Society's preoccupation with beauty puts extra pressure on young people who are already busy trying to build a good career and enjoy life. Society says we have to be beautiful and slim if we want to be happy and successful. But do we? Does a pretty face and a good-looking body make you a better person? Better at your job? More important than someone who got hit with the ugly stick at birth and could afford to lose some weight? A hit TV show is certainly questioning our obsession with beauty. Ugly Betty, an American sitcom, is generating plenty of buzz with viewers around the world, not only because it is smart, funny, and easy for viewers to identify with, but also because it highlights the problems with society's obsession with beauty, all in an easy to digest and amusing TV show.
当今社会对美丽的盲崇给那些疲于创业和享受生活的年轻人带来了额外的压力。社会舆论无时无刻不在叫嚣：想要幸福和成功，天使脸孔和魔鬼身材是不二法门。但果真如此吗？是不是有了姣好的面容和玲珑的身段，我们的人格就能升华，我们的事业就能成功了？是不是外表完美了，我们就比那些天生相貌平凡、身材臃肿的人更有价值了呢？最近一部正在热播的美国连续剧就对我们已经走火入魔的“美丽”情结提出了质疑。《丑女贝蒂》在全球观众中掀起热潮，该剧之所以能成功，不仅因为其剧情幽默、充满智慧、使观众容易产生共鸣，更重要的是，它用一种轻松诙谐的手法将我们这个社会对外在美近乎疯狂的崇拜表现得淋漓尽致。
Betty Suarez (America Ferrera), the star of the show, has just graduated from college and is looking for a job. With good qualifications and references, intelligence, a warm personality, and low expectations, she should easily be able to find a good position in her chosen industry - magazine publishing. But after knocking on every door, she still can't find a job. When she finally lands a job interview at Mode - the most important fashion magazine in the country, she is practically thrown out because her appearance doesn't cut it. However, through a unique turn of events, she is eventually hired by owner Bradford Meade to be his son's assistant, purely due to the fact that she is unattractive - Bradford Meade knows his son certainly won't make any moves on her, so he might finally get some work done.
该剧的主角贝蒂（亚美莉卡?弗伦拉）是一个刚从大学毕业、正在四处求职的大学生。贝蒂有很好的学历背景和推荐信，加上她聪明热心，而且对第一份工作的要求也不高，按常理说，她很容易就能在自己喜欢的行业内找到一份好工作——杂志出版业。但事实上她却到处碰壁，最后好不容易才得到一个去全国著名的时尚杂志社面试的机会，却因长相和气质平平而被拒之门外。但柳暗花明，机缘巧合，她最终被杂志社的老板布拉德福德?米德相中，做了他儿子的助理。而雇佣贝蒂的原因竟是她毫无吸引力的长相——布拉德福德?米德相信他的儿子绝不会对贝蒂动心，这样就有可能专心工作。
Betty suffers all of the usual problems many of us suffer when starting a new job - working out how to fit in with her co-workers, trying to dress appropriately, and trying to make some new friends. However Betty's situation is exacerbated by the fact that almost all of her coworkers only care about appearances. With Betty's poor dress sense and "ugliness", she becomes the laughing stock of the company, as well as a target for mean pranks and nasty jokes.
最初贝蒂遇到了所有工作新手都无法逃避的问题——绞尽脑汁和新同事打好关系，着装得体，结交新朋友。但是几乎贝蒂所有的同事都只在乎外表，这使得贝蒂陷入困境。因为穿衣服没品以及“丑陋”，贝蒂成了全公司的笑柄以及各种恶作剧和下流笑话的攻击对象。
Somehow, Betty manages to walk with her head held high and focus on what she's there to do - help her boss run the magazine, while also managing to foil attempts by her co-workers to make him fail so they can take over. Betty's confidence comes from deep in her heart - she has loving family members who care much more about looking after each other and focusing on the positive things in their life rather than worrying about superficial things such as appearance. It's this support from her family that helps her through her most difficult times.
但是贝蒂从未向挫折低头，而是专心于自己的工作——帮助她的老板管理杂志社，这期间她还要小心那些觊觎她工作的人从中作梗。不难发现，贝蒂的自信源于内心深处——家人对她的爱，每个家庭成员都相互照顾关心，珍惜生活中的美好，而不是像外表这样肤浅的东西。也正是家人的支持帮助贝蒂战胜生活中的各种困难。
While reluctant to have such an "ugly" assistant at first, Daniel Meade slowly starts to realise that he can't survive without Betty. New to the job himself, and with others in the company waiting gleefully for him to fail, Daniel needs all the help he can get, and Betty has great ideas and knows how to get things done. While she may not be beautiful to look at, Betty certainly is useful around the office.
丹尼尔?米德最初并不原意接受这么个“丑”助理，不过渐渐地，他却发现自己越来越离不开贝蒂了。对于工作，丹尼尔自己也是个菜鸟，公司里还有很多人在暗地里等着看他的笑话，所以丹尼尔需要多方求助。而贝蒂很有想法，办事能力出众。可能她相貌平平，但却是办公室里不可多得的人才。
Ugly Betty challenges us to look at ourselves and realise that beauty is not the most important thing in the world. While it's easy to laugh at the jokes and entertaining to see what Betty's co-workers are capable of, you'll quickly find yourself reflecting on the show's message long after you have turned off the TV. While many of the characters may be exaggerated, it sometimes takes an extreme portrayal to recognise elements of these same issues in society. In one scene, Betty walks into the company cafeteria, and we see tables of stick-thin girls eating tiny amounts of food and looking very serious and depressed - it looks like a form of self-torture: they are starving themselves thin. Between these thin-obsessed co-workers, it becomes almost a competitive sport to see who can consume the least amount of food. At Betty's table, we see everyone happily talking and laughing and each enjoying their meal - normal-sized portions of food - completely oblivious to the competitive weight-loss happening around them. Without the stress of worrying about how much weight they are going to put on just from eating lunch, Betty and her like-minded co-workers are able to enjoy their lunch break.
《丑女贝蒂》促使我们正视自己，让我们意识到外表绝不是生活中最重要的东西。剧中的情节幽默，人物搞笑，关上电视后你会发现剧中传递的信息让你久久不能平静。虽然剧中很多人物都有点儿夸张，但重病须猛药，似乎只有近乎极端的表述才能让我们意识到现实中存在的问题。剧中一个情节是这样的：贝蒂走进公司的自助餐厅，接着我们看到满眼尽是骨瘦如柴的女生，表情僵硬沮丧，面前的食物少到不够喂猫——与自虐没什么区别：她们要把自己饿瘦。这些一门心思想着如何变瘦的女生正在进行一场激烈的角逐，看谁吃的东西最少。而在贝蒂的那张桌子边，我们看到大家都有说有笑，尽情享受午餐——正常分量的午餐——毫不在意周围正进行得火热的减肥大赛。因为不用担心吃顿午饭就会增加体重，所以贝蒂和与她想法类似的同事可以好好享受午餐。
While ultimately we each decide what's important in life, the media certainly plays a huge role in shaping our opinions and producing role-models to whom we should aspire. So it's great to see such an entertaining show as Ugly Betty which has a positive underlying message and a great role model like Betty. But the media certainly can be a fickle-minded beast - on the heels of the recent Esquire magazine poll ranking the sexiest women alive, comes Maxim magazine's "unsexiest women" poll. At the top of this list of "unsexiest" women was none other than Sarah Jessica Parker, star of long-running hit show and upcoming movie Sex and the City. Rounding out the top five were singer Amy Winehouse, Grey's Anatomy's Sandra Oh, Madonna and Britney Spears. Even if these women are ugly (which many would contest), they certainly are successful and most likely don't pay attention to such pathetic polls. They are probably too busy with their fabulous careers, or looking after their children, or enjoying life, because ugly or not, they are all successful women.
虽然我们最终都会认识到生活中什么才是最重要的，但是媒体在影响我们的价值观和塑造榜样模范上的确起着很重要的作用。所以很欣慰能够看到《丑女贝蒂》这样一部既有趣又有积极深意，能够塑造像贝蒂一样榜样的电视节目。但是媒体的心思总是变幻莫测——《绅士》杂志刚刚评出当今世界最性感的女性排行榜不久，《风度》就推出了一个“最不性感女人”调查。而高居这个“最不性感女人”调查榜首的不是别人，正是莎拉?杰西卡?帕克，长篇热播电视节目和即将上映的电影版《欲望都市》的女主角。排名前五位的另外四人分别是歌手艾米?怀恩豪斯、《实习医生格雷》的吴珊卓、麦当娜和布兰妮?斯皮尔斯。如果这些女人都丑（当然会有很多人不同意），可她们绝对算是功成名就了，根本不会在意这些无聊的调查榜单。她们可能正忙于自己蒸蒸日上的事业，或者是照看自己的子女，或者是享受生活，因为不管丑陋与否，她们都是成功的女性。
In many ways, the publishing of this poll highlights society's sad obsession with beauty - the fact that we can take five successful women and try and make them feel bad because they are "ugly", instead of highlighting their great achievements. Also, why is there only an "unsexiest women" poll? Why not "unsexiest men"? Is it only women who have to be beautiful to be successful? Alternately, we can look at this poll as highlighting the fact that no matter how "ugly" you are, you can still be successful and famous and star on a hit TV show! Who wouldn't want to be as famous as Sarah Jessica Parker and star in one of TV's most popular shows, not to mention have her great wardrobe of clothes?
这个民意调查其实从很多方面都反映出这个社会对外表可悲的盲崇——我们选了5名成功的女性，不为彰显她们的成就，只是竭力想让她们因为自己长得丑而难过悲伤。此外，为什么只有“最不性感女人”的调查而非“最不性感男人”？是不是只有女性才必须靠美艳的外表获得成功？换个角度看这次调查，我们也可以认为，无论你的相貌多么平凡无奇，你都有机会成功、出名，以及主演热播电视节目！有谁不想像莎拉?杰西卡?帕克那样有名呢，有谁不想出演最火热的电视节目呢，更不用说拥有她满橱柜的流行时装了！
At different periods in history and in different parts of the world, beauty does not have the same definition - because beauty is subjective. Even from one person to the next, we do not all agree on who is beautiful. So why should we chase after an ideal that is constantly changing? It is the luck of our genes that we are born the way we are, and it's our responsibility to make the most of the opportunities that come our way. Being born "beautiful" is simply luck - there are about 20 supermodels in the whole world and over 6 billion of us "non-supermodels", so the chances of being born a true "beauty" are pretty slim. But the chances of being successful at what you want to do are much higher, and certainly don't rely on whether you are beautiful or not.
在历史上不同时期，世界各地对于美的定义也不尽相同——因为美本身就是很主观的东西。即使是身边的人，我们对于谁比较美丽这个问题也不是总能达成一致。那么我们为什么要追逐一个不断变化的观念呢？身体发肤，受之父母。我们能做的就是充分利用我们身边的各种机会。“天生丽质”只是运气而已——全世界也不过只有大约20个超级名模，可像你我这样的普通人却有60亿。所以，生来就是美女的几率太小。但是在自己的事业上做出些成就的几率可要大得多，而且和你的外表美丽与否没有关系。
There are many sayings about beauty such as "beauty is only skin deep" and "beautiful on the inside" which help to remind us that being beautiful is really a state of mind. Don't let society's narrow definition of beauty fool you - you are beautiful, you just need to believe it and keep telling yourself so. Now that you know you are beautiful, that's one less thing to worry about, so relax!
有很多关于美丽的说法，比如“美貌止于外表”和“内在美”，这些都提醒我们，美丽其实是一种精神面貌——不要被社会对于美丽的狭隘观点所蒙蔽——你很美丽，对此，你只需要深信不疑。既然你已经意识到自己是美丽的了，那就没必要再担忧，所以轻松点吧！