On Filling Out Forms
October 25th 2007 14:19
Are forms ever innocuous texts? I don't think so!
It annoys me profusely when a form requires that I fill in my 'family' name, since my last name is different to every single person in my immediate (and extended) family... and how about people who don't have families at all, like orphans? This term is discriminatory and should be banned from use. I have a similar gripe with 'given' names- I don't use the name that was "given" to me as I picked my own first name (and hence gave it to myself). Why can't we just use 'First' and 'Last' so as not to exclude anybody? Then there's forms that ask for your 'Christian' name - Hello, we aren't living in the Middle Ages anymore! The church and the state haven't been conflated with each other for a long time, so making such a blatant appeal to Christian values is not only outdated, it should be illegal. [I'd like to apologise for assuming that 'surname' was made up of a derivation of 'sir' - I have since been informed that it means 'over'.] I think 'Maiden' name is imbued with gender politics which should be obsolete at this time and age.
I am a careful consumer of the information in the world around me, and it saddens me when such minor details aren't given much thought. I have never come across another person who feels as passionately as I do about these terms, and so I feel the need to bring them to your attention. Let's make a change starting from terminology we have been conditioned to believe is 'neutral' and 'innocuous,' 'beyond suspicion.'
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