Legally Blonde (2001)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0250494/
Relevance
In Robert Luketic’s 2001 film, Legally Blonde, audiences were introduced to the iconic, Elle Woods, played by Reese Witherspoon. When this movie was released, I remember really connecting with Elle Woods on a personal level and the movies themes resonated with me in ways that are still important to me today. When Elle first decides to go to Harvard Law School, her motivations are complicated, but ultimately her merits are what makes her a success.
I’ve always related to ‘fish out of water’ movies, because I’ve felt like that before, too. Elle’s the first in her family to attend an Ivy League college, and she constantly feels like an outsider at Harvard. She doesn’t know there are certain degrees of preparedness expected of students on the first day of class and is humiliated by the experience when she is asked to leave the classroom until she is prepared. I’m a first-generation college student, and there are so many aspects of this experience that have left me feeling like an outsider, because I didn’t know what was expected of me. When I first when to college at UC Santa Cruz after high school, nobody wanted to drop me off. It was the opposite of those moments on movies where parents are unable to detach themselves. Even though Elle had Bruiser with her, she never had any scenes with her parents at all. She even spends Christmas with Paulette, her new friend and manicurist, played by Jennifer Coolidge. Even though Elle seems to come from a well off family (Aaron Spelling was her neighbor after all!), they aren’t visibly supportive of all of their daughters aspirations. This is also very relatable, to a lot of students, especially right now during the pandemic. Elle Woods doesn’t give up, and neither will the rest of us!
The awesome aspect of all this, is that Elle Woods rises to the occasion, and shows that she does have what it takes to be a lawyer. When Elle combines her knowledge of criminal justice she’s learned at Harvard with her expert knowledge of fashion and post-perm hair care procedures that cracks the case wide open. Elle is literally all of us who have ever been left out of some exclusive inner circle, that we have every right to be in based on the merit of our ability and skills.
Representation
I can relate to this as well because I’ll be majoring in criminal justice at Sac State in the Spring and I am thinking about law school afterwards. I used to think certain life experiences or beliefs made me not cut out for law school or law enforcement, but it turns out, they are actually my assets, just like with Elle. The criminal justice system is probably going to change in dramatic and necessary ways in the coming years, and its going to need more people like me, and those also inspired by Elle Woods, to bring more compassion to a system that isn’t working fairly for everyone right now, but absolutely can and will someday.
Representation
When Legally Blonde was released in 2001, it was just a few months before 9/11, and the landscape of pop culture was incredibly different than it is today. It was absolutely hailed as movie that would inspire girls to pursue their dreams. It also empowered women to forge destinies independent of male influence. The great thing that happens when film and culture celebrate this concept, it ends up having a far greater reach than could be anticipated. That’s what happened to me. The power of cinema is that even though I don’t literally see myself in Reese Witherspoon, when she is in character as Elle Woods (and yes, sometimes Tracy Flick when stressed), I absolutely find great comfort, and a lot of laughs in relating to Legally Blonde. In one of those hard to tell if its art imitating life or life imitating art, but I am now living in Sacramento, which puts me in a similar trajectory as Elle Woods at the end of the first film, possibly considering a career in politics. When you’re inspired by Elle and Bruiser Woods, anything is possible.
