First of all, Betty is not ugly. She’s the typical American woman.
Don’t believe me? Take a walk outside. (Or just peer out from your cubicle.)
The Betty I’m talking about is the title character in the new ABC dramedy “Ugly Betty,” which chronicles the life of a geeky young woman struggling to prove that there’s a creative, intelligent person underneath frumpy clothes and a mouthful of metal.
She’s Jane Doe, a woman who is a little overweight, a bit klutzy, and could use a bit of help in the style department. In other words, you and me.
Really, all she needs is a makeover. But that’s a different show.
In this one, which premiered two Thursdays ago, the pure and transparent Betty is juxtaposed against conniving, mannequinlike colleagues who work at Mode, a fashion magazine.
Of course we’re going to like Betty, even root for her. Almost everyone around her, from her co-workers to her superficial sister to the dorky boyfriend who dumped her, is self-centered.
She is the dose of reality that’s been missing in primetime soap operas.
But this is how warped Hollywood is when it comes to beauty: TV stars can’t even talk about the supposedly ugly heroine in a way that’s not patronizing.
This is what Oprah Winfrey said to the show’s executive producer, Salma Hayek: “The fact that you are behind it, you being as gorgeous as you are,
really standing up for other women who aren’t as gorgeous. …”
Hayek interrupted with, “gorgeous in a different way.”
Applause thundered from the audience.
Oprah continued: “That’s what I mean. This says that women are gorgeous in their own way.”
More thundering applause.
Women can be gorgeous in their own way? Why even use that adjective?
It was odd. Hayek isn’t championing the cause of unattractive women. She’s promoting a show that, if successful, could catapult her career and make her a sought-after producer. That said, the show is brilliant in the way it uses melodramatic characters reminiscent of Spanish-language telenovelas to poke fun at superficial, vindictive people.
Those characters are shallow,
while Betty Suarez’s is multidimensional. It’s a way of attracting Latinos who grew up on campy Spanish soap operas while appealing to a larger, mainstream audience.
It is based on the Colombian telenovela “Yo Soy Betty, la Fea” (“I Am Betty, the Ugly”) which was so successful it spawned copycat versions in Israel, the Netherlands, Germany and India.
It’s a smart show, but let’s be real: It’s not going to change our attitudes about beauty.
That’s why I found Rosie O’Donnell’s comments to America Ferrera, the actor who plays Betty, puzzling.
On a recent segment of “The View,” O’Donnell exclaimed: “You are such an asset to women and to our country.”
When asked to describe the message of the show, Ferrera began to explain “The show is not about being ugly at all.” That’s when O’Donnell interrupted with “And you are beautiful!” as the audience cheered, “you are absolutely beautiful!”
Huh?
Why does O’Donnell feel that she has to tell Ferrera, an entertainer who plays a geek on TV, that she is beautiful?
Why not tell her she’s a brilliant actor?
The odd way they were promoting this show, hailing Betty as some sort of role model, made me cringe. Are we really that starved for characters that resemble real women on TV?
If that’s the case we will need more characters like Betty who are integrated into TV shows and considered normal, not ugly.
What we can expect from Betty is a character who warms our hearts and reminds women that what matters most is integrity and compassion, not dress size. But let’s not expect her to change America’s obsession with beauty. That’s too much to expect from a one-hour TV show.
Cindy Rodríguez’s column appears Tuesdays and Sundays. Contact her at 303-954-1211 or crodriguez @denverpost.com. Read Cindy’s blog at denverpost bloghouse.com/rodriguez.
