Media and especially today’s movies reflect the social behavior and the impact of gender when it interacts with race, sexuality, social or economic class, backgrounds, and physical ability in both sexes’ male and female. Legally Blonde Movie is one of the many movies that identify with the society gender bias and reflects how we treat and communicate with each other based on sex and body parts.
Legally Blonde movie 1 was released on July 13th,2001. The actress Reese Witherspoon plays the role of Elle Woods, a sorority girl who attempts to win back her ex-boyfriend, played by Matthew Davis, by getting a Juris Doctor degree at Harvard Law School, and in the process, overcome stereotypes against blondes and triumphs as a successful lawyer.
Stereotyping bias, sexism, and cultural capital are some of the aspects the movie presents in the character of Elle and her struggle to overcome them. According to De Francisco, Victoria Pruin., et al.’’ Gender in Communication a Critical Introduction’ ’Gender in Communication a Critical Introduction,3rd ed., SAGE Publications, Inc. ‘’gender is not just an attribute of individuals; instead, gender is systematically structured in social institutions Gender is created, not just within families or interpersonal relationships but also within the structure of all major social institutions, including schools, religion, the economy, and the state. These institutions shape and mold the experiences of us all. (p.3 0; italics in original)’’.
This aspect of gender stereotyping bias is seeing in the society where blonde women are described as dumb, sensitive, privileged with a wealthy family, and don’t see the need to earn a degree or go to school, while Selma Blair portrayed the character of a mean strong girl with black hair and strong character. Even her ex-fiancé was mean to her and doubt her intelligence to become a lawyer by telling her that she was dumb and did not deserve to be a lawyer. Another similar show is the shows of the ‘’the girls next door ‘’ with Hugh Hefner. All his girlfriends were skinny, blonde, and somehow dump.
One other noticeable aspect is the sexism and harassment in the workplace. The movie demonstrated the sexual harassment of ”Elle” in the workplace because she is a blonde girl who dressed preppy and stylish with no power to express her ideas or creation. The movie showed an imbalance universe when men outnumber women, the statistics show that more men are lawyers than women because there is always that assumption that women are more emotional than rational.
Elle’s character as a blonde rich woman wearing pink reflected the social consideration that she is incapable of performing her job as a lawyer, this can only reinforce old gender stereotypes idea even more in a society where men and women are assigned different jobs based on their sex.
The domination of one sex over the other creates an imbalanced environment where men have more power, more knowledge, and always have a higher position is seen as a normal thing because that is the way it supposes to be and that is what the social norms are. With this power comes more strength and will to dominate and harass women and pressure them to accept flirting, unwanted advances, and or gifts.
Cultural capital is obvious in the Legally Blonde movie. Reese Witherspoon” Elle Woods” a character comes from a wealthy privileged family. Her acceptance video shows her huge pool, house, and her physical appearance that kind of bought her an easy ticket into Harvard school. All these characteristics reflect a soft stylish, rich, and well-spoken female.
Legally Blonde movie is one of the feminists’ movies that reflects the character of Elle as a woman who can change their destiny. If one is daring enough to acquire the business skills one needs, then s/he will achieve greatness. Studying and hard work can take one higher place no matter if they come from a wealthy background or middle class like the character of Paulette, the beauty professional that Elle befriends when she went to her new nail salon near Harvard.
The society can create labels for people, but it is up to the individual to revolt against their circumstances and turn them around to their advantages and be successful and happy. Elle’s personality and motivation will prove that this assumption is wrong when she becomes a lawyer and solve the case of her old fitness instructor who was accused of killing her husband. Martha P. Jonhson’s persistence paid at the end, and CeCe McDonald ‘s story and her perseverance turning around her life made her a star and a good example to follow.
”Elle’s quote: Have faith in yourself”.
Hello Firdawcw,
Your Institutional Artifact project covers a lot of facts that are happening in our society, and as you have specially chosen the workplace. The paragraph where you have pointed that when Men have power, they harsh women, I am not sure if it’s related to the movie as I have not watched the movie that you have mentioned but I can definitely say one who has the power either man/women they are little brutal to the unprivileged one. I would not generalized everyone but I believe in the rate of 70/30 the tradition of harassment intentional or unintentional is there, either its home or school or workplace.
Also, I liked your ending with the quote “Have Faith in yourself”
You have good ideas here that need to be organized more to convey your ideas. This is what I suggest. You write an introduction and conclusion paragraph that preview and summarize respectively, what you are doing in the essay.
Next, you briefly introduce the movie to us, telling us generally what it is about and anything else you think we really need to know.
Then you give a paragraph or two to each of the following theories: Stereotype bias; Sexism and Harassment in the workplace; Cultural Capital. For each, you should clearly define the term reference and citing course readings. Then you can explain it in your own words. Lastly, you can talk about the parts of the movie that demonstrate this term.
A few other notes:
Don’t cite dictionary.com when you could cite the course readings, which give better definitions for our specific purposes. Also, you don’t really need to define institutions in this paper.
Your third paragraph is in quotation marks. Why? They also are not technically inserted correctly. You also have a lot of one-line paragraphs. Paragraphs should not be one line.
The title of the film should be italicized.
Hello firdawce elharrab, I also notice there is a lot of dark side in ‘’Legally Blonde” like the envy, jealousy. Those character in the movie constantly fighting each other for no reason. This is really good example of girls’ Social Aggression how us/women use of verbal and nonverbal communication, manipulation and exclusion to hurt one another too.
Hi Firdawce, you did a great job in giving me enough background information to understand the movie and what you are trying to explain. Your writing strengthened when you wrote about a scene in the movie and then explained what this says about our society, I think in each of those examples you should include the three concepts you chose.
Hi Firdawce,
Your Institutional Artifact project explains a lot about what is currently happening in our society, the part where you speak about the workplace and the inequality towards women and how incapable of being a leader it is not always like that, I can say that in my job all bosses are women including supervisors, managers, everything and that shows that if we want we can make the change. we should now let society to assume things we know we can do better as women
Hello Firdawce,
Thank you for sharing your feedback with us. Your paper was written well but just apply the concept to illustrate the examples provided. I have watched the movie “Legally Blonde” like you mentioned people’s perception of her was “dumb blonde girl ” but when she proved them wrong, it was a twist they didn’t expect. Thank you, well done 🙂
Hello Firdawce
I believe you did a great job of explaining the movie and how it relates to your concepts. In many movies, blonde women are seen as dumb, and always depending on a man or family money, which is not always the case and I’m glad she proved them wrong. One thing you mentioned about her wanting to go to Harvard because of her ex-fiance which I believe shows the in most movies women need to chase after a man, also another thing you mentioned that I believe is important is how she got into Harvard and she had the privilege which made it easier for her. Overall I think your ideas are great.
Hello Firdawce, I enjoyed reading your paper and though the movie was a comedy it did portray a lot of stereotypes that are wrong with our society and that are still relevant today.