Ellen Degeneres, the “lipstick” lesbian

Ellen just confirmed rumors that she will be the new Covergirl spokesmodel on her show recently. You can see the clip where she makes the announcement here.

There’s been a lot of progress for butch celesbian’s lately. First, we have Dani Campbell, the arguable star of the pretty terrible show A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila (come on, Dani was the only reason I watched the damn thing) who brought really hot butch (actually, she identifies as futch, but more on labels in a minute) lesbians to the mainstream. Then Ellen gets married to partner Portia de Rossi in a tasteful and well documented affair a few weeks ago. Then, we’ve got the also quite attractive and rather butch Rachel Maddow getting her own new show, which has been getting fantastic ratings. Now Ellen is the new CoverGirl?!? What’s next? A butch lesbian for president? I won’t hold my breath on that one.

So before I continue, a word on language. I don’t actually know if any of the aforementioned women identify as butch. Butch is a term primarily used in the lesbian community (although gay men use it too) to refer to a lesbian woman who is more masculine/boyish in their gender presentation. I would say that being butch can be seen as a form of gender non-conformity, that is, presenting yourself in a way that goes against traditional ideas of femininity. Oh, and futch, as Dani self-identifies, a term she coined to describe someone who is neither femme nor butch. It can get quite complicated, and becomes extremely personal to everyone’s self-definition. Also, lipstick lesbian is a term that has been used to refer to more feminine-presenting lesbians. Femme is also a term for this, but not all femmes wear lipstick, or would call themselves lipstick lesbians.

I have to say, first off, that I wasn’t super-excited when I saw the news about Ellen. In some ways, this makes me feel like we’re taking a step backwards when it comes to gender diversity. The message these ad campaigns send is, look, even a lesbian is really still a woman, lipstick and all! What would be really progressive, to me, would be to have a more feminine identified man, who wears lipstick in his everyday life, as a CoverGirl. You know, like the male bodied people who work for Mac? Now, it’s totally possible that Ellen does put on make up, even when she’s not on camera. But something makes me think it’s very possible this isn’t the case.

Everyone (dudes included) wears make up in show business. Mainly it’s because of the lighting. You look pasty and washed out without it. But the way make up is done for men and women is very very different. Done well, men barely look like they’re wearing anything at all. Rachel Maddow, for example, has definitely been kind of “girled” up for her new show. Light pink lipstick, weird short hair whorl. It could be that she is on board with the make over, and likes the hair do. But I have a sneaking suspicion it’s also about mainstream appeal. We may be starting to be okay with girls who sleep with girls, but only if they are still really firmly girls. Being gay is increasingly okay, but don’t screw with the gender binary.

Oh, and then of course there is the issue of CoverGirl and animal testing. But that’s a whole other post…

Some “before and after” pics of Rachel Maddow after the jump.