Legally Blonde: Hollywoods Take on Gender Stereotypes

What is Legally Blonde?

Elle Goes to Harvard

• In an effort to impress Warner, Elle decides to attend Harvard Law School
• Quickly, she is seen out of her element and is viewed as an outcast and is frowned upon by her classmates and professors

Breakthrough

• As a result of not being taken seriously and feeling embarrassed about who she is, Elle undergoes a period of self-transformation
• completely changes her appearance, study habits, mannerisms, etc in order to be more like her peers
• peers = success

Feminism...Forced

by the Conflict Theory

After being viewed as inferior, Woods had had enough and decided to become a new and improved version of herself - allowing her to achieve amazing things during her years at Harvard Law. Some of these achievements include:

• valedictorian
• winning a major law case
• viewed as equal to/by her male counterparts
• earning the respect of her professors and peers
• realizing she does not need a man to complete her
• proving that stereotyical assumptions can be false

• "If I'm going to be a senator, I need a Jackie, not a Marilyn" (gender stereotype)
• Elle could not join the study group because she was not as "smart" as her peers (conflict theory pyramid)
• "I'm discriminated against as a blonde" - analyzed from a female perspective (gender stereotype)
• "You're gonna ruin your shoes" *Elle gets in car* (gender stereotype)
• "Gold digger?" "You'd think so...he was 60" (gender stereotype /conflict theory)
• *men looking at Elle playing football* (gender stereotype)

"The problem with gender is that is prescribes how we should be, rather than recognizing who we are."

-Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Legally Blonde: Hollywood's Appropriation of Gender Stereotyping in

Relation to Power

Elle Woods

• blonde, slim, attractive young woman
• perceived to be air-headed
• dresses in all pink
• girly/valley girl
• belongs to a sorority
• sorority is her life and she is not

expected to amount to much otherwise

• "It girl"

Warner Huntington III

• wealthy, handsome, intelligent, strong
• Harvard Law student
• Elle constantly strives to impress Warner

(looks, Harvard, behaviour, etc.)

• treats women as secondary beings
• believes he is better than most people

Rachael Morgan

Although the film Legally Blonde

is based upon the story of a woman who credibly worked her way to success; this film clearly demonstrates the underlying issue of gender stereotypes and presumed roles in society, further established through a false perception of "higher level" dominance and power structures.

But why did Elle change exactly?

• Elle wanted to be viewed as smart and wanted to be as successful and as powerful as her peers (top of the pyramid)
• Is it likely that Elle would have changed if she wasn't viewed in an inferior manner?
• Elle changed as a result of the "power" gap between her and her peers, proving that the conflict theory is indeed, concrete and factual