you’re working on a project. you’ve gotten about a fourth of it kind of laid out. you’re so satisfied with yourself. “oh this looks so good everyone’s going to lose their shit”. then you proceed to post tons of process work on snapchat and instagram. you are feeling yourself. all of a sudden, you start putting on the layer that you can’t fix. self-doubt begins to sink in. this thing you began to semi-brag about, it’s changing. you keep adding to it, “oh, it’s fine. it’ll fix itself”. while in all reality you realize, it’s turning into garbage. you keep trying to add more layers, as if it’ll help. the more layers you add, the less it becomes even recognizable as the thing it was supposed to be. you’re now 97% finished with the piece. you’re pushing so hard, “it’s almost done!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” you say. you finally finish. you go to take a photo to post on all of your social media. when you look through the camera lens, it looks like it’s been seen through one of those circus mirrors where everything is so distorted you can’t tell if your leg is an extension of your arm that reaches back up to the upper lip you were bragging with previously. “what happened?” you ask yourself. “i thought i was an artist” and then you post it anyways with all the appropriate hashtags.
It’s been a while since I’ve posted. I’m trying to get myself out of my comfort zone and explore making digital art. Here’s the first one I’m comfortable with!
Elle Woods was hollering back before the movement. This is why i love this movie. It’s so progressive. Elle is a femme feminist who comes by it the hard way. She doesn’t change for the bookish people, the elitists, or for the feminists. She just does what she needs to do, and what she wants, even when at first it was chasing a boy. Then the movie drops the romance. IT DROPS THE ROMANCE. chick flicks don’t do that. Emmett asking her out is a footnote at the very end. And this whole time, she is classy, and lady like, and has pride in herself and her work. She’ll go to a costume party as a playboy bunny, but like hell will she sleep with her professor for an internship. Elle is my feminist role model
Same.
Elle Woods 4ever
I remember listening to my DAD defend Legally Blonde. An uncle was saying “Oh look, it’s that stupid movie again.” as he flipped through the channels. My dad responded with “Oh yeah, that movie where the blonde girl with great grades works really hard to get into pre-law, studies hard and proves herself to her peers and bosses while maintaining her integrity and not sleeping with her boss? What a terrible message to send girls.”
Also, I love this movie because Reese Witherspoon.
And don’t forget that she has serious female friends and wins the case by way of her specialist knowledge of so-called “feminine things” that no one else takes seriously enough to even bother with.
LET’S NOT FORGET that even though it starts with a situation where two girls are rivals for the same guy, they BOTH choose to ignore the social codes (and hollywood bylaws) that tell them they should be cat-fighting and trying to one-up each other, and instead they realize that they make good working partners and better friends and screw rivalry, AND ALSO HAVE EACH OTHER’S BACKS RE: WORKPLACE SEXUAL HARASSMENT. And that it portrays sororities as places where women can learn to work together and respect each other and help each other out, which sets the stage for the way Elle treats everyone she meets for the rest of the movie. OH AND IT HAS A FAT SIDE CHARACTER WHO OVERCOMES EMOTIONAL ABUSE, IS NEVER FAT-SHAMED OR USED AS THE BRUNT OF A FAT JOKE, AND LANDS THE HOTTEST MAN IN THE ENTIRE FILM.
ALL. OF. THIS.
And don’t forget MY FAVORITE PART which is that her professor, the woman who throws her out of her first class for not being prepared, not only gives her the courage to go to court, but also runs into her, where? AT THE NAIL SALON. Showing that all women can get their hair and nails done, and caring about your appearance doesn’t make you a certain “type” of person, or that getting your nails done is something only young people do, or that even when women disagree they’re still all on the same team. And that you shouldn’t let one stupid prick ruin your life.
And I’m also REALLY glad that there wasn’t some scene with Elle giving either Vivian or Paulette a makeover, making them blonde and covered in pink from head to toe. Every woman in the movie is allowed to be her own type of woman, with her own style, and there’s no discussion of “needing to have fashion to get ahead” or “never going to get a job dressed all in pink” etc.
I will go TO MY GRAVE defending Legally Blonde as a feminist movie.
