Legally Blonde Stereotypes Essay

How Legally Blonde Subverts the Female Stereotype At a first glance, Legally Blonde seems like a stereotypical chick flick, with millions of female stereotypes abounding the first 20 minutes and beyond. However, when you look deeper, at the underlying themes and messages, you begin to realize that there is something different about this movie. In most movies we see two basic types of females, with other sub-branches: the traditional, ditzy, feminine woman (Type 1), or the “I’m not like other women” Type (2), who eschew traditional feminine behavior in favor of more male like behaviors. Guess what? They both suck! Both types essentially same the same thing: there is something wrong with being female. In type 2, we structure the entire character on saying that for some reason it is wrong to present yourself in traditional feminine ways. Essentially, we structure the character to be a male in a female body. In type 1, we take those feminine characteristics and gently, or not so gently, poke fun of them. Obviously, there is something wrong with liking shopping, makeup, fashion, cooking, or anything else viewed as a female art. But Elle Woods says no to all of that. When we first meet Elle Woods she’s putting on her makeup, doing her
One example is when she goes to a party in a playboy bunny costume, but instead of objectifying her, it becomes Elle’s turning point. She realizes that just because she acts and dresses in traditionally female manners, it doesn’t mean she can’t kick Harvard’s butt! So she makes the decision to dress cute, keep up her “feminine” interests, and maintain strong female friendships. An easy pitfall for Legally Blonde to have fallen into is transforming Elle into a Type 2 character. It would have been simple for the writers to have Elle reject her traditional, feminine activities, and become more “serious”, i.e. more like a man. Luckily, the opposite was