Legally Blonde

A good movie that depicts a women as a sexual object, with no brains and being ditsy, is legally blonde. In this movie it is clearly seen that Elle Woods, is this peppy white female who is in a sorority, has money, and is very pretty. The movie shows how looks and money can get you some place like a prestigious sorority, good looking boyfriend and such but it also show the flip side of the story. How sometimes being this attractive women who wears pink, is a blonde, and has money can be taken as a joke. In the movie Elle is dumped by her boyfriend because he doesn't see her doing anything productive with her life because of the lifestyle she has. Her sorority as well as herself are seen as unintelligent women, that most of their peers don't take seriously. This film discusses oppression by beauty and intelligence. It shows in the that the women in the sorority are the ones wearing expensive designer clothes and only caring about what the latest style is. While this is being portray with Elle Woods, shes also being portray as this women,that no matter what people think of her will not give up til she completes her law career. The women in this film are with someone except Elle and her friend who does her nails. The only that the nail lady can get the dream guy she likes is if she acts sexy around him. So pretty much the film is selling out that women have to be sexy to get with guy she desperately wants, except Elle, she ends up with the lawyer who didn't just like her for her looks, he looked past that and was interested in her personality. The body type does play a role in this film, everyone is in somewhat skinny and pretty, most of them are smart and the others are there just for the looks. Elle is confident at school towards the end of the movie when she knows that she can actually do something without being told she s just another dumb blonde. In this movie sexuality is demonized in this movie a bunch of times. Since this movie is pretty much based on looks of a women, especially how men view them it goes well with what Jean Kilbourne said in her article about woman's depiction in advertisement, "Primarily girls are told by advertisers that what is most important about them is their perfume, their clothing, their bodies, and their beauty"(232). I agree with this because in this movie and many other movies similar to this, women have to look a certain way or act a certain way but if they are remotely a little smart then they are either not attractive enough or are too much to handle. Another article interesting was that of Abra Fortune Chernik, who tells her story of how advertisement, television, magazines etc, influence her to make drastic changes because of her image (599). Overall this movie is a good example of how women are depicted as sexual objects instead of viewing their personality

Work Cited page
Kilbourne, Joy."The more you subtract, the more you add."Kirk, Gwyn and Margo Okazawa-Rey. Women's Lives: Multicultural Perspectives. Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill, 2010. 231-239

Chernik, Abra."The body Politic."Kirk, Gwyn and Margo Okazawa-Rey. Women's Lives: Multicultural Perspectives. Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill, 2010. 599-603