Ugly Betty and Beauty

Tracee Sioux has a post at So Sioux Me that really spoke to me  about the way Ugly Betty is changing television as it pertains to beauty.  I’ve been wanting to write something like this for quite a while, but there is no way I could have said it better.

I’ve always loved Ugly Betty because when you peel back the superficial veneer, there’s some pretty heady stuff going on.  There are some underlying themes that run so deep that they transcend the political:

I love Ugly Betty’s message about beauty.

I think it’s a provocative look at beauty and the value we place on women. The social climate at Mode Magazine begs the question are women valued for their brains and abilities or are they valued for how much they participate in the ideal of beauty?

With lots of glamour, fashion, paparazzi and soap opera gender themes it seems the only thing everyone on the show wants to be is the ideal of a beautiful woman.

Much more after the jump!

Sioux then breaks down each character of the show and how his or her whole life seems to revolve around the ideal of beauty.  An example:

The two heirs, both male, chase the ideal of the beautiful woman with equal vigor – one, Alexis Meade, surgically becomes one, while the other, Daniel Meade focuses on sexually obtaining many. Much like their father, Bradford Meade, who has built a dynasty around photographing the beauty ideal and writing about the importance and significance of beauty to encourage that other women, his audience, to seek it.  

And the producers and cast of the show are brilliant in how they go about it.  I’ve always said that if you want to change the world, the very last thing you should do is announce that what you are doing will change the world.  90% of “groundbreaking”, “important” television gets watched by no one.  Nobody likes to be preached to.  Sioux then gets to the heart of the brilliance of Ugly Betty:

Betty, completely oblivious to the vicious competition for becoming “the prettiest”, always seems the most truly beautiful person in the room.

Oblivious.  I can’t stress enough how powerful this is, both as an observation, and as a plot device in the show.  Call it the “Forrest Gump” effect, if you will.  In fact, Betty is to outward beauty as Forrest Gump was to intelligence.  Both know how others perceive them; both know they have limitations, as defined by the world.  Yet, both rush head on into environments that most would say they have no business being in. 

Without saying an outward word about beauty, Betty is changing our perception of it.  Marc and Wilhelmina are the life of Ugly Betty, but Betty is its conscience.

Now, I’ll be the first to admit that I am drawn to the beautiful people and glamorous settings on the show.  Let’s face it, they are very pleasing to the eye.  But, if you think that’s all Ugly Betty is about, you need to take another look.