I’m not an Ellen person, and I know there are Ellen people — which is not to say that I don’t think Ellen is smart, funny, creative, and cute as a button. I don’t care how straight you are, there’s no way you can look at Portia de Rossi and Ellen DeGeneres together and not think “Those are cute girls.” Without being an Ellen follower I can see that she is smart and clever and warm, and she must be resilient, too, to have gone through what she’s undoubtedly gone through on her way to becoming one of America’s most beloved, very publicly gay superstars (I mean a very publicly gay person who also happens to be a superstar).
So I think the world of Ellen, but I’m not one of her followers apart from that, since I haven’t seen her show or followed her other adventures. But I paid attention when Ellen got a blast-of-fury reaction from religious groups who objected to the announcer of her new spokesperson role for J.C. Penney, the time-honored retail chain whose profits have been hard-hit by a combination of competition, a recession and the general decline of department-store shopping. (That’s what I’ve read. I’m a mom and an opera singer, not a retail industry analyst.)
As it turns out, I was in a J.C. Penney store not long ago and I thought, “I don’t get this business model.” The stuff is more expensive than Target stuff (which has the appeal of being not only super-cheap but color-coordinated every season, so that single-celled organisms like me can walk into a Target store every few months and say “Aaaah! New colors! I NEED that” and snap up three chili-red bath towels for no reason whatsoever). J.C. Penney doesn’t have that visceral appeal, or an upscale department store’s luxurious feel. And the stuff at Penney’s is expensive. Why would anyone shop there?
Evidently the CEO at J.C. Penney came from Apple and other places where they care about marketing and they understand people. That is paying off for him (or I predict it will) because Ellen DeGeneres is the letter-perfect, manna-from-heaven spokesperson for a merchant like Penney’s at this moment in history. I mean, Penney’s has the name recognition — I used to go to J.C. Penney with my parents when I was a little kid. So many of the big chains have gone with the wind. If I sing in production of “Guys and Dolls” in which the great old department store names are invoked, I have to explain them to my younger cast members. The stores don’t exist anymore. But J.C. Penney does. How are they going to move into the next millennium and a vastly changed retail environment?
In steps Ellen. We love her. She’s plucky and down-to-earth, the way we all want to be. She’s gay: big deal! She’s not out there trying to force people to brew herbal tea and adopt cats. The CEO of J.C. Penney says “What’s the issue? Ellen represents American values.” He’s right. That was a brilliant rhetorical move, because if you want to assail J.C. Penney and Ellen for their partnership you have to say “I don’t care about Ellen’s values as a person, it’s the fact that she’s gay that makes her an unsuitable spokesperson.”
If you say that, you have to acknowledge that you’re also saying “I don’t need to know anything else about a person apart from that fact that she is gay, in order to hate her.” Thank you, One Million Moms, for making that connection clear.
Hate is not a Christian value.
I’ll go out of my way to shop at J.C. Penney, this weekend or next week. I don’t even need anything (well, I could use a couple of pairs of socks and as I think about it, maybe some chili-red bath towels). We get to vote with our dollars, and this whole flap reminds us of what a powerful thing that is to do.
Let me be quick to say that I hope Ellen doesn’t just speak for J.C. Penney, but helps them with their merchandising and product selection, too. Twenty years ago a budding romance with my then-boyfriend/now husband was almost scotched when he bought me a heinous, down-filled, zip-up ankle-length off-white coat from J.C. Penney for Christmas. (It makes me vomit in my mouth just a tad to think of it, but I hid my distaste fairly well, I think.)
Then again, you don’t pick Ellen G. to front for you if you aren’t planning to move out of the box at least a tad, so I’m hopeful. Great American brands deserve to be made over and refreshed, and here’s a great example of that. I’ll stick around with J.C. Penney to watch that happen, because they stood for me and the values I endorse.