EP 97: Legally Blond | The Smoking Gun is a Perm Technique

Good Morning!!!!

This week we discuss Legally Blond and the rise of Elle Woods. In it, she discovers that you can be both pretty AND smart as hell. We also learn that perm solution is called Ammonium thioglycolate and it's silly to use shoes to walk in. 

Feminist Mic Drop.

Enjoy!!!!!

Love you!!!! Bye!!!!!

Transcript

Bridget: 0:04

Foreign.

Wendy: 0:09

Good morning.

Bridget: 0:10

I'm Bridget.

Wendy: 0:11

And I'm Wendy.

Bridget: 0:12

And this is Flickin Beans. Tell me about this weird a** coffee.

Wendy: 0:18

It's called matzagran.

Bridget: 0:20

Did you say snail mucin?

Wendy: 0:22

Yes. It's made with lemons and snails. It is. It's one of the first cold coffee. But it's lemon juice and lots of sugar and cold brew coffee.

Bridget: 0:31

It tastes like lemonade with a little coffee in it.

Wendy: 0:36

Yeah.

Bridget: 0:37

Weird coffee, but kind of fitting because we're gonna talk about Legally Blonde.

Wendy: 0:43

Yeah.

Bridget: 0:43

This lemon reminds me of her pretty hair.

Wendy: 0:47

I think I got overconfident by the female power in this movie.

Bridget: 0:50

All right, so everybody knows this movie. Elle is this pretty sorority girl. She's to hopefully get proposed to by stupid Warner. When he says I need a Jackie, not a Marilyn, I was like, does he think he's f****** jfk?

Wendy: 1:12

Yes.

Bridget: 1:12

That was ridiculous. So he's dumping her in the restaurant. That's one of my favorite part. Because I think we've talked about that before. I would love to cause a scene. I think you said.

Wendy: 1:26

Men are really uncomfortable by a woman showing their emotions.

Bridget: 1:29

That's why they take them to a public place.

Wendy: 1:31

Exactly. That's why he did that. And so that she would maybe not freak out.

Bridget: 1:35

And when he says get in, Al, you're gonna ruin your shoes. Yeah. By using them as shoes.

Wendy: 1:43

Right.

Bridget: 1:44

So that's the only part of the movie where I feel like she kind of lost her confidence. And the rest of the Movie she is 100% powerful.

Wendy: 1:54

She has a rough start at law school. I would say she doesn't feel like she fits in there at first.

Bridget: 1:58

And she doesn't. They f****** cat call her. She looks like Barbie driving up in a Barbie car with a Barbie dog. She rises to the occasion with tremendous help from her sorority system. At first they were like, what are you doing with books? And it's the girl's taking her to the nail salon to try to make her feel better that she comes to that epiphany. I need to go to law school to get Warner back.

Wendy: 2:30

That's her original motivation.

Bridget: 2:31

Right? To show him I can be in law school too. She meets Paulette and spills it, crying. And Paulette's like, if a girl like you can't keep a man, what help is there for the rest of us when she helps Paulette? That is so iconic.

Wendy: 2:52

I'm taking the dog, dumbass.

Bridget: 2:54

Yeah. Feminist mic drop. Oh. Elle is different from everybody else at Harvard. Her smoking jacket though.

Wendy: 3:04

On the first date. Well, I look the part I think.

Bridget: 3:08

She thought that she could just skate through. I wasn't aware we had an assignment. I have a fluffy pen and a heart shaped spiral. I don't think she realized even what law school is. But after that party where she tells Vivian, at least when I dress up as a frigid b****, I try not to look so constipated. That moment where she's been tricked is her turning point. It really shows the year because she buys that pink imac.

Wendy: 3:43

Yeah, I wanted one.

Bridget: 3:46

Totally. I know. You wanted that fluffy phone.

Wendy: 3:49

I want everything that Elle woods has.

Bridget: 3:51

Oh, yeah.

Wendy: 3:52

I even watched a show one time about closet organizing. Just because it was Wreath's Witherspoon. And she wanted to redo her closet so she could display her Legally Blonde stuff along with some of her other movies.

Bridget: 4:05

I think I saw that.

Wendy: 4:06

Yeah. She wanted to keep.

Bridget: 4:07

She kept all of El's outfits. If there's any wardrobe besides maybe clueless that you would want to keep everything you are. What did we watch with Shannen Doherty where she put it in her contract to keep all the stuff?

Wendy: 4:24

That was Mallrat. Right.

Bridget: 4:26

That's so funny because that's all she did was change clothes.

Wendy: 4:29

Yeah.

Bridget: 4:30

It totally says that you can be pretty and smart.

Wendy: 4:34

Yes.

Bridget: 4:35

Which Barbie did too. It resonates. And the other thing about Elle is she did not change who she was.

Wendy: 4:45

Right.

Bridget: 4:46

She's still Elle. She's still sassy, and she's 100% not dumb.

Wendy: 4:52

Yeah, she's very smart. The most iconic line I think in this is when Warner asks her, you got into Harvard Law School? And she goes, what? Like it's hard. Every woman has wanted to say something like that to a man. Love it. Because it is so still her.

Bridget: 5:08

Yeah.

Wendy: 5:08

But it's cutting.

Bridget: 5:09

It should totally be on T shirts.

Wendy: 5:11

Yes.

Bridget: 5:12

And it also tells how. How Harvard itself and the students there, or I mean any quote, serious academic, they kind of put her on the outside like she doesn't belong. Same just because she's pretty or blonde.

Wendy: 5:31

We're told that we have to be serious to be smart, that we have to dress a certain way, that we have to behave a certain way. And wearing pink has nothing to do with. It has nothing to do with how smart you are. We've just equated weird things with intelligence.

Bridget: 5:44

Look at standup comics these days versus, you know, a few decades ago. Today's comedians are smart and funny and their wit is biting. And it's not just complaining about your husband. It's come a long way. It does feel like you can be pretty, funny and very smart. The meat of the movie is that she gets selected to help represent the defense of one of our favorite fitness class instructors who was an alum from that same sorority.

Wendy: 6:26

Napanu Dapanu. What is it? Dapanu. Delta Delta New.

Bridget: 6:35

And the thing about that sisterhood is they have a whole phone tree years and years and years back. That's amazing. We've talked about sisterhood before, but that's crazy cakes.

Wendy: 6:46

Yeah. I think sororities get a bad rap. And rightly so. They really do support each other, even though they don't really understand why she wants to go to law school.

Bridget: 6:54

In the courtroom, she's nervous at first. Something triggers that whole thing. What'd you do earlier in the day? Chutney. So her literally being pretty is what kills it in the end?

Wendy: 7:12

Or being aware of beauty secrets.

Bridget: 7:15

Perm technology. Ammonium thyglocylate, the smoking gun is a perm technique.

Wendy: 7:28

She also is good at putting information together. She figures out that the pool guy is gay because they're standing at the water fountain and he says something about her shoes.

Bridget: 7:37

Right.

Wendy: 7:37

Reminded me of Serial Mom.

Bridget: 7:39

Yeah.

Wendy: 7:39

If this was a different movie, she would have killed him. He knew that they were Prada shoes. That's not something most straight guys would know.

Bridget: 7:48

No straight guys would know.

Wendy: 7:50

No.

Bridget: 7:50

When she realizes that she's one and she turns around and she's, like, incredulous. And Emmett, he had faith in her from the start. When he smelled her resume and said, smells good, I don't think it was about the scent. I think he saw her potential.

Wendy: 8:10

Yeah.

Bridget: 8:11

Because she went above and beyond immediate.

Wendy: 8:14

Sees her potential and likes her for her. The movie's not about their love story. She could have done everything without him.

Bridget: 8:19

When she graduates. So they tell you what happens to them, and they show Emmett, and they say they've been dating for two years. He's gonna propose to her tonight. But then you turn around and you see Elle, and she's unaware of that. No longer is the ring or the man or the wedding important to her. Because she literally succeeded on her own, beaming with self, pride, love, happiness, accomplishment. How good is that?

Wendy: 8:54

So good.

Bridget: 8:55

Yeah.

Wendy: 8:56

What's your opinion? Because I've heard this presented before as a question. She's graduating today. She just did something that's really hard. And now you're like, well, I'm gonna steal. I understand why the guys pick that. This day's already special. What's another thing will make it even more special? Don't make it about you. When it's.

Bridget: 9:13

Maybe that's a guy that just doesn't know how to plan something. Put some thought into it. Make it a special night. F****** hire a string quartet. I'm kidding. But it should be a surprise. And don't f****** have friends and family.

Wendy: 9:34

There to film it or do it live on streaming. No, it's kind of. That was perfect for me.

Bridget: 9:39

I saw a guy who planned on proposing to a girl at the edge of the water in a beautiful lake. And he wanted his friend to hide in the woods.

Wendy: 9:48

Okay.

Bridget: 9:48

And photograph them and film them. And I'm like, if I glanced and saw some guy in the woods, I know I'd be like, what the f***? And hope that that gets on the tape. Anyway. Did we do it?

Wendy: 10:07

I think we did it. We flick some beads. Okay. Love you.

Bridget: 10:12

Bye bye. Party all night long.