"Ugly Betty" Premise Makes Zero Sense

I was amused to find out this woman works at a fashion magazine.
Incredulous, really.

Jocelyn De Contents...

It's a freakin' TV show. Do you sit around all day wondering how
realistic it is for a woman to twitch her nose to clean up her living
room? Watch it for what it's worth or change the channel. I think
"Ugly Betty" is a good TV show with a heart.

senna...

It's a another badly-written show that's hyped as practically a Peabody
Award winning show.

Enjoy the blandness.

If you work at a fashion magazine, you would know how to dress, do your
makeup, your hair- and not wear those glasses. She wouldn't be such a

videonovels...

.

Well, if YOU were observant, you would have noticed that the first
episode explains, "His father told his son to hire an ugly person, so
he's not tempted to sleep with her."

Repeat: "...told to hire an ugly person..."

She was not hired for her fashion sense, but simply because of her
looks (or lack thereof).

Obveeus...

If her character was 'intelligent' and wanted the job oopportunity then the
character would be making the best of the job (such as dressing to fit in
rather than to be put down). If the character was intelligent and did not

hancock4...

She was not hired to "dress to fit in". She was hired to utilize her

Obveeus...

She was hired because she is ugly. If she wants to succeed and achieve
respect of her new peer group, it would be wise of her to show an
understanding of the business (including the smooze side of it).

hancock4...

She was not hired because "she is ugly". FIrst, she isn't "ugly", just

videonovels...

.

I don't know how Hancock can look at Betty (the character) and says
she's not ugly. She's got metal instead of teeth, big obnoxious
glasses, and terrible hair style. Also, unhealthy body size (medically
speaking).

She's not beautiful.

She's not even cute.

She's ugly (hence the title of the show). It's like looking at a
walrus.

plain compared to the models. She's actually quite cute and adorable.
The close ups of exaggerated facial expressions don't help.

Barry Margolin...

She was hired because she wasn't attractive enough that the boss would
be tempted to sleep with her.

But I just realized that if you take off the braces and dress her up
nice, Betty is on a par with Monica Lewinsky. She's no supermodel,
either, but that didn't stop her boss from going after her.

videonovels...

Ya know what's sad about people like Lewinsky? They have the potential
to be, not beautiful, but physically attractive. Lose the weight, get
a natural-looking hairstyle, lose the weight, get better clothes, lose
the weight.

In an alternate reality, where Lewinsky is 20 years old and only weighs
110 pounds, she'd be quite the hotty.
.

I've also seen the opposite progression. The "cute" girls in college,
ballooned in their twenties, and now they resemble Shrek's girlfriend.

She is in a peculiar position. The other staff do not like her because
(1) she is plain and educated and (2) not the desired for new
management team. In other words, even if she were to turn herself into
a supermodel she'd still be unwanted because she's with the boss who
they don't want nor like. That her co-workers are out to sabatoge her
every move isn't helping. But this is all parthe "fish out of water"
scenario. Notice she stood her ground so she would personally deliver
a document to her boss.

Again, this is a comedy. Anyone deeply focusing on accurate details
will be disappointed and shouldn't be watching this show.

college education for administration. That is a totally different area
than fashion, but such a magazine needs it just the same.

Obveeus...

I hear you. Troy complains about being addicted to a TV he cannot tear
himself away from and lead a normal life. For me, I'd give of TV over good
food any day. Food is one of the few really enjoyable parts of being alive.

Obveeus...

Paper/numbers pushers always are relegated to lower middle management.
People that 'truly succeed' have to be good at the 'people part' of business
as well.

hancock4...

She is not "management" and not expected as such. She is an assistant,
basically a glorified secretary. Her management decisions will be
whether to use conference room A or B.

But if you want to be that fussy about it, remember that : she was
ready to quit but her family needs the money and she needs this job.

Lastly, last week's episode showed her attempting to get all dolled up
to fit in more. It was a disaster and she looked terrible (lost her
cuteness, too).

Obveeus...

Sounds like a weak gimmick designed by the writers to justify her staying
'ugly'.

want the fashion magazine opportunity, she would be out interviewing for
Field and Stream, Blanketwear Daily, or Shirpa Monthly. It makes little
sense for her to stay in the fashion industry and yet not make a better
attempt to be sucessful.

record hunter...

Obveeus cuts right to the point.

videonovels...

Jeez. It's only her third week on the job. A lot of today's "hot
dressers" were total dorks when they first started out (clooney is a
good example). It takes time.

~consul...

Yeah ... but even he knew that if you can't go cutting edge, you go plain. Go for the
librarian look. Ugly Betty seems to have found that niche of flashy trashy.

I've watched the show, but she really doesn't engage me. She got nice thoughts, the dad is
great ... but I can't get the way she looks. She's not ugly, she's sensory deprived, for
any type of hype/entertainment/publishing business.

mess if her vocation is fashion. She would know how to make the proper

David Johnston...

What gave the idea that her vocation is fashion? Her vocation is

bklyntv...

If you think the writing is serious you need to get a sense of humor.
See they call it a "sense" and you are apparently sensory-deprived. So
sad for you.

magazine publishing. The magazine she actually ended up working at is
the one she least wanted to be working for, but she regards it as a
foot in the door.

record hunter...

Yeah, but her continued refusal to make even the slightest inroad
towards becoming even the tiniest bit more fashion conscious strikes me
as strangely incurious. I'm no fashion plate, but fashion isn't *that*

Barry Margolin...

Good fashion costs money. She's basically just a secretary, do you
think she can afford to upgrade her wardrobe?

deering24...

As well, since when do all fashion-mag. workers in rl look like
they've stepped out of the pages of their own magazines?

C.
**
(Hint: they are usually hired for their writing/editing/visual
skills, not because they look like Giselle...)

David Johnston...

It's only been three episodes.

record hunter...

I anticipate. Forgive me. I've read they plan to keep her en poncho.

David Johnston...

Maybe but the fact is in last night's episode she did in fact try to
give herself a makeover and upgrade her wardrobe. The results just
happened to be more ridiculous than anything else, because Ugly Betty
is fundamentally a comedy.

bklyntv...

I think that's a really tricky thing for producers to have to navigate,
whether to keep Betty "ugly" or not. It seems to me there will be howls
no matter WHAT they do, they can't win.

I've read that the telenovela this is base on never made Betty over. So

Dana...

Yes, they did.

It was gradual, but they gave her a new wardrobe, new glasses, new hair,
better make-up and eventually got rid of the braces last. It happened
towards the end of the novela.

people who are fans based on having followed one of the spanish
language version (admittedly a perhaps small contingent), maybe mad for
deviating from the source.

hancock4...

I don't anything about the "telenovela" base nor care. To me, this is
a funny show where the main character happens to be blue collar
Hispanic (not an Hispanic oriented show).

The basic humor of this show is a classic--the square peg in the round
hole. Smart person vs. dump people. Devious people vs. good hearted
people. Every military humor show was similar--a bunch of wacky's
refusing to follow standard strict military procedures and always
causing problems.

The battle lines are clear: Betty and her boss vs. the rest of the
outfit (pun intended).

And I'm sure there are more than a few people who feel that making
Betty over would negate the essential message that substance beats
style, brains beats beauty, pluck beats ploy.

But then, NOT making her over makes Betty look kinda dumb and of
course, isn't THAT realistic, people usually do mimic their
surroundings.

Oh and Ugly Betty gets beautiful is a sure sweeps week ratings plot,
and perfectly in line with about a million other makeover shows popular
with Americans.

Glad I'm not the showrunner that has to make that decision.

awful, and she has entree to an awful lot that wouldn't cost an awful
lot, courtesy of Daniel at the very least. It just becomes more and
more eccentric, and not in a believable way, with each episode. N.B. I
have yet to watch tonight's.

Steven L....

I agree.
In my experience, there is such a thing as "corporate image" and all the
white-collar employees are tacitly expected to support that image. She
is as out of place in her environment as a man wearing a tuxedo would be
working at web-search or YouTube.

I remember Vance Packard's famous example of an employee who was told
that the car he owned and parked in the corporate parking lot wasn't
consistent with flashy go-go corporate image the company was trying to
uphold.

senna...

You said it better than I.

It's TV for people who don't know or understand really good TV. They
don't know that what they're watching is drivel.

Steven L....

"Good TV" is TV that people want to watch. Because it doesn't matter
how good a show it is if no one is tuned to that channel at the time.

"Ugly Betty" is outperforming the much-hyped "Studio 60" by a wide
margin. That means Ugly Betty is better TV than "Studio 60," by definition.

Not every show on TV has to be of literary or artistic worth. I don't
watch Ugly Betty, but it doesn't sound any worse than Occasional Wife or
My Living Doll or any number of other fluffy and unrealistic but fun
sitcoms over the years.

Of course that's good news, if you are a network exec.

corrections. It makes absolutely no sense that she looks like that.

Brian Thorn...

Betty didn't go for an interview at the Fashion magazine, she went to
its publisher, a Time/Life-like company. The owner of the company her
to work as a secretary/assistant at the Fashion magazine instead,
believing Betty's plain looks would deter his son (who runs the
Fashion magazine) from being sidetracked by the hot secretaries he
usually hired.

bklyntv...

Is this your first TV program? Because the concept of a "fish out of
water" is far older highly educated woman waiting tables in a bar, a
genie out of a bottle, a witch in suburbia or a movie star trapped on a
tropical island.

Buy in or don't. I do work in magazine industry and find nothing about
the "business" believable but enjoy the show for what it is, campy fun.

tomcervo...

Unlike the premise of the dumb ass anchorman?
The fact is, she's shown that she can do her job and some of her
boss's. She could look like young Selma Diamond and keep her job, so
long as her boss looks good. Have you ever seen a picture of Anna
Wintour? Like Miss Grinch in Chanel.

Of course she's fat, but that's really not the issue here.

...and yet another dumbass, show is added to the huge huge pile.

Email...

She's not fat. She's even less than what the _average_ American woman is.

Obveeus...

The average American woman is fat.

Why do you say she's fat? Why that word? Why not 'overweight'?

rst...

Why not "calorically-challenged"?

If using the word "fat" offends you, then you have the problem with a
perfectly suitable adjective.

Email...

Did I say "offend"? Did I?

What size is that actress in real life? I bet she's like a size 6 or 8, at
most. So, you're calling that size FAT. Shame on you! And, according to

Steven L....

No we're not. We're calling the character she's playing "fat." Actors
have often worn padding and special clothing to make themselves appear
bigger for certain roles, and perhaps that's the case with UB. In fact,
when a role called for a character to be fat, some actors actually have
deliberately gained weight by pigging out just before filming commenced,
and then lost the weight after the production ended.

tomcervo...

Toni Collette. What she is now is what she was before she put on 30-40
lbs to be in Muriel's Wedding.

suzee...

It looks to me like she's wearing padding and that makes it look like it
adds at least 20-30 pound.

videonovels...

Perhaps but when they put her in that tiny one-piece, that was her.
She's geuinely overweight.

Steven L....

America Ferrera is full-figured but definitely *NOT* obese:

She's one of the new "natural look" actresses, like Kate Winslet, who
thankfully are not the typical Hollywood body-sculptured boob

videonovels...

.

I don't think America Ferrara is beautiful, but I like Kate Winslet's
look. She's a very attractive woman. But that's not what we were
discussing in this thread.

We were discussing the *medical* distinction between normal weight,
over-weight, and obese/fat. I suspect both Kate Winslet's and
America's doctors have told them, they are clinically over-weight.

Please don't take what I said personally.
We're talking about MEDICINE, not opinion.
Facts. Like: 90% of 30+ americans are overweight or obese.

You may not like that fact, but it IS a fact. And definitely not
healthy (excess fat clogs arteries and/or hearts).

job/washboard abs/toothpick legs type.

suzee...

I've only seen half of last week's show. I'd rather watch Earl and Co....

you (obviously a know-it-all) that's a "perfectly suitable" adjective.
Which means that you think size 0 or 2 - which is the only size actresses
are allowed to be in Hwood - the only acceptable size to be. Pathetic.

Obveeus...

Is there really some difference between the two words?

Email...

Oh, I don't know. Probably because someone who is a size 20 probably is
legitimately "fat". (especially if she/he is shorter). But someone who is
, say, a size 6 or 8 or 10 or 12 is !NOT! "FAT". Sorry, that's just not
"fat". There *IS* a difference. The difference is that the shallow don't
get that. I bet you don't get that. Pity.

~consul...

She's pudgy? I know that both is less appealing as an appellation, but which one would she
be then? I know that we don't have to use any word, but the words are there to use.

...I mean, some difference other than that neither of them really apply to
Ugly Betty.