For those of you who have not seen "Legally Blonde" yet (if that is you, I highly recommend watching it as soon as you get a chance) Elle Woods is the perky, blonde, conventionally attractive president of her sorority majoring in fashion merchandising. Her signature color is pink, her clothes are all the latest styles, and her hair is always perfectly done. All in all she appears to be your stereotypical air-headed girly-girl.
The film opens with Elle preparing for a date where she expects to be proposed to by her boyfriend Warren Huntington III. But despite all her excitement and preparation Warren does not propose to Elle. Instead he breaks up with her saying that she is not serious enough for someone who plans on being a senator to marry.
Elle is devastated, and after hiding in her room for a few days she hatches a plan to follow Warren to Harvard and win him back. She trades in parties for constant studying for the LSAT. All her work is rewarded when her amazing LSAT score of 179 and creative essay video gets her accepted. Once at Harvard, Elle finds out her plan is going to be much more difficult than she thought. The professors are more intense than what she was used to, her classmates constantly mock her, and, worst of all for her plan's success, Warren has gotten engaged to a woman named Vivian Kensington over the summer. Still, Elle refuses to stop chasing the man she loves.
With the power of sparkly pink studying.
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When Elle hears about a party, Vivian tricks her into thinking it is a costume party so Elle shows up in a Playboy Bunny-esque costume instead of regular clothes. Seeing Warner separate from Vivian, Elle tries
to work on winning him back, but he makes it clear that he will never take her seriously because all he sees is her looks. Furious at being dismissed as a pretty face with no brains, Elle takes her revenge by buckling down in her studies and showing Warner that she is better than him and can succeed on her own.
Because of her studying and determination Elle, along with Warren, Vivian, and outspoken feminist classmate Enid, earns a highly coveted internship with Professor Callahan and his associate Emmett Richmond. The group works to defend Brook Taylor-Windham, a famous fitness instructor accused of murdering her husband. Though Brook insists she is innocent, her stepdaughter Chutney and the cabana boy both claim that she is guilty, and she refuses to provide an alibi. Elle and Brook bond over being in the same sorority and Elle once taking one of Brook's fitness classes in LA. When Elle visits her in prison, Brook admits she was getting liposuction during the murder but forbids Elle from telling anyone because it would ruin her fitness career. Elle agrees and refuses to tell Callahan. Vivian is impressed by her integrity and slowly becomes friends with Elle. As their friendship grows, Vivian reveals to Elle that Warner was originally put on Harvards wait-list and his father had to call the school and pull some strings to get him in.
The case against Brook weakens after Elle deduces that the cabana boy is gay and Emmett tricks him into identifying his boyfriend proving that his previous claim that Brook was having an affair with him was a lie. Callahan is impressed by Elle's intuition and calls her to his office to discuss her future. During this discussion Callahan makes sexual advances on Elle which she immediately rejects. Vivian overheard part of the conversation and verbally attacks Elle for using her sexuality to get the internship. Elle also believes that she was chosen because of her looks and decides to leave law school. While saying goodbye to the manicurist she befriended, she is overheard by Professor Stromwell who encourages her to not give up because of one sexist jerk. At the same time, Emmett explains to Vivian and Brook what really happened to Elle. Furious, Brook fires Callahan the next day and hires Elle as her new lawyer with Emmett supervising.
Callahan is not happy about this turn of events.
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With suitably dramatic exit thanks to the aid of two helpful security guards.
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Two years later, Elle graduates from Harvard with high honors, a prestigious job offer, and is elected to give a speech at graduation. Vivian has called off her engagement with Warner and is best friends with Elle. Warner graduates without honors, without a girlfriend, and no job offers. Emmett has left Callahan's law firm to start his own, is dating Elle, and plans to propose to her later that night.
One thing that makes this movie unique is that Elle is not portrayed as the typical Hollywood feminist. This portrayal of a kick-ass feminist woman who also happens to be a sorority girl who likes fashion and the color pink directly challenges the popular notion that women who do not care about fashion and makeup are somehow superior to women who do not. In fact, Elle's extensive knowledge of hair and beauty products and procedures is what allows her to win the case and prove her client innocent. Elle did not have to change who she is to be strong.
Her favorite color has no effect on her ability to win cases.
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"Legally Blonde" also challenges the bubble-headed blonde trope. Elle is a 4.0 student, was able to earn a 179 out of 180 on the LSAT, and built an impressive list of extracurricular activities during her undergraduate career including taking on the responsibility of being the president of her sorority. And none of this was accomplished by luck or breezing by with her looks. Elle works hard for everything she achieves.
Elle's friendship with Vivian delightfully reverses the trope where two women become enemies when a guy comes between them. Their friendship begins while Vivian is still engaged to Warren. It is a little awkward at first, but by the end they are best friends.
I am really impressed by the way the movie handles Elle's sexuality and attractiveness. During her essay video, Elle scolds a man who whistles and catcalls at her instead of smiling and feeling flattered like expected. When she shows up to the party in a bunny costume made out of lingerie, it is not portrayed as a ditsy, slutty costume but just something really cute in her favorite color that she enjoys wearing to costume parties. And when she is the only one dressed up, she refuses to be ashamed of her revealing outfit and continues on with determined confidence and it is the people who tricked her that the film invites us to look down on. Elle also refuses to use her looks as a tool to get through law school with minimal work. She buckles down and studies to improve her grades and earn the respect of her classmates and professors. She is aware of the power her beauty has, but only uses it to help a classmate who is getting cruelly rejected by two young women for being too ugly and dorky.
I also really love how the film plot is almost the exact reverse of a romantic comedy plot. In your typical romantic comedy, a high-powered career woman realizes that she will never be truly fulfilled without a husband so she falls in love and gets married often abandoning her demanding job. In "Legally Blonde," Elle starts out with her only goal being to marry Warner but realizes that she would never be happy married to someone who does not respect her and successfully works her way into a powerful law career. The last scene reveals that she has a new boyfriend that is planning on proposing to her, but I do not count that as resolving her story through marriage since it is only a side note during a scene focusing on her bright career future.
Everything after this point is just an "oh, by the way."
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The movie is not without its flaws. Despite an incredibly feminist plot, the filmmakers still decided to use Enid as a straw feminist who is fighting to get semesters renamed "ovesters" because "semester" resembles "semen" and is thus sexist apparently. (How someone gets into Harvard without knowing that the word "semester" comes from the Latin word "semestris" meaning "of six months" I will never know.) The cabana boy is a walking gay stereotype with flashy clothes, a flamboyant attitude, and extensive knowledge of fashion designers. The movie is also, like almost all Hollywood films, very light on representation of people of color.
Overall "Legally Blonde" sends fantastic messages about women and femininity. My hope is that more movies will be written with this sort of portrayal of women as real and complex individuals who do not need a wedding to resolve their stories.
