I finally have a good excuse to talk about ‘Legally Blonde’ and ‘Barbie’

This may come as a surprise to you, but one of my favorite movies is “Legally Blonde” (2001) starring Reese Witherspoon as Elle Woods. There are so many things I like about the film: the script, the characters, the extensive use of the color pink (my favorite color is pink, so of course it’s going to be on the list). 

“Legally Blonde,” since its initial release over 20 years ago, is still a pop culture staple. A sequel to the movie was released in 2003. A third movie has been in the works for a few years. Lines like “What? Like, it’s hard?” and “I feel comfortable using legal jargon in everyday life” can be found on t-shirts and mugs. 

A musical was made based on the movie in 2007 and was nominated for seven Tonys. Ariana Grande references multiple well-known scenes in the music video for “Thank U, Next.” 

In the summer of 2023 the highly anticipated “Barbie” movie was released in theaters and became a global phenomenon. You could not get away from the color pink and Barbiecore was all over TikTok. Halloween was filled with different types of Barbie-inspired costumes. The movie received acclaim for its script by director Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach. 

While I was watching “Barbie”, I started to notice a lot of similarities between it and “Legally Blonde.” There are some surface-level similarities like both protagonists being blonde and wearing pink. But as I thought more about the similarity of both movies they got deeper.

Elle Woods and Barbie start out their journeys to keep the status quo they are both used to. For Elle, attending Harvard Law School is just a way to win Warner back and have him propose to her. Barbie’s goal is to go into the real world and find the girl who owns her toy so Barbie can stop having an existential crisis, making sure her place in Barbie Land will never change.

But through events in the story they reach self-actualization and break the status quo they were so desperate to keep in the beginning of the movie. Elle becomes a lawyer and rejects Warner. Barbie decides to leave Barbie Land behind and live in the real world. Barbie and Elle accept their new paths in life. 

“Legally Blonde” and “Barbie” could have easily fallen into the dumb blonde stereotype, but they don’t. Elle Woods subverts the audience’s expectations by not falling into this trope.

Elle and Barbie are also not mean girls like another famous blonde character, Regina George. A scene to me that always comes to mind of Elle subverting expectations is from the beginning of the movie.

In the scene, Elle and her two friends are looking for a dress for her to wear on her date with Warner. The camera cuts to an employee trying to scam Elle into paying full price for an out-of-season dress passing it off as new. 

Elle sees right through the employee’s deception recognizing it as a design from last year. This scene foreshadows how Elle will use her knowledge of fashion and beauty products and her newfound knowledge of the law to save the day. 

One of the ways “Barbie” subverts our expectations is Barbie not ending up with Ken. Which I found an interesting choice because when you think of Barbie, Ken is right there behind her.

“Legally Blonde” on the other hand Elle does end up with someone, but it is not Warner. Elle ends up with teacher assistant Emmet who sees Elle for the intelligent woman she is. 

Even though one does not end up with a guy in the end and one does, the characters decide their own fate and what they want to do in their future. They will not be dictated on what they are expected to do. 

Margot Robbie plays Barbie with sincerity in the same way Witherspoon plays Elle. The two actresses never play their characters as a joke, but as real people who the audience can sympathize with. 

The two movies can also be seen as a fish out of water story. They are taken out of their natural environment and put into a new one they have to adapt to. As college students, I think we can all relate to being out of our element when we first enter university life. But like Elle and Barbie, we adapt to our new surroundings and enjoy our new independence.