The new primetime soap opera, which airs weekday nights, purports the attractive idea that real beauty comes from within. And yet, watching the show makes you realize that this supposedly noble goal is only superficial, and that the show only trumpets the stereotypes most of us have on beauty.
This is already apparent in the show's first sequences. Friends Perlita (Sunshine Dizon) and Rodora (Angelika dela Cruz) attend a party in their town, only to be mocked for their unsightly appearances. The next day, Rodora gets kicked out by her own father because she gets into a fight with his flirty mistress. Her dad took the mistress's side because of Rodora's homely figure.
With Perlita's help, Rodora gets a job as a maid to a snotty old lady who tells her it's only fair that she's smart, because she is ugly. When the old lady dies, Rodora inherits her riches, and she uses these to have plastic surgery.
It only gets downhill from there. Happy about her new appearance, Rodora seduces a rich man who marries her for her beauty. Rodora then becomes trapped in a world of superficiality, where her mother-in-law forces her to produce a beautiful offspring, and her husband telling her she should think of her figure every time because he does not want a fat wife.
The story may not be original, but that is not the show's heaviest sin. Its greatest fault is that it puts to the forefront lead characters who are deceptively good, but really are nothing but shells that fortify the worst cliches about beauty that women should never believe.
What the show wants the viewers to remember is the rules, the mechanics, that so-called ugly people should follow:
No one will love ugly people.
Out of the hundreds living in Rodora's small town, no one is friendly to them.
Out of the hundreds living in Rodora's small town, no one is friendly to them.
Ugly people should change their appearances, and should even resort to plastic surgery, so they can be accepted by other people.
Beauty opens many doors.
You should be really smart if you are ugly.
Ugly people invites ridicule wherever they go.
We have heard time and time again how TV networks are trying to raise up its audience's intelligence with smart programming, but shows like Mundo Mo'y Akin signifies that all these talk is a sham. A stereotype-ridden show like this is a great disservice to the men and women who watch it.
Of all the teleserye formulas out there, the pretty/ugly dichotomy is what I can't stomach most. And I feel appalled seeing it played out every other year or so. If not ugly, it's colored. Do people really find it riveting?
ReplyDelete