I think America Ferrera is the absolute coolest. She stars in some of my favourite films and television, beginning with Sisterhood of The Traveling Pants, all the way up to NBC’s sitcom Superstore. That’s why I decided ten years after its finale, I was finally going to watch Ugly Betty.
I remember seeing the commercials for Ugly Betty all the time as a kid, but as a seven-year-old, the show had little to no appeal to me, as I did not understand or grasp the concept of the show. I think I fell trapped by societal standards of perceived beauty at a very young age, and was especially used to seeing “pretty” models in the media I consumed in the early 2000s. Therefore, I was especially confused as to why anyone would want to watch a show about such an awkward, unstylish, conventionally unattractive person (by society’s standards).
However, in all honesty, I think the real reason I was deterred from the show is that, as a young kid, just like Betty, I had glasses, uncooperative hair, and was also much shorter than all my friends. I think I struggled with seeing characteristics reflective of myself labelled as “ugly” in the media, while at the same time characteristics I did not have, such as infinite height and perfectly straight blonde shiny hair be labelled as “beautiful”. It really is a shame that I didn’t end up watching the show back then, as I think the true message of Ugly Betty would have been something very useful to hold onto going into my teenage years, when life gets extremely superficial, and all that matters is your appearance, and what others think of you.
The show follows Betty Suarez, a twenty-two-year-old young woman fresh out of college. As mentioned, Betty is by societal standards considered to be “ugly”, unstylish, and awkward, which is the precise reason she is hired by Bradford Meade, publishing Tycoon, to be his son’s, Daniel Meade’s assistant, at Mode Magazine, the top fashion magazine in the industry (and very likely meant to emulate Vogue magazine). The reason for this being that Daniel Meade is a huge player who is not very professionally serious, and is much more focused on sleeping with all of the conventionally attractive women in his office. Thus, Bradford Meade hires Betty in what he considers to be a full-proof plan in order to get his son to start focusing on his career, as Betty is considered far too “ugly” and awkward for Daniel to ever sleep with her.
Very quickly, however, I began to understand that while Betty is physically not the most attractive, and is definitely very awkward, she is also extremely intelligent, kind, and most importantly is completely true to herself, never allowing the opinions of others to change who she is at her core. While at the same time, contrastingly, Betty is surrounded by physically beautiful coworkers at her office, however, rapidly I began to notice that any appeal of their physical beauty wore off in comparison to Betty, when all they cared about was their appearance. They were all so busy focusing on how other people saw them, that they barely had any time to develop themselves, and were thus vapid and shallow individuals, always discontent due to their constant comparison to others around them. While at first Betty’s physical appearance is overly criticized and judge, it is her determination and kindness that leaves a positive lasting impression on everyone around her. While at the same time my personal standards and understanding of beauty began to shift away from societal standards of beauty, very shortly into watching the first couple episodes of the show.
The only critique I have of the show, but still very prevalent of an issue, is that it very much does play into major stereotypes of race, sexuality, gender, and class. Unfortunately, however, that was a very common thread of the popular media produced in the nineties and early two-thousands. Thus, if the show were to be remade today, I would hope the writers made a conscious effort to avoid the promotion of such stereotypes, and cultural tropes, as identifiable in so much of our mass media. In some ways, I am very glad I didn’t watch the show till now, as I am able to very easily identify the problematic stereotypes, rather than likely falling victim to them as a child, and believing that these characterizations represented everyone.
In summary, although I missed out on watching Ugly Betty during its height of popularity, I am extremely glad I am able to watch it now, as the message of the importance of staying true to yourself is so perfectly presented and visualized in this show. In addition, especially now with the revolt of diet culture on social media, one could say that Ugly Betty was ahead of its time in the ways that the show so craftily mocked North American diet culture. And finally, I am always a sucker for a good early 2000’s show, from the fashion, makeup and hair, to the interior design, Ugly Betty is the epitome of the Y2K style that has become so trendy this year.