BlogHer - Please keep Betty ugly! - Comments

Redefining "ugly"

SeoulCat — Tue, 03 Oct 2006 22:48:40 -0500

While I too think it's unfortunate that human society labels people who are different from the perceived ideal as "ugly," I rather welcome the directness of the show's title. It would be nice if we could get people to stop labeling others, but the fact is many people are going to, regardless. What's more important--in my belief--is that we promote the idea that it's OK to be "ugly." That it doesn't change your inherent value because some ignorant person uses that label.

Too often, I fear, we have young women who place so much of their self-worth on their looks and social conformity. It's as if being called "ugly" is the worst thing that can happen to someone.

I am heartened to hear of a title like "Yo Soy Betty La Fea" as if to say, "Yeah I'm 'Ugly Betty' so what, I'm getting on with the important things in life."

I also loved America Ferrera in "Real Women Have Curves" so I have high hopes for the American version.

Looking forward to Ugly Betty

Maria Niles — Wed, 27 Sep 2006 13:27:12 -0500

I've been curious about this show for years since I read about it and from seeing the title in my channel guides, but since my ability to comprehend Spanish extends only slightly past the title...

Buy, yay, coming to America and starring America Ferrara who was so terrific in Real Women Have Curves and with Salma Hayak producing - I have high hopes for a show that will allow Betty's humanity and beauty to shine.

Thank you, Liz, for the Betty history - very interesting!

I'm not too optimistic...

Suzanne Reisman — Wed, 27 Sep 2006 12:57:14 -0500

I hope that Betty will stay who she is also, but I don't trust Hollywood. On one hand, Salma hayek, who is a producer of some sort on "Ugly Betty," did have enough respect for Frieda Kahlo to "go ugly" to play her in a movie, but I don't know if she can hold out in our "Extreme Makeover" TV culture.

I've read some great interviews with America Ferrera, the wonderful actress (whose name I may have spelled wrong) who plays Betty, and I love her approach to the whole show. She doesn't care at all if she plays someone known as ugly because she says it is obvious that everyone else on the show are truly grotesque and that Betty's inner beauty really shines through. It's almost a weird trend for atractive actresses to transform into ugly characters (and it seems is a surefire way to win an Oscar these days), but Ferrera's whole attitude is just refreshing.

Suzanne, BlogHer Contributing Editor - Feminsim & Gender
Campaign for Unshaved Snatch (CUSS)& Other Rants

Personally, I think "Ugly Betty" is hot...

Liz Thompson — Wed, 27 Sep 2006 12:43:58 -0500

...and I am sooo glad that you picked up on my "Is ugly the new pretty" post - thank you, thank you!

I plan to watch it (tomorrow night) with my two oldest girls - ages 10 and 12 - because (being a DORK!) I feel that the show faces some very "ugly" truths about growing up "female" and (more to the point of my post) the fashion world.

Ugly exists - I see it everyday, whenever I open up my newspaper, turn on the television (or) even go shopping! - and perhaps a show like "Ugly Betty" will help me (as a mom) bring home the point that I try to teach my kids, everyday.

It's what's on the inside, that counts - braces, anti-acne creams and a good haircut can always take care of the rest!

Thanks, Liz - you soooo pretty!

--------------------------------------------
For more from Liz Thompson, read:
C.E. Fashion & Shopping
This Full House
The Imperfect Parent

It's Really Not About Beauty

A.R. Linder — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 21:07:15 -0500

There is no story more memorable than the ugly duckling that becomes a swan. There is no story more romantic than Beauty who falls in love with the beast who is really a bewitched prince. I'm just grateful that the stories that endure are not about outwardly beautiful people who are rotten to the core. The Ugly Duckling and Beauty and the Beast will still be here when the Bold and the Beautiful or J.R. Ewing have long withered. I think that these stories are really just about good things happening to really smart and good-hearted people--it wouldn't matter if they got a makeover, won the lottery or the heavy weight title (Remember, Rocky--sure you do). What's important is the good guy comes out on top. And, that makes most of us feel good. Please visit out website and work on the things that make you the good guy.

YouthPlay.org: How I Choose To Play is Serious Business

Personaly, I hate anything that uses the word: Ugly

Crunchy Carpets — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 20:04:11 -0500

I mean really?
Are we that shallow and cruel that that is how we would describe someone who doesn't fit the ..the...what? Social norm?

I don't care if you are trying to teach a message etc....to me it backfires because it uses the language that it is trying to be all moral about.

It also keeps this stereotype of what is acceptable looking and what your lot in life is if you don't fit that stereotype.

This can do no good for our children.

Can't we all just be normal...and some are more together in what is media and socialy acceptably considered 'good looking'?

I hate that braces are being used AGAIN for ugly as is vaguely overweight.

Great ego boost there.

Crunchy Carpets

Please keep Betty ugly!

Liz Henry — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 18:52:24 -0500

Liz Thomson mentioned "Ugly Betty", a new show coming up. It's based on "Yo soy Betty La Fea", a longrunning telenovela (169 episodes!) from Colombia. Here's the IMDB entry on it. The show was so successful internationally that it also became an animated series. Its basic premise in the Latin American version: Betty, a fashion designer, is smart as hell, but ugly. Her female co-workers are all really pretty and make fun of her. Wackiness ensues. Then she gets a makeover. This sounded a little annoying to me â€” like the world needs another woman who takes off her glasses and becomes magically beautiful? Why the show was so beloved?

Blabbeando explained the show's popularity really well (eng):

What distinguished Betty from the rest was the fact that it up-ended the usual Latin American television soap tropes, at least for a while, by being razor-sharp in lambasting the vacuous, greedy and self-involved world of the wealthy while making its nerdy and prat-fall prone heroine, her co-worker secretaries and her low-income family the moral center of the story. That the show did it with panache, incredible amounts of humor and a focus on narrative and character development added to its sweetness...

I love the thought that little girls were going out trick or treating dressed as Ugly Betty - because she was funny and smart!

Apparently the show's writers tried to keep Betty ugly for as long as they could, but eventually the pressure of the magically-beautiful-makeover genre took over. If the point of the show is to criticize superficiality, fashion, and perhaps the misogyny of "the beauty myth" by making Betty funny, smart, and likeable, then it seems important for Betty not to get contact lenses and a boob job... I'm just saying...

Of course an actual person who does not conform to Hollywood beauty standards would not be hired for the job...

LiveJournal has a great community of Betty La Fea fans, Maria Alecia asks what makes slapstick humor so funny, and why do different countries want their own versions of Betty (why do Mexicans think that the Mexican version is funniest?); The Latin Americanist links us to the YouTube preview. Of course the really interesting thing would be to go back to the very beginning of the blogosphere and see what people were saying then!

Anyway, I thought that English-only Bloghers would like some pointers to Betty history. I wonder if the Colombian series will be available on DVD in the U.S.? I'd be very curious to watch "the real Betty".