Friday Feature: Ugly Betty and Diversity
"This person- who looked like the 'other', who always seemed to be the 'other', not the one who was accepted... she was the one who was actually the heart and soul and really was the cornerstone of this life. You walk into any place, and you say to somebody, 'do you think you're really the right stuff?'... Nobody's going to say yes, in their heart of hearts." - Judith Light on Ugly Betty
Until last week's dramatic finale, Ugly Betty was the reigning champion of portraying diversity in characters and their diverse problems on television. There is Betty (America Fererra) and the rest of the Suarez family, all Mexican-Americans; Wilhelmina Slater (Vanessa Williams), the African-American Editor-in-Chief of Mode Magazine; and Mark, Slater's openly gay assistant. Betty's nephew, Justin (Mark Indelicato), also came out as openly gay during the show's final season. Other formally taboo subjects are tastefully approached by Betty's creators: Claire Meade (Judith Light)'s alcoholism, Daniel Meade (Eric Mabeus)'s over-sexualism and cult involvement, and Alex- or Alexis- Meade (Rebecca Romijin)'s sex-change operation, among others.
Ugly Betty is unfortunately unique in these portrayals. From news to reality or sitcoms, diversity in television is minimal, and contentious political issues, while more prevalent than in the past, are rarely shown. When these issues and characters are actually portrayed, they are nearly always stereotypical and often offensive. In the news media, diversity is rarely seen; most lead anchors are white men. The news status quo- Brian Williams, Larry King, the late Tim Russert, Bill O'Reilly, Glenn Beck, Keith Olbermann, David Gregory, Anderson Cooper, Chris Matthews- are all white men, thereby keeping the news media in their hands.
Now that Ugly Betty is over, no show on television is giving a voice to minorities in the same way. Sure, shows like Glee and 30 Rock and Lost feature certain minority groups, but none do so to the same extent that Betty did. Maybe, in the future, someone else will take Betty's lead and look at the Ugly issues and at the people who are different.
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3 comments:
Love you Talley!
FANTASTIC post (:
-Adam
Something I've noticed in a lot of tv shows/movies is that they will have characters of different ethnicities, but they draw attention to this fact in a way that highlights the differences in their cultures. Surely the point of having a diversity of races is to eliminate racism, not just to be politically correct!
Exactly! You look at Glee- a lot of minorities- or 30 Rock- a lot as well- but both shows draw attention to the fact that they are minorities. Now, that just be their way of addressing the issue, but if you take Ugly Betty and look at Wilhelmina, for instance, I think there were a total of like three references to her being African-American, ever, and she's hardly stereotypical. It's unfortunate that the only examples of this that I can think of are from a canceled show.
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