Ideology

The major ideologies being promoted are:

Patriarchy: As Daniel Meade is the boss of Betty so he has all the power and control over her. It can be argued that the females are shown to be inferior as they seem to hit the ‘glass ceiling’. For instance, Wilhelmina is shown to be a very successful business woman yet she is struggling to obtain Daniel’s position. In order to obtain it, she manipulates his father and decides to marry him, which goes to shows that the structure is not fair and that sacrifices need to be made in order to get anywhere-especially for women.

Heterosexual relationships: Although there is sexual diversity in the program (as Marc is homosexual), the majority of the characters (including the main protagonist) are shown to be in heterosexual relationships.

Consumerism: this is much promoted as in Mode building, the materials a person owns determines them and brings them status. For instance, the designer labels such as Gucci etc bring the characters more status.

Capitalist society: The whole ‘dog eat dog’ world is promoted as the characters try and succeed however they can and meritocracy is not prompted as the characters such as Wilhelmina manipulate etc to get what they want.

Image/appearance: this is the most vital ideology being prompted as the whole fashion industry is based upon image and ‘Ugly Betty’ shows that we should all be concerned to an extent, as all the characters are shown to be pretty, however it also promotes the idea of inner beauty being more important-as the protagonist Betty is shown to be ugly.