One, Ellen Degeneres and Portia de Rossi both just received custom Nikes from the company as wedding gifts, and Ellen showed the audience her new kicks on her show. How cute! Go Nike, for being pro equal rights marriage! Nike is given the highest rating of 100 on HRC’s 2009 Buying Guide.
Two, Portia is going to be on Ellen’s show this coming Monday, March 16th. Again, I say how cute! This is the first time Ellen’s wife will be a guest on the show, and it’s telling of progress the show has made in its years of airing. The first few seasons of her talk show she referred to Portia only in passing and as her ambiguous ”partner.” It wasn’t until a couple of seasons in that Ellen started referring to her explicitly and affection.
Now Portia will be on the show. I can’t want to see how they handle her appearance.
Ellen Degeneres, remarkably, is the new Cover Girl spokes person for their new line of “Simply Ageless” cosmetics. Take a look:
The first time I heard about Ellen becoming the new Cover Girl model I was elated for a number of reasons. She is hilarious and I knew this was going to actually be a make-up commercial I’d want to watch, she’s an older woman, which isn’t the standard of beauty in the United States, but the most important reason for having Ellen in this role is because she is a lesbian.
Lesbians, in popular media, fall into a multitude of stereotypes: masculine, flannel wearing, Birkenstocks shuffling, cargo shorts draping, buzz cut sporting, dykes or the opposite is the male friendly, feminine, happy, dress wearing, kitten heal sporting, hip swaying, lipstick lesbians. Both fall into separate roles and both have very specific purposes; the dykes are for comic relief and to man-hate and the lipstick lesbians are to titillate the male viewers. But, Ellen falls under neither of these stereotypes. Yes she’s definitely the comic relief and a little masculine, but she also wears designers clothes and is sometimes quite feminine. Ellen not only represents a more accurate portrayal of many lesbians but women of all sexual orientations. This is likely because Ellen is just being herself, she’s a normal, respectable, funny woman, who has won over the hearts of millions of Americans and many more viewers internationally, and JUST HAPPENS to be gay.
The increased circulation of her commercials, print ads, and billboards among the greater population gives positive and productive visibility of an openly gay woman to many Americans and to the world. This positive image of a successful, friendly, gay woman in such a prominent role gives me hope that people are becoming more accepting of gay people as just an everyday part of life.
Watch the Early Show’s reaction to Ellen’s new gig:
Did you see how surprised he was? And did you hear the shock in her voice? I feel like both of the reporters were just digging themselves deeper and deeper into a hole, and somehow tried to pull themselves out right at the end. ”Isn’t that funny, because I don’t think you think of Ellen Degeneres as glamourous per se, or even somebody who even particularly wear’s make-up.” “That’s right, she’s fifty and she’s very public about her sexuality, so certainly not the traditional face of that company.” Then she goes on to name a slew of women who were more believable Cover Girls and were, most importantly, straight.
It just seems so ridiculous and a little inappropriate that a national, live TV show would talk about how a lesbian isn’t a traditional choice, because she’s a lesbian. It’s certainly is true that homophobia is the last acceptable prejudice in this country. Sigh.
Well, either way, kudos to Cover Girl for choosing Ellen, and kudos to Ellen for being such a great representation of the gay community!
