If you don’t like Legally Blonde, I don’t like you

There’s a certain part of being an intellectual, or learning about anything that goes beyond curiousity. Like attaining material wealth, attaining knowledge can just be about greed and power. This is what Franny and Zooey is about, and it’s probably why I loved it so much. You can’t take intellectual stuff too seriously. You will end up having a nervous breakdown at 21 on your parent’s couch. At some point, you’re probably just doing it for your own personal gain. Its like when someone in business wants to be rich and takes it to an extreme and never enjoys their life because they’re just trying to aquire more shit. Take it in moderation bro.

So anyways, the movie Legally Blonde came out to address this issue. Our protagonist, Elle, is a beautiful, popular college students who also happens to have a 4.0 and scores a 179 (out of 180) on the LSATs. She earnestly believes she can do anything: win a Hawaiian Tropic bikini contest or make Harvard law review. This should be the trajectory we’re on with feminism.

Elle’s main obstacle is other’s refusal to take her seriously because she exhibits the feminine characterstics of long blonde hair, fashionable clothing, positivity, as well as not exuding snobbery regarding her intelligence. She could take on masculine personality traits that would command more respect in this environment, or alter her appearance to avoid snap judgement but she pushes forward and becomes successful. She causes people to question their own preconceived notions about stereotypically feminine things were actually ‘silly.’

She’s smart, but it’s not about just piling up knowledge to lord it over other people and gloat about how you went to Harvard Law. She’s comically oblivious to other’s expectations of her and so she only acts on genuine desire. The rest of us can’t live in a vacuum of what people expect us to be like vs. what they expect someone who is taken seriously to be like, but we can try to relate to her tenacity.