Have I Mentioned I Adore "Ugly Betty"?

First of all, please don’t comment on this post by saying you don’t the title of one of my favorite TV shows, “Ugly Betty,” because lead actress America Ferrera is actually quite dishy. Yes, she is – in fact, it would be hard to name a sexier actress on TV nowadays – but that objection misses the point, and it’s getting old.

A review in Salon by Rebecca Traister gets it:

But those who have taken the title’s bait and examined only the aesthetics of the show have missed the point. “Ugly Betty” is not about being unattractive, or at least not simply about being unattractive. It’s about class. And ethnicity. Its smart take on cultural and economic differences, enmeshed as it is in a fresh, funny package, makes it positively subversive television.

Betty Suarez is the 22-year-old daughter of Mexican immigrants. She lives in Queens with her widowed father; older sister, Hilda; and Hilda’s son, Justin, a fashion-obsessed preteen. But when we first meet Betty, it’s in the marble lobby of Meade Publications, where she’s awaiting a job interview with an H.R.-bot who needs only an eyeful of her metal-mouthed grin to shut the door in her face. […]

“Ugly Betty” is the American adaptation of the Colombian telenovela “Yo soy Betty, la fea,” which began airing in 1999 and has since been translated and remade around the world. […] “Betty la fea’s” creator, Fernando Gaitán, who is also a producer on “Ugly Betty,” told the Guardian in 2000 that telenovelas “are all about the class struggle. They’re made for poor people in countries where it’s hard to get ahead in life. Usually the characters succeed through love. In mine, they get ahead through work.” The U.S. version of “Betty” offers a bracing look at how those class struggles are further fraught by cultural diversity and intolerance, thanks to “Betty” producers Salma Hayek and Silvio Horta, who insisted that it retain a Latina heroine.

The scorn with which Betty is treated at Mode has less to do with her looks than with her place of economic and cultural origin. “Are you DE-LIV-ER-ING something?” enunciates receptionist Amanda when Betty first arrives, assuming that a brown girl in a bad outfit could only be a messenger. “Sale at the 99-cent store?” she later remarks when Betty misses a party. When Daniel frets because Betty has taken the “book” home to Queens, Amanda purrs, “You’re going to get it back and there’s going to be chimichurri sauce all over it.”

“Ugly Betty” is an unabashed soap opera, with all the silliness and melodrama you’d expect. It’s just that this soap is situated in a world in which classism and racism are subtexts lurking behind almost everything.

Although the Salon article doesn’t comment on it, sexism also lurks in “Betty’s” reality. Betty’s boss is a good guy within the show’s plot, but his constant sleeping around – and his objectification of and indifference to his many sexual partners – is treated harshly by the show’s writers. Betty’s boyfriend, Walter, is cute (in a totally non-mainstream-media way) and sweet, but he’s also petulant and whiny whenever Betty makes her career a higher priority than being Walter’s always-on-call girlfriend.

Still, the show’s critique of sexism is soft compared to its razor-sharp depiction of classism and racism. From the Salon review:

But the show again escapes the too-good-to-be-true trap by making clear that Betty is not above wanting to belong or look good. In Episode 3, at Hilda’s urging, she undergoes a makeover. “You want to fit in with these people? They’re not going to change. You have to,” says her sister. “The hair, the face, the clothes. You gotta look it to be it.” She whisks Betty to Choli, a local beauty technician who works her magic on Betty’s hair, nails and wardrobe.

Betty’s transformation is dramatic. With hair piled on top of her head, an outfit of jangling jewelry, a tight skirt and heels, Betty becomes a goddess to the men who catcall her (“She’s hot!” exclaims one) as she walks to the subway the next morning. But the look doesn’t translate in Manhattan, and it provokes the most scathing round of jeering she’s yet received. The other assistants photograph her as if she’s a zoo animal, and Wilhelmina scoffs, “It looks like Queens threw up.” The message is clear: Queens pretty is not Manhattan pretty. Poor pretty is not rich pretty. Latina pretty is not white pretty.

Switching into total fanboy mode, one more thing I love about “Ugly Betty” is that as the show has gone on, the villains who mock and torment Betty have become increasingly humanized. My favorite such moment so far is a brief encounter between Betty’s nephew Justin, an effeminate 13-year-old who loves fashion, and Mark, a flamboyantly gay co-worker who constantly mocks Betty (on Halloween, he comes to the office dressed in cruel Betty drag). After Justin admits that his schoolmates don’t like him very much, Mark sympathetically advises Justin to “Be who you are; wear what you want. Just learn to run real fast.”

Sometimes, “Ugly Betty’s” fish-out-of-water story seems like a metaphor for “Ugly Betty” itself. Like its title character, “Ugly Betty” is optimistic, sincere, and smart, which because of these traits sticks out among the cynical, mean-spirited, and clueless TV shows / co-workers surrounding it. I’m an addict.

(Hat tip: Racialicious).

This entry was posted in Class, poverty, labor, & related issues, Popular (and unpopular) culture, Race, racism and related issues. Bookmark the permalink.

17 Responses to Have I Mentioned I Adore "Ugly Betty"?

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  4. Blue says:

    I have to say it though, Amp: The previews of the show always attract me, but I have such a visceral reaction to the show’s name that I just can’t watch. The title hurts, no matter the irony.

  5. Robert says:

    My wife really enjoys Ugly Betty.

    I like watching it on occasion, mainly when Salma Hayek will be disrobing.

    Yes, I am aware of the irony. Sue me.

    Mmm, Salma…

  6. Ampersand says:

    I like watching it on occasion, mainly when Salma Hayek will be disrobing.

    So you’ve watched 20 seconds of one episode?

  7. Robert says:

    So you’ve watched 20 seconds of one episode?

    Well, OK, but I’ve watched those 20 seconds like 200 times. So that counts, right?

    No, I’ve watched several episodes. I meant to say I *particularly enjoy* Salma’s presence, and it’s not because of her Method skills.

    Jokes aside, that’s intended as a serious point: that the addition of a conventionally gorgeous woman automatically draws interest (at least from one demographic). I wonder whether Hayek intended to make an ironic point (“look, you’re all watching a show about how beauty doesn’t come from a fashion magazine, and even there you want to see T&A!”) or if it’s just a standard TV decision (“let’s punch this up with some T&A”).

  8. Penn says:

    Love America Ferrera–I suspect the show wouldn’t work without her energy at its center. And the ABC schedule puts Ugly Betty right before Grey’s Anatomy this year… so on Thursday nights, we get the beautiful curves and features of Ferrera, followed by the beautiful curves and features of Sara Ramirez (especially gorgeous next to some of her waifish co-stars).

  9. debbie says:

    I also love this show, although the name was initially off putting.

  10. EJ says:

    I agree with you, amp- this show is really good and doesn’t get enough credit.

  11. Elena says:

    Will it end after a pre-determined number of episodes, like the telenovela, or peter out, like a US series?

  12. Blue says:

    I heard so many references before this tv season to new American shows following the telenovela style, but I haven’t heard which shows are embracing this. It’d be nice to know.

  13. Sue says:

    Every time I see “Ugly Betty,” I come away wishing that Christina would be on screen for more of the show. She’s warm and humane (making her a fish-out-of-water at “Mode,” like Betty). And she’s is played by a very talented actress. More Christina!!!!

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  15. Ugly Betty says:

    well, actually I totally agree with you……she’s a new way to do television and open people’s mind.

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