Legally Blonde

In today’s journal, I would like to discuss about one of the most-used film theory which has also been used until recent days, which is the Feminist film theory. To achieve the goal of this paper, the movie film Legally Blonde is discussed with aid of elements in Feminist film theory, so that this theory is well- explained with an example. Feminist film theory has become a part of the film industry since in 1920s, which is also defined as a way of looking at women’s expression of her own subjectivity. The theory is then matured in the late 1960s after radicalized feminist movement. Sexual liberation and political debate of female representation are ways to resemble the radicalized feminist movement.

:::FEMINIST FILM THEORY::: 

Feminism is a set of political practices, in which it seen through analysis of the social or historical position of women as subordinated, oppressed or exploited in dominant modes of representation, and by social relations of patriarchy or male domination, such as capitalism. Being a set of political practices, it also shows the reflection of society as well. Through the knowing of feminism, ideological and social construction of women are shown in Feminist film. There are several themes can be seen in the Feminist film theory, which consists of discrimination, stereotyping, objectification, oppression, and patriarchy.

Based on what Christian Metz had said, she stated that viewing film is only possible through scoptophilia, which is also a pleasure from looking related to voyeurism. This is best exemplified in silent film. Moreover, Laura Mulvey started a discussion of visual pleasure of female on screen, which is as known as “The Gaze”. Female actresses on screen are seen as exhibitionist, symbol of eroticism and visual pleasure, just to hold the tendency of “to-be-look-at-ness” or a bearer of meaning. She also mentioned that cinema is the medium of voyeurism. Through the visual pleasure there are three perspectives of looking through a film: 1) Male character look at female character; 2) Audience in cinema look at female character; 3) Audience in cinema look through eyes of male character who is looking at female character. After a brief explanation towards feminist film theory and feminism, now I would like to leap to the movie film that is going to be applied with this theory, which is Legally Blonde. Legally Blonde is a 2001 American comedy film which is directed by Robert Luketic, scripted by Karen McCullah Lutz and Kristen Smith. This movie film is also adapted from the novel of the same title by Amanda Brown.

:::SYNOPSIS:::

A fashion merchandising student, Elle Woods was asked to break up by her ex-boyfriend, Warner Huntington. With the encouragement of her sorority sisters, high marks on the Law School Admission Test, and combined with her 4.0 GPA, it gained her admission to Harvard, where Warner was also enrolled. However, the classmates refused to take her seriously, and she just encountered that Warner is engaging with another girl, Vivian Kensington. To prove herself with motivations, she began to stand out by improving herself on studies, and is given an internship at Callahan’s law office. Despite of several difficulties she’d faced, Elle ended graduating from Harvard, with her new friend Vivian while Warner had nothing, and dating with Emmett who used to help her in the past.

:::ANALYSIS:::

               Based on the storyline of Legally Blonde, there are many elements of Feminist film theory in it. According to the themes of this theory, discrimination is observed in the film. For example, after Elle and Emmett visited Mrs. Windham-Vandemark, Elle discriminated her for being a liar by labelling her with the term “icky brown hair”. She also mentioned that she was discriminated as a blonde in the past. Another than this, discrimination theme is also seen when the Harvard students called Elle “Alpha Barbie” because of her outfit and how she walked.

                Besides of discrimination, stereotyping is also seen in the film. In Legally Blonde, Elle Woods was able to figure out that Enrique is a gay. In this, she stereotyped that only gay men know designers, while straight men don’t.

    Moreover, objectification theme is seen in the film as well. Warner Huntington III objectifies women as a matter that can be change or simply replace like non-living things. He cheated Elle Woods while maintaining his relationship with Vivian. He even wanted to win back Elle’s heart after seeing her brilliant behaviour in the court. Another than that, Prof. Callahan also objectifies Elle by not taking her seriously as a lawyer.

:::CONCLUSION:::

                   As a conclusion, Feminist film did portray how female perspectives usually shown in the reality. Through Legally Blonde, it shows us the power of women that will reflect the stereotyped thoughts from other people. It also show the blonde stereotype in this film. In my opinion, this is oe of my favourite film among all the films that I have studied, because it was proud to see female becoming strong and relationship-oriented in the same time. It also teaches me values of being a female person: love yourself and keep improving.