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Always referred to as 'Ellen's wife' - rarely by name

posted 11 years ago by jamesdrax
2 replies | jump to latest

I've noticed that the media (or at least the Australian media) always refers to Portia de Rossi as "the wife of Ellen Degeneres" or "Ellen Degeneres' wife", but it's almost like a conscious effort by the media in trying to avoid the reverse.

Why is Ellen never referred to as "the wife of Portia de Rossi" or "Portia's wife"? Is the media trying to avoid designating Ellen a title because they're really not sure what to call her? This raises the question of Ellen's role in the marriage and what she is supposed to be called. Is Ellen the "husband" or is she the "wife"? If it's the former, is it technically accurate for a woman to be a "husband"?

This new dichotomy of how the words "husband" and "wife" are allocated to men and women is creating a very confusing situation in human relationships.

[–] andrewthezeppo 10 years ago

I think it more has to do with the fact that Ellen is much, much more famous. Everybody knows who Ellen is from little kids to grandmothers but unless you were a fan of Ally McBeal or Attested Development people don't really know who she is.

[–] Vanilla_Sky_Guy 9 years ago

Ummmmm the dichotomy really isn't that complex or hard to follow to anyone who isn't completely ignorant. Portia is Ellen's wife and Ellen is Portia's wife. As neither are men there is no husband in their relationship. Really not that difficult to comprehend unless you're trying to thinly veil some bigoted views. Portia's an absolutely terrible excuse for a human being so instead of attempting to denigrate their marriage just do a little bit of research about the human *beep* stain that Portia is and would continue to be even if your own ignorance was lacking.