"Legally" Feminist

By: Jordan Samuels

Published: September 26, 2016

The reading I will be focusing on for my extended blog post will be ‘Jennifer Baumgardner and Amy Richards, Feminism and Femininity’. This reading focuses on third wave feminism and a newer generation of feminism. Many of the characteristics mentioned in the reading are a mother daughter relationship with second wave feminism, an embrace of consumer based and feminine ‘girlie’ culture and the search to overcome the limited voices of the second wave. The cultural artifact that that I chose to comment on is 2001’s Legally Blonde.

The beginning of the movie creates many stereotypes for Elle Woods. The entire pink bedroom, the perfect sorority house, her actions showing she may not be very intelligent, and her main objective is to become the wife of her boyfriend, Warner Huntington III. Very little of the scene showing any form of feminism. It is not till her boyfriend dumps her for his own perfect life of Law School and a serious fiance that will better himself more in life that she takes a stand for herself.   

It seems that the movie is able to embody a slight mother daughter relationship with second wave feminism in showing her relationship with Enid Wexler. Enid was one the other women who received the internship with Elle. She plays a strong female feminist in the movie proving with her introduction to the movie “"Hey. How you doin'? I'm Enid Wexler. I got a Ph.D. from Berkeley in women's studies...emphasis in the history of combat...and last year, I single-handedly organized...the march for Lesbians Against Drunk Driving."”. Many of her characteristics remind me of being focused on a second wave feminism. She has a really hard time with Elle in the beginning because Elle essentially looks and acts like everything she’s fighting against as a feminist. This progression of Elle throughout the movie to becoming a third wave feminist is seen not only by the viewer, but Enid as well. She starts to see Elle in a approving way and starts to have a respect for her even though both their forms of feminism have differences. 

The most evident characteristic that Elle Woods embodies is the ‘embrace of consumer based and feminine ‘girlie’ culture’. Throughout the entire movie she flaunts her pink everything. Is not afraid of playing with fashion and getting her nails done when stressed. As Jennifer Baumgardner and Amy Richards state “The third-wave goal is to present a range from which feminist can feel comfortable to express themselves”. While making it though law school everyone else around her gives her weird looks as they dress in black pantsuits and many other women hold degrading comments for her.  She understands that she can be 'girlie', pretty and made up for herself while going for a serious 'mans' career. Her choice of fashion does not define her feminism or knowledge, she maintains a healthy equal.

Towards the end of the movie Elle is able to show the characteristic of individualism as I see them. When Professor Callahan hits on Elle for her looks near the end of the movie and gives her that chance to get ahead by being together with him. She is horrified and rejects him and quits the internship due to him. She is able to be convinced by Professor Stromwell to go back and do something about Callahan and has him fired from the case in which, she as just a law student takes on. She wins the case with her knowledge of hair care and the understandings of how a perm's chemicals work. I understood this as a form of individualism. Not many women of the second wave of feminism cared or understood about the ‘girlie’ aspect of the third wave feminism. Elle’s different knowledge of personal care was still able to be maintained while she proved she was smart and belonged as a lawyer. She was able to show her feminism by taking on a case alone. She also shows the basic characteristic of feminism by shutting down Professor Callahan’s objectification and maintaining her own sexualization. Elle throughout the movie tends to have very rough relationships with many of the other women on the Harvard campus. Whether they think she’s not smart or they feel threatened by her she takes the hate in strides and still continues for relationships with these women especially towards the end where she has realized her independence and feminism. Her confidence in herself and caring demeanor brings the girls closer to her and they are able to connect. As Jennifer Baumgardner and Amy Richards wrote “Gilligan’s solution to the loss of “voice” was to form strong relationships with other women. When women are sounding boards for one another, affirming their interior monologues, she argued, they will gain the confidence and centrality to eventually change what society values.” This idea realy wrapped up the movie, with her success of herself and the other women Elle wins her first case and continues on to receive her degree. This whole end of the movie being a sound board for other women viewers on and confidence and abilities that we can have to strive for our goals.

Though Elle Woods seems like a posture child for the third wave of feminism there are things that must be critiqued about her and the movie. The only reason she wanted to get into law school in the first place was to chase her boyfriend and prove to him that she is everything he thinks she isn’t. The movie also shows a lot of strong negativity from the male characters in the beginning as well, obviously from her boyfriend, but also receives some inability from her father writing her goals off in thinking she could get into Harvard and also Professor Callahan for only giving her the internship because he wanted to have a relationship with her. While later into the movie she is motivated and proves many of the male characters wrong and becomes a great lawyer, I understand that this is a disappointing yet probable occurrence for many women fighting for feminism.

Is Elle Woods a feminist? Yes.While she took some self finding and progression of herself to get to a point of a confident goals seeking women. Every women is expected to have this sort of hurtle, for them to understand and connect with feminism more closely.This movie is a great piece for young girls to watch and idolize. Elle covered numerous times the characteristics of third-wave feminism.
She was able to become a great law student and met her own goals of being a successful women, while still maintaining her femininity and all together confidence of being a women. 

References:

Luketic, R. (Director). (2001). Legally blonde [Motion picture on DVD]. Santa Monica, CA: MGM Home Entertainment.

Harris, A. (2004). All about the girl: Culture, power, and identity. New York: Routledge.