I decided to use Mexico as a control country to compare and contrast the characters in the telenovelas since both countries – Mexico and the US – have similar storylines. Finally, we will see how and why these stereotypical characters are used within their storylines.

La Fea Más Bella

            This Mexican soap opera will be the first telenovela we study. Created by Televisa, the Mexican television broadcaster, La Fea incorporates morals, vices, good and bad, conflict and resolution and a sense of family. The storyline is simple: Leticia is a smart young woman, educated in finances and the stock market. She is independent, loyal yet ugly. The telenovela follows the life of Leticia as she applies for a job at Conceptos, a television firm, and competes for the attention and love of her boss – Fernando Mendiola. Throughout the telenovela, she must overcome social obstacles such as competing for the head assistant’s job against a beautiful vain secretary, finding her inner beauty, and finding love. In this telenovela, I focused on one main character, Luis (Luigi) Lombardi, the gay production designer for public relations of the television firm. He is representative of el hombre homosexual. Therefore, I decided to look at every scene with Luigi to understand how the gay character interacts in the world of the telenovela. Next, I looked at Luigi’s relationship with a straight man – Fernando Mendiola, and a straight female – Alicia Ferreira, the vain secretary vying for the main assistance’s job with Leticia.

            Luigi Lombardi is always portrayed as a hardworking and beauty-obsessed employee. In the opening of La Fea, we see Leticia run into Luigi in the hallway. He sees her and cries, “O my god, the room for the ugly girls is on the other side of the building” (Episode 1, La Fea). We watch his demeanor and see that Luigi is always dressed elegantly, with matching collared shirts and tight pants. The main friends of Luigi tend to be beautiful women who work in the television firm. Alicia Ferreira is the best friend of Luigi. She is straight and shares gossip and fashion secrets with Luigi. We see this relationship grow into an alliance throughout the show – they both watch each other’s back. One general clip which summarizes Alicia’s relationship with Luigi is during the shampoo and lotion TV commercial in episode 6. Luigi speaks to Alicia about how beauty is needed in life: “Oh Alicia, there are only two things in life I need – beauty and fashion. Thank the gods you have both Alicia. What we must do is help the unfortunate who have neither – like Leticia” (Episode 6, La Fea). The relationship Alicia and Luigi share is the same relationship Dan Sheppard et all investigate in Discourse between Gay Males and Straight Females.  According to Sheppard, Luigi shares a strong bond with Alicia because they have the same interests – fashion and beauty – and cling to each other for support in their highly male dominated television firm company.

            At the same time, Luigi’s personality and look is the response to el hombre machista or the Spanish macho male – in this case being the Conceptos president, Fernando Mendiola. Luigi is one of Mendiola’s employees – therefore Luigi is already lower on the social hierarchy. This social inferiority is a reason for Luigi’s resistance toward the macho personality of Mendiola. Throughout the soap, Luigi and Mendiola argue over objects used in commercials, actors, actresses and how each other should handle their jobs. The biggest conflict between the two occurs in the middle of the soap, where Mendiola changes all the actresses and props for Luigi’s commercials without his knowledge. Luigi confronts Mendiola: “How dare you try to challenge my creative genius. You need me more than you could imagine; you and your tasteless, plain manner cannot run creativity – all you can do is wear cologne and break hearts you bastard” (Episode 13, La Fea). Judith Butler would argue that Luigi’s resistance to Mendiola is simple: Luigi’s feminine personality fells threatened by the masculinity of Mendiola. On the other hand, Mendiola feels that as a male, he cannot be pushed around by a gay male. If Mendiola lets Luigi win, he loses his masculinity. If Mendiola overcomes Luigi, his masculinity is justified.

            As we can see, the role of Luis (Luigi Lombardi) is caught in between social hierarchies. Luigi is challenging society in almost every way; as a gay man, he must resist the claim of heteronormativity while at the same time, perform the gender he feels he is most comfortable in – the feminine. In addition, Luigi must try to produce new and innovative art within his job to maintain his affirmation that he is different, yet just as good as any other person or creative director.