First, let me say that I do not agree that we should be up in arms over the temporary and largely symbolic ice cream name change. Instead, I think we should be supportive of Ben and Jerry’s who is being so supportive of us.

However, this thread really reminds me of the “bird cage analogy.” Consider this: If we look so closely at a bird cage that we see only one teeny bar blocking the bird’s flight path, we wonder why it is that the bird does not simply fly around it. But when we step back, we see a network of bars working together to keep that bird imprisoned.

Much like the individual bars of a bird cage, issues like the one at issue here seem minute or even silly. An instance of an ice cream mogul temporarily renaming one of its most loved treats after gay marriage should be a reason to celebrate, even if it has the unintentional consequence of celebrating men and not women. However, when you step back, you can begin to see a network of seemingly “little issues” working together to maintain the invisibility of lesbian and bisexual women and the issues facing them.

And so to the point of a couple of other posters here, I do not agree that this is merely an issue of being “too politically correct.” Women all too often see themselves pushed out and so when something as seemingly small as Ben and Jerry’s symbolically renaming its ice cream after gay (male) marriage, it might be experienced by women as yet another example of male supremacy (even within the LGBT community). And I can respect that a woman might have that experience, even if it’s not mine.

On a side note, it also reminds me of that time I stood in line for hours to get married in West Hollywood. When the volunteers came around with cupcakes decorated with same-sex male symbols to celebrate, they would not give one to me and my wife because they only had cupcakes with male symbols on them.

As if I cared, I just wanted a frickin’ cupcake.