I'm not sure why, but I had a hard time coming up with something to blog about this week. I looked around my apartment - through my iTunes and my DVDs. I saw the movie Legally Blonde, and a bunch of ideas popped into my head.
For help, I went to IMDB and the first few lines made me laugh out loud (which made people laugh at me since I'm sitting at a table alone in the Front Room). "Elle Woods (Reese Witherspoon) has it all. She's the president of her sorority, a Hawaiian Tropic girl, Miss June in her campus calendar, and, above all, a natural blonde. She dates the cutest fraternity boy on campus and wants nothing more than to be Mrs. Warner Huntington III". Are you kidding me? Apparently "all" consists of popularity and looks and lets not forget a man to complete the package! This is the message that we are sending to teenage girls these days.
However, there is a silver-lining. If you've never seen the movie, Elle expects a proposal from Warner, but instead he dumps her because he is going off to Law school, with many high goals and Elle is "too blonde" for him. She then decides to follow Warner to Harvard for Law School. Elle overcomes all the stereotypes against her, and ends up become a very successful lawyer. This is a wonderful message sent to girls - that no matter who or what you are, you can achieve your goals.
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Legally Blonde was my ABSOLUTE favorite movie in Junior High. With that being said, I agree with you that it's ridiculous that in this movie, everyone thought Elle Woods "had it all" because of her relationship status, hair color, sorority, clothes, etc. etc. I also agree that in the movie, she overcomes the stereotypes that "she's too blonde" to go to law school-and succeed. She wins a huge murder case in court when she is only a law student-and everyone is completely surprised. The only annoying thing is that even in law school, the movie continues to portray her as dumb and focuses on her clothes, money, hair, nails, etc. I also think the message can confuse young viewers, telling them that chasing their man will lead to success in the future. The movie does turn Elle into the "powerful" one, because in the end, the boy who dumped her wants her back-because she proved her intellect to him. I've never really analyzed the movie-so thanks for bringing up these points!
ReplyDeleteIn Legally Blonde, they really play up the stereotypical sorority girl- pink as the favorite color, an obsession with fashion, socializing, appearance and money, the boy crazed attitude, and the airhead/dumb like personality. So even though I think this movie is funny, it's giving real sorority girls a bad or very unrealistic reputation. Perhaps this movie, where Ell is portrayed in this way is why I don't feel as comfortable telling people that I'm a part of a sorority myself. The movie downplays the hard work and dedication Ell had in order to pass the law school exam. Yes, she solved one case, but did you notice how it was only because of her obsession with fashion, appearance and money? Without her knowledge of perms, she too would have been defeated.
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