Zoe Saldana: 'Men, You Will Not Cease to Exist by Taking Your Partner’s Surname'

— -- When “Guardians of the Galaxy” star Zoe Saldana revealed that her husband took her last name when they got married, the disclosure raised a few eyebrows and drew comments of disapproval online.

So Saldana, 36, confronted the criticism on her Facebook page Tuesday, writing: “Fathers, sons, brothers, men everywhere: Your legacy will not perish if you take your partner's surname, or she keeps hers. I’ve been made aware that a comment I made regarding my marriage has garnered some attention. I felt proud that my husband decided to take my last name as his own ... and I his.”

Saldana made the revelation about the nontraditional name-taking in an interview with InStyle magazine.

She told the magazine that she tried to talk her husband, Marco, out of it because of fears that the action wouldn’t be understood.

“I told him, ‘If you use my name, you’re going to be emasculated b your community of artists, by your Latin community of men, by the world,'" she told the magazine. "But Marco looks up at me and says, ‘Ah, Zoe, I don’t give a s***.’”

On Facebook Tuesday, Saldana revealed that her husband also asked her what was behind her hesitation over his taking her last name.

“He also asked me, ‘Why not? What are you so afraid of?’ And it made me wonder ... What am I so afraid of?” she wrote, saying women had never been asked if it’s OK “for them to give up their last names.”

She continued: “Men, you will not cease to exist by taking your partner’s surname. On the contrary -- you’ll be remembered as a man who stood by change. I know our sons will respect and admire their father more because their father [led] by example.”

Saying that a real man leads alongside his partner, she urged men to think outside the box and “redefine masculinity.”

"Gentlemen, I implore you to think outside the box," wrote Zoe. "Let's start by letting go of some of the limitation we have inherited from the past."

The post was signed “Zoe and Marco.”

Saldana and her husband -- whose surname before the marriage was Perego -- were wed in secret two years ago. Saldana gave birth the couple’s twin sons, Cy and Bowie, last year.