I have a confession to make: the reason I chose to study law four years ago is not because I was inspired to make change, nor do I have any close relatives who are lawyers. I had never watched ‘12 Angry Men’, nor did my love of ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ spur me on. Instead, it was because I had just finished re-watching ‘Legally Blonde’.
As an icebreaker in most of my classes, we go around the room and say something ‘interesting’ and quite frankly, irrelevant. Most of the time, the question posed by the tutor is ‘What made you choose to study law’. The answer should be easy, but it has caused me a degree of shame, embodied into little white lies. I have refused to say ‘Legally Blonde’, despite my love for the movie, because I thought that deep-down it was a bit anti-feminist, silly and overall not something to be used to make important life-changing decisions. But oh, how my tone has changed.
While I was caught up in the girl-against-girl rivalry, the ‘bend and snap’ method of achieving male attention and the idea that Elle Woods is consistently being portrayed as dumb and less-than, I was failing to see the blissful, inherent beauty in the movie: this movie is feminist gold.
Where do we even start? The beginning, obviously! Elle is broken up with by her wealthy, going-places boyfriend because she’s ‘Marilyn’ and Warner needs a ‘Jackie’. In a plot to win him back, she goes and gets herself accepted into Harvard Law School (what, like it’s hard?). Initially, I thought it was problematic that she only enrolled to win Warner back, but she very quickly realises that she needs to do this for herself more than anyone. There is a realistic rivalry between her and Viviane, which ultimately resolves when they realise that there are bigger fish to fry.
Elle Woods is undoubtedly a feminist icon. She helps Paulette get her dog back and confront her abusive ex, and takes a stand when an academic makes a non-consensual move on her. She helps her introverted classmate get a date, is an ardent animal lover and knows how to use a humiliating situation to her advantage (wearing a Halloween costume to a party where no-one else is dressed up remains a nightmare of mine). She thrives in her studies and proves herself as more than capable in approaching real-world cases.
The entire movie she is underestimated and patronised, but there isn’t anything wrong with pink, matchy-matchy outfits or wanting to look nice. What she is judged for by most is what then sees her celebrated at the end. Her seemingly irrelevant and unnecessary knowledge about perms is a display of classic Elle characteristics, but is also what helps her solve the penultimate murder case. There is no taking-off-glasses-whoosh-she’s-beautiful moment, she does not change or alter who she is, if anything she doubles down on staying true to herself.
So, next time I’m asked ‘what inspired you to study law’, I’m going to answer with honesty and pride: Elle-Freaking-Woods, a self-care queen.
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