Betty Suarez Land

With the end of Ugly Betty looming after just three more episodes, it is time to mourn the loss off the most unlikely ‘I actually want to be her’ role model and contemplate the show’s heartwarming, universally appealing moralistic qualities. Admittedly, I am a hopeless romantic with a tendency to get teary-eyed and over-emotional whilst watching American TV shows deemed trashy and mildly ridiculous by most of my friends (Dirty Sexy Money, The Pussycat Dolls Present: Girlicious, Californication etc etc) But Ugly Betty has an edge. A loveabley goofy REAL edge; a fairytale without the sugary duckling-to-swan transformation or the overindulgent happily-ever-after.

Launched in 2006, the fashion focused comedy follows Betty, an ordinary girl from Queens who becomes the unlikely editor-in-chief to fashion playboy Daniel Meade. In the mercilessly cruel eyes of the fashion world, shoved between beauties and bitches, the new plain-Jane from Queens is not ‘plain’ but ‘ugly’, such are the meticulous standards held by the fashion elite.

Wilhelmina: “If you’re hungry, call down for some ice chips”

Greeted on her arrival with “Are you the before?” Betty’s ‘Ugly’ label sticks. A certain amount of dramatic license is required if we are to truly suspend the disbelief of actress America Ferrera actually appearing conceivably ugly, though the braces, frizz-ease deprived wig and wardrobe of rainbow coloured faux-pas certainly helps. America is even said to have coined the phrase ‘Bettification’ to describe the transformation efforts she endures. Yet the result, I think, is less ugly than alternative, and it is often possible to extract at least two pieces from whatever ensemble Betty is wearing which would probably be celebrated as “cutting edge” or “haphazard chic” in the British fashion world. Nevertheless, within the minimalistic glamour dome of Meade Publications, Betty’s quirks could never – and will never - qualify as beautiful.

The Meade office and the Suarez family home form the Montague and Capulet tag teams of the show, with the positives and negatives of each exposed in equal measure. Wilhelmina’s cutting one-liners and ice queen presence are balanced by snippets of warmth and genuine friendship between Daniel and Betty, Mark and Amanda, whilst in the Suarez home hub the cosy family feasts and words of wisdom are tainted slightly with the stifling reality of Hilda’s single-parent struggle. Betty becomes the Juliet figure, seduced by the buzz of the city but unable to embrace the lonely existence of those in the fashion world. Her struggle to shift her allegiance convincingly between the two worlds in pursuit of happiness ends up uniting them and binding them together with the moral that family comes first, no matter what.

Looking at the show from a moralistic point of view was perhaps not the primary intention of its directors, but it is, for me, like comfort food: fulfilling and enriching, despite its excruciatingly damning celeb digs...

Marc: “Its going to be Britney shaving her head all over again!”

Amanda: Oh that was fun! But then it got sad…”

Marc: No! But then it got fun again!”

However ludicrously shallow the fashion world is portrayed as, the show can never truly alienate or threaten its audiences because at its heart are the two themes we can all identify with: family and acceptance.

Watching Ugly Betty alongside the final semesters of a fashion degree which will launch a somewhat naive and nervy career seems a perfect match (at least I know what NOT to wear…) but in truth the show could be renamed “Lessons in Life as I’m Learning it” and is my recommended therapeutic viewing for anyone following their dream, or at least dreaming of doing so. To quote Marc, the ‘Nicole Bitchie’s’and ‘Wilhel-meistro’s’ of life will always be a nasty threat, the fashion world will always seem partly impenetrable and wholly shallow -

Amanda: “she’s a model…shiny things confuse her.”

- and your fashion choices may sometimes be scoffed at by those in the know, but I would rather be Betty than Wilhelmina any day.

Stick in your own Betty Suarez land ladies, because nice girls have a habit of finishing first.