Ugly Better
01.28.07 (1:58 am) [edit]"Ugly Betty" seems like another national TV production that just capitalises 'minority'. It is just favoring the same old idea of "Better to be mocked than ignored." But the whole structure is, for it is in 21st century, sickening twice more. This enforces the conventional game rule of setting minority back as lesser beings, and fixes the protagonist to the point of reduction so that 'minorities' are at least registered to American psyche, as something to be rediculed, humiliated and still happy about it. This successfully shuts everybody up and leave them satisfied (except people like me).
The thing that I found very offensive is that character Betty is marginalized for being minority and a woman, who somehow is thought to be defected for her below par looks, and the sitcom not only justifies it but also benefits of it totally at her cost. The repulsive point here is that the heroine's officially deemed defect in her looks, which is premised to be a huge minus in her life in the racist US society, is accentuated by her being Latina. Could this be OK? People would not have passed anything Ugly Such as a show had it been about a white woman. In the context of this production, officially calling someone ugly is just plausible when it is about a marginalized minority woman in the white dominant environment; Betty accidentally landed on the job that is fashion related. So the story is designed to mock this ugly girl's deplomatic skill&nbs p;without any of her visual appeal. People are thrilled to see this because in TV representation in general, a woman w/o her entitlement nor prevelidge is hard to find nowadays. Besides it is regarded OK to laugh at Hispanics officially. To me, this can't be funny. Just overt and vulgar racism. This phenomenon translates; white women no longer can be portrayed to be ugly enough for anything because of all other women, of color, are lined up dying to be represented and convince the audience that 'they are off the main stream, so you validate them in any way you want', in other words, minority women are officially treated as 'undesirable sex, but they can still be sex objects'. The US showbiz handles races as some lazy standard of their reduced esthetics, and the value attached to white people saves white women from being considered to be ugly even when they are really so. The rest of them, no matter beautiful they happened to be, are measured with some points deducted already because they are minorities. On top of it, minorities do not exist in TV world, as if showing their images violates the broadcasting code, until audiences say OK, this one can be on TV even though she is dark. To get the OK sign, minorities have to play the assigned roles and accentuate and reinvent their preconceived images just as the saying goes in the prostitution industry, "Dark meat has to work harder (to make up the deducted points); they have to live up to what are already stereotyped and reactivate to get OK sign from the mainstream media. Because without it, you are invisible in the showbiz and the society. When you are invisible, you can't get any part in the biz/society, which jeopadizes your survival. That is how actors do not think twice acting a humiliating part when they got it.
The predicament of the production "Ugly Betty" is that it is originally made in Colombia. That the caracter's hit twice, first to be 'ugly', second to be Latina, is a twist only US version has. My stomach turned when I heard the original colombian creater nonchalantly say in BBC interview "I understand that people can more relate to a less than perfect looking woman." This guy was making the sitcom at the cost of a woman, and laughing at her as well. He does not care, because he does not realize that he is humiliating a fellow hispanic and benefit at her cost. I would have organized a petition to stop the broadcasting if I were Latina. However, real Hispanics might be happier, than being dismissed and ignored forever, to see themselves represented there even if it is not in a favorable manner.
The lead role of the show Ugly Betty is actually charming. But what is premised in the show makes audience regard her as the officially ugly figure. What is playing the role of authorizing the esthetic standard and sorting who is meeting it and who is not is the racial destinction anybody can see istead of real esthetics that would take personal preference and plus alfa.
Unfortunately the phenomenon of this ugly celebration of ugly betty is just another consequence of the cultural compliance of Hispanics as well their disregard of women's rights, and imposition of male value on the audience. This is only a very likely scenario of institutional racism.
And the original creater stated how risky it was to cast a non beauty for a lead role. Wow, visual stimulus only communicates when people cannot think or understand anything more than what they see. But do people in 21st centyry have to be this moronic and reduced? This translates that to their idea, it is already a fresh theme if you bring a non beauty and depict how she lives without benefitting anything women should. It is as if they are entitled to mock and make fun of a woman when she does not meet the requirement; beauty and pleasing men. I was appalled to learn how backward this creater's view on TV production was. But that was where the whole idea came from, and ironically accepted in a place like US where everthing is over the limit of PC's thought police system. But it is better than seeing minorities being entertained by having their self images humiliated. At least don't count me in accepting this gross show. Accidentally the title souded like Ugly Better when I was listening to the translator's accented English in the BBC interview, which accidentally captured the whole essence of the show; better to be ugly and made fun of than being pushed out of the border. This is what the visceral politics of what US and Latin American power struggle drew out. Under the threat, people do not remember what is the humiliation they should not take and what is the right kind of represention. How easy, and reduced, the cross cultural understanding could be.
Believe it!
01.19.07 (1:55 am) [edit]It is already 19th of January (EST), which sums up that I have anihilated my new year's resolution to zilchi and did not post one entry after the turn of New Year. Just to compensate the broken promise and restore my honor, I will post everyday from now on. Believe it!
I have just been to White Castle now and ate three of the famous weird sized and shaped 'sandwiches', one of regular and two of cheeseburger; it would not have occurred to me had it not for the inspiration that I got by Harold and Kumar go to White Castle, the long missed masterpiece. I just sent back the DVD on my way out to White Castle nearby. I never am a fan of any sort of fast food, to say the least of this off the main stream, known as all time soggy burgers. Rumor says that they are offering healtier junk for ther little use of oil, which I doubt. Still, I felt like going there to catch some of the same junk Harld and Kumar ended their long jorney with; that made me think as if I were a fool to miss what I could have without venturing all the way in New Jersy just like they did in the movie; the Whtie Castle in the neighborhood is just like five blocks away, right next to the police station. The movie was indeed the masterpiece as talked about for a couple of years up to now; I heard my then lover, a college professor, talk highly of the movie, and that became the very first movie that I made a pick of after I had signed up for Netflix.
I just happened to read my old blog that is no longer supposed to be accessible, and recollected certain knack of posting more frequently; I was submitting almost everyday circa 2004, and I was more casual about publishing any of my writing no matter what it was about and how silly it was. I was little conscious of readers as well as myself; I was more innocent as a writer who is supposed to expect the open readership. I guess that is the most drastic difference. I hardly believed anybody was reading what I wrote there at the time, which turned out to be false.
I had been off from any routine due to the working gear that I was at over the holidays, year end and new year; I am seriously thinking of keeping away from the work after the court appearance that I had made this time. My lawyer made me think what I can still restore now and what I would possibly risk once I am back at work, and ultimately let me do the math. He just drew a picture of the wonderful world of being alive even when persecuted, or better so then in a paradoxical way. Now I hardly feel like working, especially in the set up that I have to deal drugs as well as sex. I went to sleep that night with the image of my new lawyer's face and his presence, which put me at ease and peace. I cannot afford to trash life of mine as well as others', that I am so sure of, but then, it is challenging to resist the knoledge how fast you can make once you make your mind up. The question is if it is worth risking everything. This is merely a matter of balancing your benefit out of positive and negative. I wonder if I still feel like it with everyhthing considered, after seeing all ruined including close friends and husband, narrowly myself as well. That is the real resolution of this year; to examine the real worth of everything, first and foremost, the worth of my life.