I can’t really comment on Ugly Betty because I’ve refused to watch it. A) I don’t need yet another soap opera/telenovela in my life (LOL) and b) the title and the previews of the show turned me off.
The title: Ugly Betty? Sure, she may not be stunningly gorgeous compared to the models in the agency (normal size, out-of-date clothing, glasses, braces), but by no means is she ugly.
The previews of the show: In the commercials to promote the show, you can see Betty turning up in the agency in a very colorful and quite ugly poncho. My first thought was “Just because she doesn’t look like a model doesn’t mean she doesn’t have common sense.” I mean – if I am going to work in a modeling agency (or any office for that matter), I’d wear standard business attire (basic business suit) – it doesn’t have to be expensive OR by some designer. And we know it is possible to buy business clothing in normal and in plus sizes.
But as I stated before I have never watched the show in whole, so I may have gotten a wrong impression – to be honest I have never cared enough to find out if I’m wrong or not. :-)

What also added to my not wanting to watch the show: Here in Germany we had (still have) a German version of “Ugly Betty” which started airing about two years before the American version did. For this version, the producers took a well-known, size 4 German actress, stuck her in a fat suit so that she was a size 10 (why didn’t they pick a normal sized actress in the first place?), made her wear tight, fugly clothing, braces, glasses and a horrible wig (that looked as if she had never combed her hair in her entire life).

The show – even though it actually wasn’t that bad – just slaughtered every cliché in the book: The frumpy, “fat” girl from the country who gets a job in a fashion company in the biiiiig city and falls in love with her good-looking, yet vain and unreachable asshat boss, hoping he will finally see past the glasses and recognize her beautiful personality. You got the impression that just because a girl is fat and from a rural area, she has no idea how the world turns – as if brushing her hair and buying clothes that fit are things that only city people do. *shakes head*
Anyway, when “our” Betty married at the end, I felt as if she had sold out. She had turned into a thin fairytale princess bride without glasses and braces and had finally learned to brush her hair. I have absolutely nothing against the transformation (every girl should do what makes her feel good!), but it projected the message that the media/society preaches every day: You have to be slim and good looking (no glasses/braces/blemishes/abnormalities/etc.) to find truuue love and happiness. Gah. Since I feared that “Ugly Betty” would send the same message, I didn’t even start watching it.

Second of all, the message that I’ve taken from “Ugly Betty” is that even if the world considers you less-than (in all the different ways that the world could consider you less-than), being smart, caring, and a good person is what matters most in the long run. It’s a feel-good sort of show, for all types of people.