Mile Markers on the Road to Equality
| August 22nd, 2008Societal change doesn’t happen overnight, and it doesn’t happen by fiat; it takes thousands and thousands of individual changes to change society. And so mark this up as a small but meaningful milestone on the road to marriage equality:
It looks like Hallmark is targeting a new consumer.
While the language doesn’t directly refer to marriage (considering the fact that two states in this country actually recognize gay marriage), they were created shortly after California legalized. The cards have mushy language that could apply to marriage or civil unions like, “Two hearts. One promise.”
Yes, it’s a small thing. But it’s an important thing. As Vanessa says, this is Hallmark, the über-card maker, the ones who invented wrapping paper. Obviously, they’re looking to profit off of the burgeoning number of same-sex couples who are now legally able to get married — or soon will be. But we’re a capitalist country, that’s not surprising or even bad. No, the hopeful sign here is that Hallmark views this as just another market, another revenue stream — just a normal, average, everyday thing, that someone shopping at Target might want to pick up on a Tuesday afternoon.
It’s a small thing, nothing grand. But it’s important. Because little by little, no matter the outcry from the right, more and more people are seeing marriage equality as…well, just a normal, average, everyday thing. Not scary. Not destructive. Just two people falling in love and deciding to cast in their fortunes together. Pretty normal, pretty boring — and pretty cool.
August 22nd, 2008 at 2:11 pm
Hallmark has actually always been pretty cutting edge about cards designed for situations beyond the generic Happy Birthday. You can find cards for people getting out of rehab, recovering from anxiety disorders or eating disorders … You can find cards that depict all races (though I’ve yet to see a mixed-race one, however … but that may be due to how few people would buy one, not any statement of Hallmark’s part). They are actually a quite progressive company in a lot of ways. And they’re quite pragmatic - if their surveys tell them that people are wishing to send same-sex couples good wishes or marriage congratulations, they’ll do so; they really don’t have an agenda either way.
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