Even though I usually refrain from
basing my reviews directly onto the negative criticism of others, there are
those moments when the opportunity is just too good to pass up. It’s not that I
like focusing on the negative, far from it in fact, but when I feel the need to
throw my hands in the air out of sheer desperation when reading one of those
reviews, I know there’s something fundamentally wrong. The funny thing is that
they take me by surprise time and again, although by now I should clearly know
better: I’ve read so many baffling reviews in my life that I should be able to
somewhat accurately predict the usual responses, but to no avail. Perhaps I’m
just really naïve in all this, always hoping that people are able to move
beyond those stereotypical reactions, which then means that I have to swallow
the bitter pill of disappointment every time. I mean, obviously, a film that’s
called ‘Legally Blonde 2’ has as much chance of getting ahead in this world as
some poor kid born in the slums of Mexico City, so it shouldn’t come as a
surprise to read some negative reviews. Yet there I was again, throwing those
hands into the air after seeing the film and then reading this review
by Casey Broadwater, as if it really was the first time for me. I suppose I
could get behind the heavy criticism if it would make some sense or if the
reviewer would make some good points, but since that’s not the case I feel
obliged to come to the rescue of this cute little movie.
Some people will probably be freaked out
for even suggesting this, but yes, I truly believe both 'Legally Blonde' is
entirely compatible with the deep ecology movement that hopefully will bring
about the necessary changes that will secure a viable future for our planet.
Now before you say, “Elle Woods as deep ecology environmentalist?!” - please
let me explain. The whole movement is based upon two main principles: harmony
and diversity. To use the words of Mary Evelyn Tucker and Brian Swimme:
“In the midst of these formidable
challenges, in an era that Paul Crutzen has dubbed the Anthropocene, we are
being called to the next stage of evolutionary history. This new era requires a
change of consciousness and values – an expansion of our worldviews and ethics.
The evolutionary life impulse moves us forward from viewing ourselves as
isolated individuals and competing nation states to realizing our collective
presence as a species with a common origin story and shared destiny. The human community has the capacity now to
realize our intrinsic unity in the midst of enormous diversity.”
The last line could easily serve as a tagline
for 'Legally Blonde 2', as Elle Woods is all about harmony and diversity. Her
unusual sensitivity to her environment is a direct testament to the kind of
harmony that has unfortunately become quite rare in modern society. She molds
everything around her to suit her peculiar vision, which is obviously more than
mere materialistic vanity. In the beginning Luke Wilson asks her, “You've
customized my ring, again”? This alone would of course be nothing more than
just a detail, were it not for the fact it's part of an intricate network that
points to a much bigger vision than just that one detail would suggest. In the
first movie, she uses scented paper in her law study, which she explains as 'it
gives it a little bit extra, don't you think'? - a joke that gets carried over
to the sequel. Listing all the customizations that Elle applies to her direct
environment could take a whole essay on itself, as the writers of both movies
clearly delight in inserting them in every nook and cranny. So let's just
suffice it to say that the moment she moves in her Washington office, she
immediately proceeds to make her whole desk pink – of course much to the
chagrin of her direct colleagues and probably half of the viewers also. But
it's much more than just a joke, it's absolutely essential to the central
vision of both the movies, as it acknowledges the influence our direct
environments have on our well-being. In Eastern lingo it would be termed Feng
Shui, but it just as much applies to our Western sensibilities as well: everyone,
whether they are aware or not, responds to his environment psychologically and
emotionally, so it would only make sense that it's something that's taught in
schools all around the world. Yet, it isn't. In fact, one could easily say it
is one of the most overlooked aspects of modern Western society. Chellis
Glendinning relates a story in one of her books in which she visited a modern
high-tech research lab where a bunch of absurdly intelligent scientists were
working together to produce something brilliant. As she was given a tour of the
compound, she was horrified to learn that nobody had taken the effort to
actually decorate the whole thing. It was just a bunch of computers thrown
together with not even a single plant or anything that would make it look even
remotely appealing or human. When she quizzed her tour guide about this, he
apparently looked at her as if she came from Mars, as if asking such a question
was exceedingly absurd. Indeed, the whole issue may seem extraordinarily
trivial to some, especially when it concerns such an 'important' issue as
scientific discovery. But isn't is really frightening to contemplate that such
brilliant minds could be so insensitive to their immediate surroundings, as if
they were somehow immune to their influences? It is precisely this kind of
split between intellect and emotion that the deep ecology movement is fighting,
because it is exactly this kind of insensitivity to our surroundings that has
enabled mankind to treat Mother Earth in such horrible ways without feeling any
guilt about it. If people would really care about their immediate environment
they could not bear to see it destroyed so systematically because mature,
healthy people simply can't bear to see things they care about treated so
badly. It is because of this, that we as a species need to re-learn our
instinctive connectedness to everything around us and one of the ways to
accomplish this, is developing any kind of awareness of our direct
surroundings. And this is exactly what Elle Woods does in both movies: she
cultivates an extreme sensitivity to all things around her. It could of course
be argued her dedication to it is somewhat extreme, which is only normal since
'Legally Blonde 2' is clearly a satire. But besides this, if only a little bit
of her sensitivity would rub off on the average viewer, we would already be on
our way toward a more healthy relationship to all that's around us.
Not only does Elle’s pink decoration of
her desk point to her inherent harmony, it also signifies the diversity that
she represents, with diversity being the second pillar deep ecology is based
on. Nature has blessed us with an amazing variety of species that’s important
for its own sake. Because surely, one of the most wonderful things about this
earth lies in that diversity, in the differences that exist between a cat and a
whale or between a tree and a lion. But this diversity is also there of course
in the differences between the seasons, or between the divergent character
traits in different people. It should stand to reason we would do everything in
our power to preserve and celebrate this diversity, but we’re doing our utmost
best to annihilate it instead. Every day, hundreds of species go extinct and
whole eco systems disappear forever. Scientists have confirmed that right now
we’re in the middle of the sixth period of extinction, with the last one
occurring when the dinosaurs went extinct. But still precious few people seem
to care about this, because we apparently still care more about financial gain
than diversity. But it’s not just the wanton destruction of nature that robs us
of our natural diversity, our whole culture is being homogenized: the same
commercials and programs are transmitted on TV all over the world on a daily
basis, all bringing the same message and thereby creating one giant world
culture where differences between indigenous cultures become increasingly
smaller. The same products and companies pop up all over the world and insure
the domination of the Industrialist-technology economies of the West. And this
is surely the most subversive aspect of ‘Legally Blonde’, as it takes the
extreme outwashes of this kind of homogenized consumerism and gleefully turns
it on its head. Elle Woods uses the very weapons Western society has given her
to change the system from within. By the simple virtue of her consumer
extremism, she becomes a direct threat to it as she breaks away from the
suffocating molds that she’s supposed to remain in.
Her very presence is like a fresh wind
everywhere she goes, which is clearly emphasized so many times, already because
of her love for pink outfits that contrast markedly with the usual dress codes.
She uses her particular gifts to blow the fossilized ways of behavior and
action wide open, which is exactly what deep ecology needs now. It’s time to
acknowledge that the technological carrot that has been used to lure us into
the industrial society, that would free ourselves from labor and toil has not
lived up to its promise and never will. Our society has failed. The model of
economic growth is quite simply ludicrous, as economies simply cannot keep on
growing since we live on a finite earth. Earth’s resources are almost exhausted
and the entire planet has almost reached a breaking point so it’s about time we
woke up from our technological dream and smell the coffee. A profound change in
our ways of thinking and living is needed now. As John Stanley & David Loy
put it:
“The challenge is to create a new story
that brings together the best of science with the best of the non-dual
spiritual traditions – Buddhism, Advaita Vedanta, Taoism, Sufism and other
mystical traditions. By looking deeper than the duality of a God who created
the universe, deeper than the duality of a nirvana to which we can escape from
earthly samsara, and deeper than the duality of scientific materialism, we
recognize that the universe is a self-aware creative process. This pure creative
potentiality is in us too. It can awaken and free itself from the limiting
identities and games of the human condition.”
If these last two lines don’t describe
Elle Woods to perfection, I don’t know what will, as her whole character is
creative potentiality made celluloid flesh. When she decides to get married,
she tells her husband to be they have to invite everyone that matters to them.
But when pondering this, she suddenly realizes she doesn’t even know who the
mother of her stray Chihuahua dog is – oh no! Exhibiting the kind of dedication
to other than human life forms that’s crucial to all ecological feeling, she
proceeds undaunted to hire a private detective to find the mother of her dog.
When she’s directed to a facility named V.E.R.S.A.C.E. she automatically assumes
finding the dog won’t be a problem now as she’s in proud possession of a
Versace VIP card as she has shopped with the firm on five continents. But to
her horror she discovers that this is quite a different animal, as
V.E.R.S.A.C.E stands for ‘Veterinary Experimentation Research Science And
Critter Exploitation’ – in other words a company that uses dogs for make-up
experiments and tests. When she gets fired from her law firm for even
suggesting of taking on a case that fights the cruel treatment of animals (“I
think you're confusing the right thing and the law”, she’s told), she decides
to go to Washington in order to pass a bill that prevents such practices. Here
of course, she’s yet again quite a unique and disruptive influence by her very
presence. When she suggests something like the Snap Cup to boost morale, she’s
told “to follow the protocol, it worked for 200 years, okay”?
And that’s the problem, right there.
Protocol has emphatically not worked
for 200 years, since it has gotten us nowhere except to the brink of
annihilation. By insisting on doing everything the ‘Elle Woods way’, she is the
exact “creative potentiality that can awaken and free itself from the limiting
identities and games of the human condition”. She is the fresh voice this world
needs now to awaken our species out of this horrible nightmare of individualism
and people blindly following protocol. Of course she is pitted against a dyed
in the wool woman who scoffs at her alternative vision and insists on doing
things ‘the Washington way’. Following this logic, this woman painstakingly
manages to secure an appointment with a congressman several weeks later. The
Elle Woods way works significantly better though, as she manages to come into
personal contact with the man himself and gets to see him that same day. Now
some people will probably decry all this as highly improbable and unrealistic
but that would be missing the point completely. Because subscribing to the
Washington/realistic way would already be a kind of defeat in itself, as it
would only recognize the tried and true ways without realizing these ways have
failed us in the first place. Our conventional ways of behavior are clearly not
enough to get our planet back on track again and the legal channels take too
much time anyway, time which we simply do not have. So a new perspective is
needed, one that breaks away from our usual channels that would enable us to
bring about the chance of our mindset that’s needed. There’s a lot of people
out there who claim that biological food or ecological ways of living don’t
really help as it is already to late to change the system, but that’s defeatist
in the extreme. Besides it’s not that we really have a choice anyway, because
as Terence McKenna once said ‘go green or die’.
Besides the mere fact it’s an alternate
lens that show a new light on our old ways, the Elle Woods Way has another,
highly welcome, side to it: the fact that she’s able to channel her particular
gifts to serve a larger good – she has a special kind of intelligence, which
comes directly from her peculiar viewpoint. In the first movie, the daughter of
Raquel Welch is unmasked because she claims to have been in the shower even
though she also said she had done her hair just before. Similarly, Sally Fields
in the second part is discovered as a liar because she claims she had a facial
and breaks the “rule of a 24-hour window between a facial and any major social
occasion”. In both instances, Elle is able to detect things that would go
unnoticed my most, because of her insane knowledge of all things that have to
do with make-up. But not only is she able to use her own strengths, she also
exceptionally good at recognizing that which is good in other people. Here she
is of course well-served by her immense sensitivity to all that’s around her,
as she’s constantly praising people about things they themselves were often not
even aware of. For instance one of her girlfriends, who’s carried over from the
first part, is obviously not the sharpest knife in the kitchen block, which
according to conventional thinking would mean she would be useless in the
political machine of Hollywood. But she is very good at doing hair and by
giving away hair treatments for free, she is able to secure some of the
necessary votes for the passing of their bill. Again, this may not be realistic
in any way, but first of all a satire is not supposed to be realistic and
secondly it really doesn’t matter in the end. Because everyone has got to do
his or her part, no matter how small or insignificant it may look as we are all
part of the bigger whole.
What Elle Woods is so adept in then, is
in realizing “our intrinsic unity in the midst of enormous diversity” that
Tucker and Swimme spoke of. She embraces everybody who’s sympathetic to her
cause, no matter what background, sexual orientation, skill or ethnic
background. She’s just as easily at home with her lawyer husband as she is with
her air-headed girlfriends and does in fact manage to forge a marvelous unity
out of all those diverse influences. Early in the movie, she strikes up an
unlikely alliance with the doorman Sid Post, who teaches her some of the finer
intricacies of Washington politics. But far from using him only in a
narcissistic, egocentric manner she openly acknowledges the importance of his
part when she says she really wouldn’t know what she would do without him. This
is really crucial to the movie as a whole, because despite her own ingenuity
and almost unlimited energy, there are several moments in both movies when she
is at the end of her rope in the face of so much hostility. And it is always
other people who help her through these moments, establishing a wonderful
network of interdependency that, combined with her open embracing of diversity,
could serve as a virtual model for any healthy eco-system. That’s why Casey
Broadwater’s remark following remark is so baffling:
“Yes, it has a you can do it if you
set your mind to it moral, but Elle Woods, minus her enthusiasm and
quitters-never-win spirit, makes an absurd role model, one that perpetuates too
many gender clichés to count. If you told me Legally Blond 2 was made by
virulent misogynists bent on making women look ridiculous, I'd almost believe
you”.
What’s absurd about
a role model like Elle Woods is beyond me and how it perpetuates gender clichés
I’d very much like to know. The only way to see Elle as an absurd role model
would be to take her entirely at face value without recognizing any of the
deeper aspects of her character and her direct kinship to the models of nature.
I hope now that describing an obviously plastic fantastic kind of creature like
Elle Woods in terms of nature, may not nearly be as far-fetched as it may
initially seemed. I would indeed argue this is the greatest accomplishment of
both movies as a whole, to be able to make such a conceit not only believable
but even logical. Because when I describe the Elle Woods Way as being quite
identical to the ways of Nature itself, this would automatically also mean that
her way has much in common with the ways of the indigenous people who have been
living in close proximity to nature for millions of years and of which some of
them are still living this way. One of the general arguments of the deep
ecology movement, and one that I also firmly believe in, is what Terence
McKenna called the ‘Archaic Revival’, by which is meant that we should somehow
find a way to model our ways of life just like primal people did and some still
do. But as with the Elle Woods character, quite a lot of people can only
interpret this in the most literal way, and take it to mean we should all give
up everything, leave our houses and live in nature again – obviously such a
thing is not only undesirable, it’s even impossible. But what is very much
possible is to combine the best of both worlds: technology has gotten us into
this mess and it is also capable of getting us out of it again. This will not
be easy of course, but all that is required is the willpower and the mindset to
do it and ‘Legally Blonde’ does point the way. Both movies rather slyly suggest
it is possible to go back to some primal truths, not by going back to nature
but by going through the opposite route of materialism and consumerism instead.
That even by falling prey to the most extreme symptoms of our consumer society,
we can actually gain some kind of special intelligence that will enable us to
see clear enough to make change possible. Elle Woods is all about change, ‘don't
fight the fabric, you change it’ is her motivation to go to Washington. Her
final pep speech is not so thinly disguised call to arms of ecological
awareness:
“I know what you're thinking. Who is
this girl? And what could this simple, small-town girl from Bel Air have to say
to all of us? Well, I'll tell you. It's about something that's bigger than me,
or any single act of legislation. This is about a matter that should be of the
highest importance to every American: my hair.
You see, there's this salon in Beverly
Hills. It's really fancy and beautiful. But it's impossible to get an
appointment. Unless you're Julia Roberts, forget it. but one day they called
me. They had an opening. So I was gonna finally get the chance to sit in one of
those sacred beauty chairs. I was so excited. Then, the colorist gave me Brassy
Brigitte instead of Harlow Honey. The shampoo girl washed my hair with spiral
perm solution intead of color-intensive moisturizing conditioning shampoo.
Finally, the stylist... gave me a bob. With bangs. Suffice it to say, it was
just wrong. All wrong. For me, you know? First I was angry. And then I realized
my anger was completely misdirected. I mean, this wasn't the salon's fault. I
had sat there and witnessed this injustice and I had just let it happen. I
didn't get involved in the process. I forgot to use my voice. I forgot to
believe in myself. But now I know better. I know that one honest voice can be
louder than a crowd. I know that if we lose our voice, or if we let those who
speak on our behalf compromise our voice, well, then this country is in for a
really bad hair-cut”.
It’s one of the supreme ways in which
Elle is able to use her unique gifts for the greater good, as she turns the
problem of her hair into awareness, plain and simple. “She had just let it
happen”. “She didn’t get involved in the process” – could the parallels with
our current destruction of the earth and the apathy of most people to it be any
clearer?
Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde [Blu-ray]
Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde [Blu-ray]
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