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Underground > Film, TV & Theatre >

Ugly Betty

  
 
miss wonderstarr
08:45 / 06.01.07
Watching "Ugly Betty" last night ~ it launched in the US late September on ABC, and was bought by Channel 4 ~ I felt like I was at a dinner party listening to an increasingly ghastly and tasteless joke, but realising I was the only one who had any problem with it. You look around and see everyone else laughing, and you want to say "hold on," but you wonder if you've missed something.

Maybe I have missed something. The show's been warmly reviewed and Golden Globe nommed. It was brought to the UK as the latest big American hit, and received as the long-awaited replacement for Friends.

In its set-up, the outstanding feature of Ugly Betty seems to be its obvious similarity to The Devil Wears Prada, which of course was released as a film over the summer ~ unfortunate timing, as they both deal with a "frumpy" but genuine PA struggling against the bitchiness and superficiality of the fashion magazine business and hoping it'll lead to more serious work on another title.

And it's not as though the idea of a "frumpy", "homely" heroine is anything new, either: you could think back to Bette Davis in Now Voyager (42) or Rachael Leigh Cook as Laney Boggs in She's All That (99). The geek-to-stud or -princess makeover is common to countless teen stories, from Cinderella to The Breakfast Club.

But calling the show UGLY BETTY ~ making her unacceptable appearance into her name ~ just seemed a step further, and a breathtaking cruelty.





Here's an attractive Latina actress who wears (apparently) unfashionable clothes, and has braces (and glasses; I guess that's also considered relevant). The whole title and premise hammers home that this appearance = ugly. Sure, she's hard-working and genuine, but she's ugly. Her nice qualities lie in her personality. Ugly Betty, you're so helpful. Yeah, you know Betty? she's so sweet. Which Betty? Ugly Betty. Oh yeah, Ugly Betty, ha ha.

I didn't feel that in any way the show was "reclaiming" the word ugly, or challenging its application to Betty. It's just accepted from the start that Betty is ugly, and that she's great, a hard worker, a nice girl, but yeah, she's ugly. (Even more disturbing to my ears, the original telenovella was called "I Am Betty, The Ugly" ~ as if she's sadly internalised everyone else's view of her). There doesn't seem to be any irony in the title ~ even though the point of the show seems to be that Betty's one of the few nice people working on the magazine; even though the title "Beautiful Betty" would maybe have more impact next to an image of America Ferrera in Betty-drag, and seem more true to what the programme's trying to say about her as a good person in an ugly industry.

The news that, according to Wikipedia, on December 20, 2006, ABC announced a new public service campaign built around the show, called Be Ugly '07. The campaign is meant to encourage women to be themselves and not what they see in the media. The set up is much like Dove soap's Campaign for Real Beauty series ~ seems kind of opportunistic, and contrary to the show's overall message. Not to mention the contradiction in encouraging women to not emulate what they see "in the media", when of course Ugly Betty is one of those media messages itself, and seems to be saying pretty clearly that a certain kind of appearance categorises you as "ugly".

Maybe I am missing something. What I kept thinking overall is that ~ and perhaps this is ridiculously bleeding-heart ~ there are a lot of schoolgirls out there who have braces and don't wear fashionable clothes, who are now going to be called Ugly Betty, because the show's given their bullies a convenient new taunt.
 
 
STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK
09:03 / 06.01.07
Maybe I am missing something. What I kept thinking overall is that ~ and perhaps this is ridiculously bleeding-heart ~ there are a lot of schoolgirls out there who have braces and don't wear fashionable clothes, who are now going to be called Ugly Betty, because the show's given their bullies a convenient new taunt.

I have to say, that crossed my mind too. I wasn't really paying attention- missed half of it due to walking the dog, and was distracted by Big Brother chat for the other- but what I saw didn't really strike me as very funy, which is a bit of a failing in a sitcom. I figure it wasn't really aimed at me (as the sort of person who didn't get most of the jokes) and that I could be missing something, but yeah, my initial impression was much the same as yours.
 
 
Seth
09:05 / 06.01.07
That Be Ugly '07 thing sounds just inconceivably awfully conceived.

I'm agreed that the woman playing Betty is actually extraordinarily good looking, in a way that is clearly the producers playing it safe so that they can pull a Cinderella moment out of the hat if they want to. You know, when ratings start to slip.

So rather than contibuting to alternate representations of women in the media it's doing the total opposite.
 
 
miss wonderstarr
09:15 / 06.01.07
Yes, I understand that a makeover for Betty isn't on the cards this season, but that it is part of the original series' story arc ("...eventually she is promoted to a senior job, becomes involved with her boss, and gets a makeover.")

Again, this is nothing new at all ~ the idea of a woman taking off her glasses, letting down her hair and being greeted with "why, Miss Jones, you're beautiful" is surely unsustainable cliche now ~ but of course, the notion that Betty would need a makeover to get the prize of her (conventionally good-looking) boss is tediously reactionary.

I think it's more the title than anything else that I'm stuck on. "Beautiful Betty" would seem to represent what the show's kind of trying to say (that her co-workers are only superficially "pretty", and that she's the beautiful one, albeit on a booby-prize, consolation "deep-down", personality level). The title just seems to be given so straight, without any indication that it's the misguided impression of superficial people that Betty is ugly. And as I suggested, the nickname "Beautiful Betty" might not be quite so stinging in the classroom.
 
 
miss wonderstarr
09:19 / 06.01.07
I should note that it's not just Betty's braces, glasses (presumably) and clothes that make her "ugly": her body is also exposed to humiliation in episode one, because she's not six feet tall and size zero, and doesn't suit the skintight dayglo space-vixen outfit she's forced to squeeze into.

Oh yeah, and in this episode Betty hangs around with the other "ugly" reject-girls, who as I remember include the very pretty Scottish actress Ashley Jensen from Extras, and the only other two non-white women in the company.
 
 
gridley
15:39 / 06.01.07
Maybe I am missing something.

Well, keep in mind, Betty is set in the world of high fashion where beauty = fake and therefore ugly = true. Beauty, in one form or another, is one the primary motivators for storylines. It's the ultimate, always ununattainable goal, supremely desirable and utterly seductive. Even our relative truthteller Betty isn't immune to falling under it's illusive sway and many stories put her in a position where she has to choose between the glamour and the real.

I think if you watch the show, your concerns about the provocative title will fade. I find it very entertaining and utterly charming.
 
 
penitentvandal
16:19 / 06.01.07
and the only other two non-white women in the company.

Aside from Vanessa Williams as the uber-bitch Meryl Streep character?
 
 
miss wonderstarr
22:21 / 06.01.07
Betty is set in the world of high fashion where beauty = fake and therefore ugly = true.

Well, that's an interesting point. So it's almost as if the title is "Ugly" Betty, in your interpretation ~ that we have to understand "ugly" in that specific industry context. My impression was that "ugly" is just meant straight, ie. "this woman is really plain, look at her!". Maybe part of my issue with it is that when you see the words "Ugly Betty" on a poster advertising the show, with a photo of the main character, it seems quite devoid of any more subtle connotations such as those you suggest.

True, I entirely forgot Vanessa Williams' role. I think the model whose part Betty humiliatingly took in the car-crash shoot was Latina, as well, which was the whole point with Betty replacing her ~ they supposedly needed someone with the same skin tone. So, maybe there's not much mileage in an argument that the show links ugliness with non-whiteness.
 
 
Hydra vs Leviathan
00:23 / 07.01.07
I've seen billboards and posters for this all over the place, and while it looks like exactly the type of show that i have exactly zero desire to watch, it is notable in that every single time i see the adverts i think "WTF? But she's gorgeous" - instantly followed by the fear that, if i actually said that, i would be met with universal or near-universal mockery and accusations of pervertedness and/or insanity... so, in a sense i'm quite gratified that, at least here, there's a consensus that the actress in question is not ugly...

It does disturb me that young girls who look anything vaguely similar to this actress, or dress anywhere vaguely similar to her character, will be encoraged to see themselves, and others to see them, as "ugly" - thus reinforcing the (genuinely vicious and nasty, if you've ever been on the wrong side of it) hegemony of a very narrowly defined "acceptable" way to look and dress in present-day Western youth culture (which also has various gender-politics interpretations, none of them particularly nice or happy).

It sort of ironically reminds me of the Frida Kahlo self-portrait sketch captioned "very ugly". It also reminds me of how utterly distant my own ideas of beauty and ugliness are from those of (what seems to be) the prevalent popular culture, and that in itself is strangely disconcerting - I have no idea whether my desire for more people to share my perceptions of what is or is not attractive, or at least to deviate a bit more from the prevailing ideas, is meaningful or not...

Is there a thread about beauty and ugliness, as concepts applied to people, in the Head Shop?
 
 
Liger Null
21:01 / 10.12.07
I just started watching this show in DVD and it's fast becoming one of my favorite series ever.

I guess I love the show so much because I see so much of myself in Betty: a chunky, bespectacled, and dangerously clumsy young woman-about-town, trying to keep sane in a crazy world.

Betty isn't ugly at all, any more than the Ugly Duckling was. She is just suitably different from those around her that she sticks out like a sore thumb. It's pretty clear early on in the show that Betty isn't the one with the problem. Betty herself understands this, so instead of changing her style and demeanor to fit in, she relies on her brains and tenacity to carve a place for herself at the magazine, with tremendous success.

Her integrity and benevolence have a ripple effect on the company, positively influencing the most "evil" of characters, who grow and change as the series progresses: Daniel begins to take responsibility for his career and actions, Whilemina reaches out to her estranged daughter, Mean Girl Amanda opens up about her true feelings for Daniel, Mean Boy Mark befriends Betty's nephew...

People who dismiss the show as "cruel" or who are so hung up on the title and the fact that America Ferrara isn't at all "ugly" are missing the point. Nearly everyone, no matter how conventionally "beautiful," has felt awkward and hideous at one time or another. The title "Ugly Betty" speaks to this side of ourselves.

The point of this series is that honesty, kindness, and doing good work can make a difference in the world, no matter who you are or what you look like. This is a surprising and welcome message from TV Land, especially for young women, who are the target audience.
 
 
Liger Null
21:12 / 10.12.07
All that having been said, I'm only eight episodes in. I'm expecting it to jump the shark at any moment.
 
 
Regrettable Juvenilia
21:39 / 10.12.07
Nah, it hasn't jumped the shark yet. I think Ugly Betty is a great show: it's in some ways a new kind of show, or at least, I can't think of another show that achieves what it does, in terms of genuinely not taking itself seriously but achieving the levels of character engagement more recently associated with shows that do.
 
  
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