Sociological analysis of the film ‘Legally Blonde’
‘Legally Blonde’ is a movie that narrates the life of Elle Woods the main female character who struggles to prove to the society around her and to herself that she is intelligent and capable as everyone else. Her journey begins when her long-time boyfriend Warner breaks up with her claiming that she was not courageous and intelligent enough for his political aspiration in the future (Luketic, scene 1). Elle hence makes it her mission to win him back by working hard to prove to him that she was capable.
The film can be defined to feminism based in that it helps to show the challenges that Elle as a feminine character have to work so hard to prove that she is just as proficient as the men and the other women who displayed masculine traits. Even though she loves to dress up in pink and always loves to look beautiful, she joins law school to show that she is also intelligent. Prejudicism in the society that Elle lives in is predominant, in that most of the women are presented doing feminine activities like painting their nails, shaving their legs and dressing in pink. All the women who show feminine characters are perceived to be weak and hence could not be trusted to be leaders or to take up serious careers like law. When Elle talks to her parents about joining law school, they are surprised because they do not believe that she is intelligent enough to be a lawyer (Luketic, scene 2).
The society is prejudiced in that it does not believe in women who portray feminine traits, in order for a woman to be taken seriously she is forced to take up masculine traits like dressing in other dull colours other than pink and engaging in more serious activities other than just making themselves look beautiful. Deviance describes the behaviours that violate the informal social norms set in the society. Ellie shows deviance by working hard to attain a GPA that qualified her to join Harvard law school where she would become a lawyer even with her feminine character.
Gender roles are also conspicuously displayed throughout this film. After Warner breaks up with her, Elle she sobs loudly as is anticipated of women while Warner remain uninterested and unremorseful (Luketic, scene 1). This basically implies that women are delicate while men are tolerant. At the law firm, fetching food and drinks for the professor is only done by females which greatly dishonour the females who worked just as hard as the male interns to earn the internship. Patriarchy is a system of belief that men are more powerful than women, who serve as more of their helpers. Women are in the film presented as supporters and also sexual targets of the male characters. This argument is supported by Elle’s experiences, one is the video that Elle makes for her Harvard admission; the video was senseless and erotic which in other situations would have led to a dismissal. The admission board however which is made up of men admiringly watched the video and enrolled her into the school basing most of their arguments on her attractiveness (Luketic, scene 2).
The film also brings out a lot of stereotypical thinking on matters of heteronormativity. All the people in Elle’s life, her parents, friends and all the fraternity members are heterosexual. They are great believers in true love, marriage and they are greatly disappointed when she breaks up with Warner (Luketic, scene 1). Being a single woman in this society is something that is greatly criticised which could be the reason why Elle was so determined to win Warner back. Discrimination can be defined as the unjust treatment that an individual gets on grounds of their race or social class. Elle was greatly discriminated against when she joined the law school, no one wanted to be associated with her because they associated her feminine trait with dumbness. The society around her used her social status against her to try and bring her down and discourage her from achieving her goals. Elle’s race was also used against her implying that as a white woman she did not need to study hard because she was beautiful and had a perfect body.
The labelling theory argues that an individual’s self-identity and behaviours can influenced by the way that the society around them describes or classifies them. Ellie was discriminated against based on her ethnicity; the campus society was racist in that it was too quick to judge her as a white woman calling her ‘dumb and self-obsessed’ without giving her a chance to show her strengths and capabilities (Luketic, scene 3). She was seen as white privileged woman with no perception of the real problems that the normal society faces. This discrimination led her to be segregated that is to be set apart in the law school. Her classmates did not look at her as their peer but rather someone who was below their intelligence standards (Luketic, scene 3). Elle used the labelling to her advantage, she worked hard to prove the society wrong not at any time reflect on her whiteness or privilege, and this helped her successful in the end.
Achieved status can be defined as a social status that one is able to acquire as a result of hard work. At the end of the film, Elle achieves her status by proving that she was intelligent and being feminine did not in any way affect her intelligence. Social integration happens when minority groups are incorporated into the social structure. This was established in this film as the law society accepted that white feminine women are also intelligent and they can achieve anything they want. Elle was able to solve the murder case as an intern and she ended up graduating top of her class showing that women can also succeed and become great people in society even in the male dominated careers.
Works cited
Luketic, Robert. “Legally Blonde.” IMDb, IMDb.com, 13 July 2001, www.imdb.com/title/tt0250494/.
