Rewind and Re-watch: Legally Blonde

To kick off a new category and series of HOTS blog posts, I’ve revisited one of my favourite chick flicks: Legally Blonde.

I first saw Legally Blonde at a theatre at The Eaton Centre, which isn’t there anymore. It was 2001. Little did I know at the time that the film about a blonde sorority girl disproving others’ perception of her by going to Harvard Law School would spawn sequels and propel Reese Witherspoon’s career much further than Election could accomplish alone.

As I re-watched it for the umpteenth time on DVD, I was more attuned to the product placement. Not just the Red Bull that Elle’s sorority sister drinks while exercising or the stack of Cosmopolitan magazines on Elle’s dresser, but especially the OPI nail polish bottles scattered across her colourful room. Even when Elle has the revelation at a nail salon to enroll in law school to win Warner back, the back cover ad on the magazine she’s reading is for OPI. I also thought about the contrast between Elle’s nerdy classmates on black PCs and her brand new orange Apple iBook.

In second year, I was tasked with viewing Legally Blonde through a feminist lens, with Judith Butler’s work in mind, as I prepared to write about it while making connections to media theories. I observed the role of the male gaze, as well as portrayals of women’s emotionality, sisterhood and strong women characters.

When Legally Blonde was theatrically released, I felt more inclined to pursue a career as a lawyer, perhaps in entertainment. Now that I’ve set my sights elsewhere, I paid attention to more details than the fundamental plot, such as pop culture references to Jackie O and Marilyn Monroe, not to mention Emmett’s claim that “being a blonde is actually a powerful thing.” Snaps for encouraging viewers to reconsider stereotypes!