they tired of using the identity of some man who expects them to stay at home, tend to the kids, take care of the house, garden all the yards, make all the meals, iron all the clothes...all when what they really want is to have their own gig back?...the one they had before kids????!!!

The gig when they were known for themselves and not the package that comes with the umbrella of wife and mom???

But were they really known for themselves before they took their husband's name? I mean, didn't they just have some other man's name before that? Their dad's? And isn't he just some other man in this hegemonic strata all designed to cover the independence of women??!! Aren't they just trading one man's name for another? And is their dad really THAT great, that his name should be hyphenated with the husband's? "Look at me I have a double dose of NO IDENTITY, but I feel so innn-deee-pen-dent!"

What the heck is happening?!

Then, I realized, everyone was getting facebook accounts around the same time, and they merely wanted their friends who knew them before they were married -- to find them.

Boy do I feel dumb, but VERY relieved. :-))