Jacqueline Corley
WGSS 365
Professor Kar
11 December 2015
Final Paper
The movie I chose to watch was Legally Blonde Elle Woods is an incredibly girly and popular sorority girl fashion major at a university in LA who gets dumped by her boyfriend Warner, so he can “stop dicking around” and date someone “smart” before he goes to law school at Harvard. In order to prove her seriousness and commitment to education, she applies to Harvard and gets in. Everyone believes her to be a misguided dumb blonde; even her parents think Law school is for the “smart, boring and ugly. And you are not one of those.” but she strives to prove them all wrong and win her man back. Instead, she not only realizes she’s too good for a misogynist boyfriend, but she also …show more content…
We see sorority sisters working out in sports bras, glowing sweat, and getting ready for the day putting on makeup in lingerie. In Laura Mulvey’s article, Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema, she breaks down the understanding of cinema and the portrayal of women in cinema for the “scopophilic instinct”. The scopophilic instinct is the “pleasure in looking at another person as an erotic object” (64). In this reading the most relevant part that reinforced the idea of male versus female pleasures was the imagery of women being explained as passive or “raw material” for men and the male taking the active role in pleasing their visual and ego characteristics. Elle is a perfect example of how being feminine does not mean you conform to patriarchal expectations of submissiveness in …show more content…
In general many females growing up in middle to lower class cannot wake up one day and apply to Harvard, get in, and then move across country to the east coast in order to pursue an education. For example when Elle first met with her orientation group on the grass we can compare her to her fellow future 2004 graduates. For the most part they already have graduated undergraduate, and masters programs, and some have even established their doctorate in other fields of study. When it’s Elle’s turn she confidently speaks about her CULA merchandising major and her contribution and presidency of her sorority. I feel however, that this part could have been seen differently if it was a different race other than white. Elle isn’t aware of her white privilege and West Hollywood location. The backstory of a Latin woman or even a black woman in this space would probably be different and have some kind of financial, or racist struggle linked to her desires. The undermining of this film is that, first time watchers without the lens of racism or struggles among women of color are introduced to the stereotype of black woman at the barbershop. In the short cameo of women of color taking spotlight in the film, they are not educationally portrayed as being successful in law, however they are portrayed as women with long thick braided hair dressed in jeans or a tracksuit.
WGSS 365
Professor Kar
11 December 2015
Final Paper
The movie I chose to watch was Legally Blonde Elle Woods is an incredibly girly and popular sorority girl fashion major at a university in LA who gets dumped by her boyfriend Warner, so he can “stop dicking around” and date someone “smart” before he goes to law school at Harvard. In order to prove her seriousness and commitment to education, she applies to Harvard and gets in. Everyone believes her to be a misguided dumb blonde; even her parents think Law school is for the “smart, boring and ugly. And you are not one of those.” but she strives to prove them all wrong and win her man back. Instead, she not only realizes she’s too good for a misogynist boyfriend, but she also …show more content…
We see sorority sisters working out in sports bras, glowing sweat, and getting ready for the day putting on makeup in lingerie. In Laura Mulvey’s article, Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema, she breaks down the understanding of cinema and the portrayal of women in cinema for the “scopophilic instinct”. The scopophilic instinct is the “pleasure in looking at another person as an erotic object” (64). In this reading the most relevant part that reinforced the idea of male versus female pleasures was the imagery of women being explained as passive or “raw material” for men and the male taking the active role in pleasing their visual and ego characteristics. Elle is a perfect example of how being feminine does not mean you conform to patriarchal expectations of submissiveness in …show more content…
In general many females growing up in middle to lower class cannot wake up one day and apply to Harvard, get in, and then move across country to the east coast in order to pursue an education. For example when Elle first met with her orientation group on the grass we can compare her to her fellow future 2004 graduates. For the most part they already have graduated undergraduate, and masters programs, and some have even established their doctorate in other fields of study. When it’s Elle’s turn she confidently speaks about her CULA merchandising major and her contribution and presidency of her sorority. I feel however, that this part could have been seen differently if it was a different race other than white. Elle isn’t aware of her white privilege and West Hollywood location. The backstory of a Latin woman or even a black woman in this space would probably be different and have some kind of financial, or racist struggle linked to her desires. The undermining of this film is that, first time watchers without the lens of racism or struggles among women of color are introduced to the stereotype of black woman at the barbershop. In the short cameo of women of color taking spotlight in the film, they are not educationally portrayed as being successful in law, however they are portrayed as women with long thick braided hair dressed in jeans or a tracksuit.