Ugly Betty, 1x??

[oyceter]

I watched three random episodes of Ugly Betty, as determined by whatever was playing and whatever Tivo caught. Um. Spoilers for... the two model sisters at a nightclub episode?

I'm really undecided about this show. I know it's gotten a lot of praise, so possibly I've only caught bad episodes. And even in these three episodes (the Christmas party one, the end of the MYS/Sofia thing one, the two model sisters who turn out to be mother daughter one), the show's been really good at taking unsympathetic characters and making me like them, or turning things around a little.

On the other hand, I was really, really bugged by the Sofia thing. I knew that Betty would end up returning to Mode, given sitcom constraints, but it sort of rubbed me the wrong way to have the head of the supposedly more feminist magazine be a schemer who ends up tearing the heart out of poor unsuspecting me. But they gave Sofia a moment at the end, and while she did an awful thing, you sort of get her.

But then there was the really insane black social worker and the scheming mother/daughter flip on Daniel, and I started getting rather twitchy about the portrayal of women in power or trying to get power. I mean, wow, they are insane. And there's Mandy's perpetual look for a leg up, along with Wilhelmina's many schemes (I actually like them and think they're funny), along with the Scottish fashion designer betraying confidences for a career move. And through it all, there's Betty, who morally disapproves of all of this (well, so far not the social worker or the scheming mother/daughter, but I'm pretty sure she will go ballistic about the mother/daughter), who constantly seems to be selling herself short to stay and babysit Daniel, and she seems to be the only likeable woman.

And she is likeable partially because she isn't power-hungry.

Um. Did I just watch a bad set of episodes or something? So far, the two guys I've seen jockeying for power have been Willy's assistant and Alexis' new assistant, but so far, their jockeying hasn't been a major plot point. And the guys in power (Daniel, Daniel's dad) so far seem reasonable and non-cutthroat, or at least less so compared to the women.

Also, while I like Betty a lot, I am incredibly creeped out by how possessive and protective she is about Daniel. The end of the last episode does seem to indicate that it is unhealthy, but given Daniel being entrapped by the mother/daughter team, it looks like Betty will be pulled right back into that role.

I don't know. I'm just sort of disturbed, a lot by Daniel being one of the least comedic figures on the show and the sympathy I am guessing that he gets, a lot by Betty wanting to stay as his assisstant, a lot by Betty constantly mothering him and getting feedback that has been positive about it for two out of three of the episodes I've seen ("Betty, you've made me grow so much"). And I can see how the show could be a more nuanced look at women and how difficult it is in a largely male corporate environment and how women end up resorting to sex and mothering and not their skills, but for these three episodes, it seems like all the not-Betty women have been portrayed as downright evil, delusional, or just plain scheming.

Comments

[oyceter]

Yeah, I am not very disposed to like Daniel. I went back to read coffeeandink's summary, and I'm wondering if I just stumbled into episodes that don't talk about Daniel's privilege as much. Though in defense of the show, even in these three episodes, there has been mention of Daniel's privilege, particularly in comparison between him and Sofia, who had to work her ass off just to get where she was.

I really liked Sofia, though I had pretty much figured out she wasn't going to stay long, as she was played by Salma Hayek. I was also irritated about the first cover story of her feminist magazine, particularly since Betty did note that Sofia's magazine workforce was much more diverse. Not to say that everything labeled as "feminist" has to be good, but I swear, in the last few things I've watched, things labeled as "feminist" always end up being shown to be hypocritical. This annoys me (esp. given the common criticism that feminism is to blame for the hypersexualization of today's culture and for the greater pressure young women put on themselves and etc.).

Completely ditto your comments on the black social worker.

On the other hand -- show with WOC as main character! And I adore Wilhelmina in all her glorious shallowness, and I am already liking Alexis.

I'd love to hear more thoughts!

[shewhohashope.livejournal.com]

I'd love to hear more thoughts!

Are you sure?

Well, I saw the episode after 'Punch-out' yesterday, and there is a point made of the fact that Daniel has a problem, and I feel a little better about Betty's over-zealousness if I think of it as a friend who recognises that someone has a real problem that needs to be addressed. It wasn't the best way to go about it, but she's more sensible this week.

There was also a mention of Daniel's privilege from Alexis. Alexis and Wilhelmina are both clearly better suited to the Editor-in-chief position than Daniel, but his father prefers him to Wilhelmina because of nepotism and Alexis because she's a woman/transgender.

The feminist issue is why I stopped watching Veronica Mars. How empowering is a show with a strong female lead who looks down on both feminists and feminism? I know that writers should be allowed freedom to make their own decisions with their own books/films/tv series, but I'm not going to act like each individual decision is independent of the larger context, which in this case is that feminist characters and organisations are overtly or covertly disparaged, shown to be hypocritical, or morally bankrupt in mainstream media ALL THE TIME.
Especially when people say that feminists/inter-racial relationships/disabled characters/transgender characters have been over-done. It's not particularly original to portray feminists as slutty, sexually-repressed, man-hating lesbians who don't shave their legs, not to mention the message that this is sending to women/POC/transgender/gay people is that they're nothing more than a fad and now it's time to go back to 'normal people' (read: young-middle-aged white middle-class males).

I went a little off course there, possibly.

But the thing is this show, while not perfect, is about a million times better than most of the stuff out there and really has a lot of 'non-traditional' characters front-and-centre.

[oyceter]

Are you sure?

Hee, yes!

OMG completely agree with you on VMars. That was the one I was not-so-obliquely referring to ;). Just... *sputters* Yup, that's why I stopped watching it.

I think I will keep watching Ugly Betty, just to fill in gaps and see how it's going, because hey... women of color! As opposed to one woman of color!

[almeda.livejournal.com]

The sad thing is that, at least among women younger than me (I'm 31) that I meet and have casual conversations with out in the non-fannish world, 'feminism' MEANS 'shrill man-hating boob-flaunters who think they're so much better than everyone else and have to prove it by putting everyone else down'.

I shit you not.

[oyceter]

Well, I think that definition of feminism holds for most people, not just women under 30, thanks to the general portrayal of feminists in the media and stupid jokes about them. Pretty much everyone I've talked to who isn't my usual LJ crowd seems to have that impression, sigh.