Legally Blonde: What the Girlboss Should've Been

by now in the year of our lore 2022 the word girl boss has thankfully gone the way of soured internet terms at first painfully overused after it was popularized in a 2014 self-help book it's now almost exclusively said ironically you'll often hear it after gaslight and gatekeep meant to poke fun at the faults of its corporate brand of feminism as this vox article describes as the concept was codified the idea of the girl boss became about the melding of professional self and identity capitalist aspiration and a specific and arguably limited vision of empowerment even the top definition for it now in urban dictionary is the verb form to make something or someone appear as a feminist idol or inspiration for profit despite the numerous flaws of the person all in all in its current form girlboss is moored to a negative connotation but when i rewatched the 2001 film legally blonde i couldn't help but think of that word and what it could have meant instead even if i won't go as far as actually using it unironically because you know it's still cringy and patronizing still as a character who aspires to reach a position of authority in her high-powered career a field where women are underestimated and undervalued ellwood seems to fit the bill for the original bare bones definition of a hashtag girlboss unapologetic femininity and all this is one of the movies i watched time and again growing up obviously as a kid i didn't grasp the full context i didn't know what a sorority was so i thought elle lived in some sort of strange friendship cult and a lot of the jokes flew over my head i've got a package he's got a package including those that haven't exactly aged well don't stomp your little last season prada shoes at me honey all i knew is i was watching a nice lady being sold short mostly because of her outward appearance and as a nerdy little latina girl it resonated with me there's a distinct way elle moved through the world that didn't change much if at all by the end of the film qualities that made it so we rooted for her at every turn and in this video i'm gonna try to break down those qualities to explain why she's still such an iconic character and how her attributes can reframe how we navigate career ambition i'm gonna tell all of you at harvard why i'm gonna make an amazing lawyer first off we'll talk about the most glaring theme of the movie legally blonde is based on a 2001 novel of the same name by amanda brown who had been inspired by her experiences while attending stanford law as a blonde overtly feminine woman naturally because it was the early 2000s the film starts with a musical opening montage of elle getting ready for the day through this sequence they set up a stereotypically feminine character she loves pink puts a lot of effort into her appearance and has a tiny dog a la paris hilton she's also a sorority president majoring in fashion merchandising and seems hell-bent on marrying her frat boyfriend in a culture where ultrafemininity is often mocked and vilified it's easy to misjudge her character or expect the film to look down on elle's girly behavior but the very next scene establishes she's far from foolish there's nothing i love more than a dumb blonde with daddy's plastic you didn't just get it in i saw it in the june book a year ago so if you're trying to sell it to me for full price you pick the wrong girl and eventually when she applies to law school she gets a 179 on her lsat i didn't know this until recently but the highest score you can get is a 180. so now i fear her power even more l woods brought a welcome change to the tired trope of the dumb blonde a cliche popularized by several of marilyn monroe's characters including lorelei in the 1953 film gentlemen prefer blondes i can be smart when it's important but most men don't like it if i'm gonna be a senator well i need to marry a jackie not a maryland ella's not only capable and intelligent and kind but also happens to have an interest in fashion and beauty and takes pride in the way she presents herself to the world these qualities aren't mutually exclusive regardless of what decades of feminine archetypes would have you believe on that note i'd like to thank the sponsor of this video scentbird you can't tell but i smell amazing right now and if i had a pink resume to send out i'd be spraying it too oh and it's scented i think it gives it a little something extra don't you think scentbird's monthly subscription service helps you find fragrances from a selection of over 600 brands there's a lot to choose from there's top designer brands like prada and gucci but also indie labels if you want to find a more niche fragrance they help you find perfumes and colognes based on your preferences or a quick quiz on their website and the service works directly with brands so you're not going to get knockoffs only the real thing right now i'm trying out daisy love by marc jacobs i can be kind of picky with my perfumes but i was like okay this got me it's good stuff it has like a really nice light floral scent i'm also trying out transcendent by catherine maladrino i don't know if i'm saying that right i usually go for like more subtle scents and this has like a light fruity scent to it that's really pleasant also these cases they're so fancy and they're really convenient for travel and on the go i'd actually stopped buying perfumes years ago because i don't know anything and it was hard to find scents i loved enough to justify getting a whole bottle that i'd probably never finish those bottles be expensive so i like scentbird because the amount they give you lasts a good while like this is a regular tiny sample you'd normally get at a store and this is a vial from scentbird and you know you can just try something new after you're done if you want it's a flexible subscription service so you can skip any month if you need to with no fees you can also upgrade to two to three cents per month right now cent bird's available in the us and canada if you want to know more about these fragrances in particular you can check the description for their links and if you want to try out scentbird for yourself you can use code qc55 for 55 off your first month so it'll be just seven dollars for your first month click the link in the description to get started and thanks again to scentbird for sponsoring this video [Music] like i was saying it's often viewed as silly and vain for women to put a lot of effort into their appearance particularly if they're deemed hyper feminine if you watch old interviews of dolly parton you'll be shocked at the audacity of some of the questions where i come from what i have called you a hillbilly you don't have to look like this you're very beautiful you don't have to wear the blonde wigs you don't have to wear the extreme clothes right do you ever feel that you're a joke that people make fun of you oh i know they make fun of me but actually all these years the people you know has thought the joke was on me but it's actually been on the public i know exactly what i'm doing and i can change it at any time a lot of your first instinct is to discount women that put a lot of effort into their looks as maybe not serious about their job or maybe not serious about their relationships or i think there's that that impetus in everyone i think everyone naturally sort of jumps those conclusions i was just interested in sort of exploring the difference between the way someone looks and how people perceive them and how they really are i also think of that scene in the devil wears prada where the main character andy basically scoffs at her new colleagues act one andy is the antithesis of act one l it's made clear she thinks this is all beneath her she'd wanted a serious journalism job but ended up at a fashion magazine instead i see you think this has nothing to do with you in this legendary monologue miranda priestly illustrates why andy and by extension all of us aren't intellectually superior for mocking the interest society has deemed vapid or somehow righteously removed from those interests despite their influence on our day-to-day lives in retrospect i guess amanda priestley's character was the ultimate toxic girl boss before we even knew the word or what it would come to represent but for better or worse we haven't ascended above being affected by the trends of the fashion industry comical how you think that you've made a choice that exempts you from the fashion industry when in fact you're wearing a sweater that was selected for you by the people in this room this ties in with another point about elle expertise in almost anything has value it's impossible to use the half loop top stitching on the viscosity rayon it would snag the fabric her knowledge about fashion and beauty is what gave her an edge during the trial and is ultimately what won her the case because isn't it the first cardinal rule of per maintenance that you're forbidden to wet your hair for at least 24 hours after getting a perm at the risk of deactivating the ammonium thyglocalate at the end of the day subjects like fashion and beauty are just other forms of expression and for some their preferred form of art and creativity honestly if the girl boss movement did anything right it's that it helps some women reclaim their relationship with unabashed femininity especially in the workplace once elle started taking her studies more seriously at harvard she toned down her look in the hopes of being taken more seriously it didn't help much because most of her peers had already ascribed her to a certain personality type but in the last trial scene she of course reverted to form all pink everything for obvious reasons it would be a big deal to dress like this in a courtroom as a lawyer but women's attire in the courtroom doesn't even have to be this eye-catching to be ridiculed in a 2018 article for the atlantic law professor lara bazelon described how women's clothing choices were the subject of intense scrutiny from judges clerks marshals jurors other lawyers witnesses and clients i had to be attractive but not in a provocative way medium length or long hair was best but not too long heels and skirts were preferred at trial but not too high and definitely not too short and pantyhose i hated pantyhose but showing up in federal court with bare legs was as unthinkable as showing up drunk bazlon goes on to note an instance where she took her suit jacket off on a hot day and the judge reprimanded her for stripping in his courtroom and a separate occurrence when a female supervisor told her she should wear more makeup and color her greying hair going as far as offering to pay for a makeover another trial lawyer basilan spoke to said a female juror insulted her shoes when she wore flats one day instead of heels because her feet were in pain these are obviously cases where women aren't deemed feminine enough as opposed to l being too feminine but the point is they're pressured to dress a very specific way to meet an arbitrary standard wearing heels or makeup won't somehow make these lawyers more credible or competent any more than it would make men more credible or competent but heels do make it harder to approach the witness box swiftly and confidently especially if you're not someone who likes wearing heels while i can see why elle's colorful wardrobe might be a bit distracting in a setting like this the rigid expectations surrounding appearance can go too far at times so seeing elle going back to fully embracing her preferred style of femininity and staying true to herself made for a powerful moment another point about elle she uses her privilege to help other people i mean she's a rich white woman whose parents told her there's no use in her even having a career presumably because of their generational wealth oh sweetheart you don't need law school law school's for people who are boring and ugly and serious elle certainly has obstacles to contend with but she also clearly has a leg up in life this gave her the option to simply bask in the luxury of her family's fortune but instead she took advantage of her strengths and resources to make her community a better place through helping her friends she realized hey i can actually do some good in the world with this whole lawyer thing unlike many of her affluent peers including her ex-boyfriend warner it wasn't about status or prestige for her sure at first she only went so she could win warner back and have a fun time partying in the process but her priorities shifted and her perfect day became about something else entirely one major reason the term girl boss fell out of favor is because allegations started arising against female ceos ranging from accusations of toxic work environments and racism to firing employees for being pregnant to sexual harassment these bosses had apparently co-opted feminism in the name of personal success but failed to lift anyone else up in the process especially women of color while sometimes managing to be remarkably tone deaf it turns out women are people and not immune to being shitty l on the other hand found empowerment through advocating for others integrity was more important than success as evidenced by her refusal to share her client's potentially life-ruining alibi tell him the alibi no we're gonna lose this case if you don't well then we're not very good lawyers side note but this alibi is pretty wild oh god i mean she shouldn't be falsely accused of murder but damn brooke is a whole ass con artist i know i'm a fraud like normal women can have this ass anyway this leads to maybe my favorite of l's qualities she exudes kindness no matter who she's talking to you look very nice today vivian thank you you've probably met people like this here and there or maybe you're this person and don't even know it someone who radiates warmth everywhere they go just complete rays of sunshine i mean no wonder she had so many friends she extended friendship to pretty much everybody the film has some of the most endearing portrayals of women's friendships i've seen while elle does make guy friends at law school the focus is clearly on women and how they can support and uplift each other including in areas where they're typically pitted against each other elle helped paulette get her dog back and taught her whole salon how to bend and snap it didn't go as planned and honestly i still don't fully understand this maneuver apparently the writers made it up in a bar one night and it stuck in any case i think paulette's version of the bend and snap where she just holds her boobs up would probably be more effective [Music] oh my god the bend and snap works every time okay where was i back to the friendships there's also brooke who definitely seemed like she murdered someone but l gained her trust and stayed true to her word building mutual confidence to the point where brooke chose her for legal representation i can't stress enough what a terrible idea this was because she's a first year law student but it's a movie so it had to work out and although her first impressions of vivian truly sucked they found common ground and became close friends subverting various cliches of women fighting over men blondes vs brunettes the one dimensionally evil new wife or girlfriend etc osama's role is one of the most important relationships in elle's story just because a female camaraderie is one of the most important themes of this movie is really about finding your strength as a woman and really finding the friends and enemies that you do as a woman you know i think all women know what it's like to be jealous of another woman or to be resentful of their relationship but to be able to surpass that and find a friendship within those confines i think that's that's a really great message i think i like the fact that selma and i ultimately end up being good friends and it has nothing to do with guys and it has nothing to do with competition it's just you know about women understanding each other and even elle's typically hard-ass professor encouraged her at a pivotal moment when she needed it most something not even emmett could achieve successfully at the time if you're going to let one stupid prick ruin your life you're not the girl i thought you were also i loved when her sorority sisters came to support her during the trial ladies take a seat it's all just so wholesome it all reminds me of the sweetness and solidarity of drunk girls in bathrooms elle was just nice in a general sense she greeted everyone cheerfully she was polite and friendly she was blunt about her positive feelings and impressions i'm really glad i met you if girl bosses gaslight and gatekeep ella's on the whole other end of the spectrum she was open in good nature to everyone she came across you know if you had come to a rush party i would have at least been nice to you oh is that before you voted against me and then called me a dyke behind my back i don't use that word and i don't say that to say women always have to be cheery and smiling elle stood up for herself when it was due like when her professor sexually harassed her and i'm a law student who just realized her professor is pathetic and she changed her tone depending on the circumstances like when she was questioning the witness she didn't repress anger or sadness it seems that's another tricky balancing act women law have to grapple with in a report published the same year legally blonde was released stanford law professor deborah rhode wrote women still face a long-standing double standard and a double bind they risk criticism for being too soft or too strident too aggressive or not aggressive enough and what appears assertive in a man often appears abrasive in a woman in basilan's article she wrote social science research has demonstrated that when female attorneys show emotions like indignation impatience or anger jurors may see them as shrill irrational and unpleasant the same emotions when expressed by men are interpreted as appropriate to the circumstances of a case so when i entered the courtroom i took on the persona of a woman who dressed spoke and behaved in a traditionally feminine and unthreatening manner as bazilan also notes all these issues are amplified for women of color i think one problem this nebulous girl boss we've built up in our minds has is that in trying not to appear too soft she perhaps overcompensated and behaved rather douchely i say this based on reports of workplace toxicity at some point people realize girl boss business practices weren't intrinsically better than their boy boss counterparts as stated in that vox article it now seems as though toxic work environments were a feature of their design and not coincidental bugs perhaps working for a girl boss was just like working any other job so the claims of female empowerment ultimately run hollow again it's becoming common for people to co-opt the rhetoric of social movements for purely personal gain i've also been seeing this just day to day like it's cool or funny to be needlessly mean for some reason and often people will brush the cruelty aside in the name of activism like it's for the benefit of a cause we see this in various twitter draggings and recently sarah zed talked about the whole west elm caleb situation and how it got out of control with hundreds of women using feminism or girl power or whatever as an excuse to publicly bully someone the abstract concept of strength is still conflated with cruelty with putting other people down the point is elle didn't sharpen her edges while striving for success she stayed soft i know soft is usually used in a negative sense but it doesn't have to be there's an underlying message in the strong female character trope that to be strong translates to traditional masculinity to be clear the standard sucks for both women and men historically it includes a certain degree of stoicism and emotional unavailability elwood's character challenges this cliche her enthusiasm and sincerity remained a part of her nature along with her strength and ambition as she still didn't let other people put her down or make her feel small in the process you got into harvard law what like it's hard even though elle would go through all these trials she would always maintain a certain integrity of innocence and believing that the people were good and the world was good and i like that idea i'm sorry but i can't help but think of dolly parton again she's a gem i am sure of myself as a person i'm sure of my talent and to me and i'm sure of my love and for life and that sort of thing i'm very content i like the kind of person that i am so i can afford to piddle around and do diddle around with makeups and clothes and stuff because i am secure with myself anyway there's this weird almost combative mentality underpinning popular notions of what it means to have drive and ambition that the most ruthless are the ones we should model our work principles on and that achieving our preconceived ideas of success is more important than just being a good person and i think that sucks and is lame unlike the girl boss elle's career journey doesn't claim to be an act of activism or social justice in and of itself but she represents what it can mean to challenge the status quo not just wielding it for her benefit but questioning its norms to better suit who she's serving the sequel addresses this a little more l wants to ban animal testing in the cosmetics industry and in the process challenges the ethics and procedures of our judicial and legislative systems what you're saying is if same anafique follows the letter of the law even if it ends up hurting living beings we're just doing our job that's all just deals and trades and secrets that's not what people want but that's all i'll say about that movie because it's kind of bad your dogs are gay i'm glad legally blonde while not perfect managed to accomplish and hold on to its positive legacy that's pretty difficult to do when you're tackling complex topics like this and the film manages to address it better than many modern day attempts especially from those individuals or corporations who try to invoke the message of social movements for their own gain i'm not gonna call elle woods a girl boss but she's definitely a top tier role model for what our values should look like on the road to success thanks so much for watching let me know if legally blonde meant a lot to you as a kid and thanks again to scentbird for sponsoring this video don't forget to check them out with the link in the description it'll only be seven dollars for your first month got lots of fragrance options and you'll be smelling as good as i do right now and with that i'll see you guys next time bye

Channel: Quality Culture

Views: 558,198

Keywords: legally blonde, legaly blonde, legally blonde video essay, legally blonde review, legally blonde analysis, legally blonde breakdown, reese witherspoon legally blonde, girlboss, death of the girlboss, girlboss analysis

Id: G-MdK1r299c

Length: 21min 4sec (1264 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 17 2022