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Legally Blonde Stereotypes

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Recommended: Stereotype influences in movies

Samantha Edwards
Ms. McAleer
English 102
February 12, 2023

Legally Blonde
The early 2000s film industry banked off of exploiting stereotypes for comedy, however, the wildly successful film Legally Blonde, starring Reese Witherspoon as main character Elle Woods, did just the opposite. The character Elle Woods is a walking stereotype for the dumb blonde girl, yet throughout the movie she accomplishes things due to perseverance that many could only dream of. Instead of succumbing to the dumb blonde stereotype, she faces it and works extra hard to prove herself to her family, friends, and mentors. This idea and era of film became known as “neo-feminism” and Elle Woods quickly became an icon for women around the world who felt like they had something …show more content…

Her success is even more of a shock due to the fact that Elle showed up to Harvard completely unprepared. In one of her classes, the professor calls on her to answer a question from the assigned reading that Elle had not completed. Her professor ends up kicking her out of the class for the day as she was not ready (Luketic, Legally blonde). Immediately her classmates begin making assumptions about her and feel like she does not belong. However, she begins taking school more seriously in an attempt to prove everyone wrong and she slowly climbs to the top of her classes. In fact, when one of her professors unexpectedly needs to take on a huge case and needs help, Elle is selected for the internship as one of the top four students in her class (Luketic, Legally blonde). After she is selected for the internship, her classmates finally begin to believe in her and realize that she is more than a stereotypical, blonde sorority …show more content…

While the movie is fictional, Elle has inspired many other women to do the same and to challenge stereotypes they face in their own profession. The film, which was labeled as progressive when it was released in 2001, is still relevant and an inspiration decades later. Elle Woods proves femininity can exist in the workplace and is empowering which challenges the idea that women who embraced their feminine side were unfit for success. Overall, Legally Blonde has changed the way the world views femininity and women in the workplace and defeats stereotypes that women are too pretty to be smart and

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