Coursework Draft

How have representations and the stereotypes of women changed and developed, paying particular attention to Ugly Betty?

'Mum said she wasn't surprised. You wanting to work in a magazine, don't happen to people like us unless your j-lo or something'.

Since the women’s movement in 1960’s, when the contraceptive pill and the ‘Civil Rights Act 1964’ were introduced, women began to break free form the typical stereotypical roles of house keeping and family duties which had labelled them the term ‘the traditional housewife’. Although over time, the role of the women in society evolved for the better, to show that women have broken beyond their traditional ‘housewives’ role boundaries, and have engaged in new diverse roles in society i.e. managers, headmistresses, directors etc, the male dominated media has continued to exploit women to show the stereotypical role of the women as being underrepresented, sexually repressed, and as manipulative sex objects. Does this reflect that the status of women has not really changed or that the male dominated media does not want to accept it has changed?

The 1950’s was the era when men were depicted as the protagonist of films and were shown as characters that the male audience could identify and relate to. This then meant that the female audiences had to cross gender as there were no female roles for them to identify and relate to. Women actresses in this era were depicted in films as vulnerable, weak and dependent on the male characters resulting in projecting their inferiority. Films that supported this tradition were, ‘The Searchers’ (1956), and ‘High Noon’ (1952), a conventional western film having little women presence to convey that the ‘Wild Wild West’ is no place for a woman.

During the 1990’s and into the new century, gender roles on television became increasingly equal and non stereotyped(to a certain extent), due to a number of different changes within society, one being the law becoming more lenient meant that the media saw rise to a new “woman”. Females no longer had small cameo roles, but were now given bigger leading roles. They were no longer being portrayed as housewives, as according to Elasmer, Hasegawa and brain, women on prime time TV in the early 90’s were single, independent successful women relying on themselves and nobody else. This was evident from a study that was carried out in 1992-1993, where results showed that only 3% of female roles within the media consisted of them being the housewives.

Through the years, and countless feminist movements and strides towards equality, the image and representation of women in the media has changed, but only to a certain extent. Stereotypes placed upon women from the past have vanished, only to have countless new ones to have taken their place, while other stereotypes have not changed at all, and are likely to remain indefinitely. It can therefore be established that whether we look at the past or the present, women have a particular place within the confines of the society, the work place and the home that must be met.

The representation of women (femininity) in the media has changed quite significantly since the early days, when women in the past were shown to hold the role of an emotional caregiver and were seen to be totally devoted to the family and domestic duties. Women’s roles in the media and in general, were shown to be inferior to their male counterparts and therefore women in films were only given cameo roles if not any, while their male co stars was given leading roles that of the protagonists, establishing women as the more subordinate sex.

In the present day, the representation of women in the media (behind the lens) has been taken to another level to reflect the greater social freedoms that women have acquired over time. Women have taken on hard core male roles such as directors of films, making successfully films, an example being Gurinder Chadha an acclaimed film director with a string of super hit films such as ‘bend it like Beckham’ and ‘Pride and Prejudice’. Nevertheless, women continue to be significantly underrepresented in the media(in front of the lens), this is evident as female characters in films tend to be always younger than males, meaning that age is a barrier to opportunities for women actors, therefore the media continues to misrepresent women and essentially hinders the cause for gender equality.

This essay sets out to investigate how the stereotypical representation of women changed and developed since the past, giving arise to a new and more acceptable image of protagonist, paying particular reference to Ugly Betty.

Ugly Betty is a smash-hit US comedy drama broadcasted on channel 4 which is set in the superficial world of high fashion, where image is everything. The story revolves around a short, plump, unglamorous, braces wearing and good natured girl, namely Betty Suarez (America Ferrera) who tries hard to fit into the glamorous world of fashion, but in reality is a contrast to the fashion world as she possess the characteristics of a geek. Betty is given the protagonist role to create realism as she reflects the true society (the girl next door image), and also because her female audience would be able to relate to her, whether through her looks, nature, job or dress sense. However, this representation of Betty is some what different to how women protagonists have previously been represented in the media, for example, Eve Arden who played Connie Brooks in ‘ Our Miss Brooks’ (1952) was depicted as being beautiful, dignified, and was seen polished wearing skirt suits. Her physical appearance was appealing to the male gaze so it could be said that to an extent Miss Brooks was represented as a sex symbol and the Male audience found her sexually attractive, which resulted in her real role as a teacher being tarnished, therefore initiating the theory of Gaye Tuchman who argues, women in media were considered to be “symbolically annihilated”, and Laura Mulvey’s theory that women shown in media are represented negatively as an object of the ‘male gaze’, meaning that they are objectified to be seen as sex symbols, and then how the male gains pleasure from looking at them.

Although In Ugly Betty, Betty is neither underrepresented (to a certain extent) in terms of representing women as she is given the protagonist/leading role, nor is she idealised as an object of the male gaze as she is not depicted as a sex symbol (beautiful with attractive slim figure), nevertheless, she is still shown in an ironic role that of an important person (personal assistant) but who’s presence is hardly notice. This is because Betty does not fit into the Mode office’s mise en scene of beautiful ,slim looking yet voluptuous figured women, as she is unattractive and slightly obese. Her insecurity and struggle to fit into a glamorous environment informs the audience how ‘Ugly Betty’ purposely covers the issue of beauty, and how ugly women in society are likely to struggle in order to find success, this idea is further emphasised in the programme when Betty undergoes a mini makeover and is suddenly given the vote of confidence by her male colleagues, showing that image is vital for approval and acceptance in society. Moreover, although Betty is shown to play the protagonist, her role is undermined by the fact that to an extent she also plays a motherly role to Daniel, where she is seen nurturing him and constantly keeping him out of trouble as a mother would do to her son. This conveys the fact that even in contemporary media where women are depicted in leading roles; they still can’t shake off the stereotypical view of gender roles attached to them from the past.

The Ugly Betty sitcom conveys Zeitgeist through a number of different themes and ideas, these being fashion, capitalism, relationships, imperative mood, culture, identity and foremost beauty, to name but a few. These diverse themes reflect the change and diversity in society and how the real world has developed and evolved. In the sitcom, Betty’s home is shown to be decorated with bright vibrant colours and the Mode Fashion’s (managers company) office is shown to be clean and white to reflect the different social class, thus initiating Claude Levi Strauss’s theory of binary oppositions, which is further emphasised by the characters of Daniel and Betty (good) and Wilhelmina and Marc (evil), this binary oppositions in use conveys diverse meanings and ideologies to the audience such as how the introduction of a villain role(Wilhelmina) and a heroine role(Betty) is important for a narrative to progress. The conventional idea of having a Hero/Villain characters relates to a fairy tale and Ugly Betty seems to embrace this idea as it coincides with Propps theory, that all “fairy tales must share some basic elements (functions), and a story must contain all these elements where everything happens in a specific order”, and this is certainly true with Ugly Betty as the programme covers all broad character types(Hero,Villian,Helper,etc) as found in most fairy tales, portraying Ugly Betty as a contemporary fairy tale.

In Ugly Betty, the good character of Betty juxtaposed with the evil character of Wilhelmina seems to indicate a development of women’s roles in the media. Women today are now seen in multiple leading roles simultaneously, such as protagonists and villains, another example of a female villain role being the powerful role of Cruella De Vil in 101 Dalmatians (1996) effectively executed by the female actress Glenn Close. This development shows that a male character is not always necessary in film storylines in order for any narrative to progress, as was the case in the past. Nevertheless, the new wave of feminists would argue that although the depiction of Wilhelmina’s role in this way indicates power and superiority, it can also enforce a negative concept of a women to the audience as being evil and cunning, and this would be in contrast to the conventional soft, caring and understanding nature of a women, therefore Wilhelmina’s role in Ugly Betty could be interpreted as an exploitation of women for the purpose of sensationalism to excite the male, especially as she is always seen to be unsuccessful in her plans to excel Daniel( Male).

Similarly, this point is further reinforced by the fact that, although Betty plays the protagonist of Ugly Betty, she being an assistant is mostly seen tagging behind her male boss, which through her character projects her inferiority and promotes gender roles and a patriarchy society. Furthermore, as Betty is portrayed as being the unattractive assistant whose presences is hardly noticed amongst glamorous models in the Mode office, her character is enforcing the stereotype of face value and that a book is always judged by its cover, meaning that a person is judged on how they look rather than their qualities.Therefore,it can be said that the Ugly Betty programme reinforces the idea that it is necessary to be beautiful in order to earn respect and to be noticed in society, which a passive audience is likely to follow and the new wave of feminists are likely to object to, as this under representation of Betty demean the value of women in general, especially as Betty represents women in the general public through her ‘girl next door’ image and code of conduct. On the other hand, the point about Betty being a tagging assistant to her male boss can be argued, as Marc St James is also seen tagging behind Wilhelmina in the sitcom and gives the impression of being seen as the lackey of Wilhelmina, which indicates a reversal in roles and reinforces the idea that women are equally powerful as men, reflecting the contemporary society and initiating Berger’s argument ‘men act and women appear’ meaning that roles are reversing where ‘,women act and men appear’, and Ugly Betty is made to reflect this as portrayal of the modern society.

The hub and centre point of the ‘Ugly Betty’ programme is the Mode office, where the mise en scene set is of young gorgeous looking women who are slim yet have voluptuous figures and who are paid heavily. Moreover, the models are seen to be dieting in order to retain a perfect figure, whereas Betty is in contrast to this and is shown to be slightly plump and a heavy eater with a low paid job. It can therefore be said that the reason for depicting Betty in this way, is for her character to fight the stereotype that only glamorous women who diet regularly can work in the fashion industry, moreover her character challenges the stereotype that only a glamorous actress can play the part of the protagonist and it challenges the idealised image of femininity presented in our society which is more impossible to attain than ever before.


While in the past, women were shown quite modestly in films and television serials/programmes, and any depiction of sexuality was quite reserved, the women in media today are highly sexualised. The world is obsessed with sexual pleasures and this combined with the powerful gaze (Laura Mulvey) deployed upon women leads to the vast exploitation of the female body. This is very much true for the character of Hilda Suarez in ‘Ugly Betty’ who plays two stereotypical female roles (nurturing and sex object) one of the mother raising her son and the other of a sexy siren who wears revealing clothes, therefore it can be argued that this makes her the subject of the ‘male gaze’, and subsequently a sex object. The fact that Hilda is shown to be a single working mother reflects on the real society, and the struggles that she faces can be related to by single mothers. This indicates that women are no longer dependant on men and can take on diverse roles simultaneously.

The sitcom also covers the importance of class and status through materialist gains and subsequently a materialistic society, this is also emphasised by Betty as she is shown to own a designer Gucci bag in one of the episodes ,showing how owning expensive cars, wearing expensive clothes, and having expressive personal possessions contribute to your high status in society. This idea is well represented by Wilhelmina’s character as she is shown as highly glamorous and sophisticated through her formal but designer dress sense assisted by her poised body language. She is shown to have reached her high rank through meritocracy based upon her hard work, intellect and qualities, where as Daniel’s status and position has been inherited through legacy. This promotes the idea that women can and have taken on diverse roles, as they are equally or possibly more intelligent than men and can achieve high status through their talent, hard work and dedication, a notion and development which seems a threat to men and patriarchy and which has resulted in misogyny portrayed in the media and the real society where women have excelled men.

So, from the analysis of the Ugly Betty programme, how has the stereotypical representation of women changed and developed since the past, giving arise a new and more acceptable image of a protagonist? Well, it is undeniable that women today are seen more frequently in leading roles (protagonists and Villains) in the media than in the past, however even in contemporary media Women continue to be underrepresented by the media and tend to have their representation and success based around their physical beauty. This is evident from Betty and Wilhelmina’s roles where, although Betty is the protagonist of Ugly Betty, she is not represented as an independent women to reflect the real society, rather she is represented as being part of a context, whether it being family, work colleges or friends. She is often shown to be helping others through nurturing or support moral portraying a motherly figure, hence a stereotypical gender role of a caregiver attached to women which arises from the past and invalid in the present. Furthermore, as Betty is ugly by conventional beauty standards, she is seen as an outcast by other characters in Ugly Betty, meaning that if women are not appealing to the male gaze than they are disrespected, degraded and alienated, a true reflection of the past and present society. This is further reflected in Ugly Betty, as Betty’s main purpose of being hired by the Mode Fashions manager was to stop his son (Daniel) from womanising with the predominantly beautiful female staff and concentrate on the business, so by hiring him an ugly assistance (Betty) would deter him from womanising, which further shows that if women are not being used as a sex object for the male gaze, then they are being manipulated in other ways. Also through Wilhelmina’s character it is evident that even in modern society if a women in the business profession is seen as sly or career focused (stereotypical male characteristics) and competes with the male then she is immensely disliked, similarly to Wilhelmina who fails in her attempts to excel Daniel and is viewed as a failure and villain as a male backlash for trying to excel Daniel (the male), which the second wave of feminist would disagree and object to, as they believe that although women should possess feminine characteristics, women still need to battle and compete for equality in the work place which does not make them villains.

Therefore, it can be said that over the years and through countless movements towards equality, women have diversified their roles reflecting the greater social freedoms that women have acquired over time. The media realises the new role of the women in our society and subsequently the gender stereotypes in films have started to dissipate (to a certain extent), making way for a more acceptable image of a protagonist. Although Programmes such as Ugly Betty have portrayed the new redefined women’s roles through numerous characters such as Wilhelmina and Hilda (company managers, independent single working mother) and through a more acceptable image of a protagonist, namely Betty, the overshadowing stereotypes still remain, in this instant although Betty is the protagonist she is also an assistant and not a manager, similarly Wilhelmina having a high status job is seen as a villain for trying to be successful. Ugly Betty has challenged the stereotype and idea of the glamorous protagonist by portraying Betty as being ‘ugly’ by conventional beauty standards and fat by the norms of the fashion industry in which she works, this has made way for a new image of a protagonist to emerge to which the general public can relate to. Yet, underlying these advances is the fact that women are continued to be portrayed as being incomplete without the love of a man, and the Ugly Betty programme is no exception to this.