Conservative Lesbians

Chatshow host Ellen DeGeneres and actress Portia de Rossi have married in an intimate ceremony.

Rumours surfaced towards the end of last week that the showbiz pair were planning to tie the knot this weekend and their spokesperson confirmed the news to People magazine saying:

'Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi were married tonight in an intimate ceremony at their home in Los Angeles.'

Just 19 guests, made up of the couple's close family and friends, attended the simple civil ceremony held at sunset.

DeGeneres, 50, and de Rossi, 35, both wore Zac Posen. De Rossi chose a subtle pink halterneck wedding gown with plunging neckline and full net skirt. DeGeneres opted for an elegant white waistcoat and trousers.

The couple have been dating since 2004 and DeGeneres announced their plans to wed live on her chat show this May.

'It's something that we've wanted to do and we want it to be legal and we are very, very excited.'

At the Daytime Emmy Awards earlier this year, DeGeneres said of her partner:'She's taught me lessons about myself, and I feel like I've taught her. We've both changed and grown, and we just feel like, 'Oh, okay, this is completion.'" [the rest of us throw up]

"Glam Pussies"

Glamorous Lesbians [sometimes called "glam pussies'] are everywhere. Academics call this the dilemma of the "consumable lesbian"; that is, the most palatable lesbian comes to represent all lesbians.

This consumable lesbian is pretty, wealthy, stylish, influential, and feminine—but post-feminist and definitely not gender-transgressive.

Sociologist Jane Ward, a professor at the University of California, Riverside, sees what she calls "an echo effect":

The media prefers images of beautiful women, so lesbians put energy into being pretty, and then the media reports that image as the new ideal.

"It's the same way that heterosexual femininity is packaged and sold to female consumers," Ward says.

Some progressive scholars see glamazons as a move to the right. Or perhaps it's that more conservative women now feel more comfortable being out.