The DARK Origin of Legally Blonde

“You do the math. Amanda can’t.” is maybe my favorite line in a news article ever 😂

I hate this book for, “a trade of moisture” alone.

off topic, but you are such a light, rachel! i hope you’re doing well and being safe 🌸✨

Thank you so much for this video because I too love reading books that inspired some of my favourite movies (and vise-versa), and Legally Blonde being one of them (and having watched it for the first time only a couple months ago), I've been looking forward to read its book. Even in the early 2000s American pop-culture context, its plot is so regressive and the progression of the story sounded poorly thought out. I can confidently say that the Elle Woods in the book would loathe the Elle Woods in the movie. It was very hard for me to imagine Reese Witherspoon as Elle being an absolute pick-me and a hater when you were reading this book.

Thanks for this video. I loved the film and I was thinking about reading the book, now I’m not wasting my time with it🤣. English is not my main language but it’s really easy to hear you and I listen to your videos as podcasts while cleaning or doing tasks and also helps me improving my English. I really love your content 🖤

So i guess in this the movie is way better than the book. Book sounds awful. Im really happy the movie people changed it...a lot

I had no idea this was a book and honestly, glad I found out through this video. Obviously not worth the time to read 😂

please dont downplay shitty behaviour as internalized mysoginy, some people are just horible all around
im saying this as a child of an abusive mother - some people are just shitty and attack people of their own gender primarily because they think they know how to push them down best
my older sister suffered way worse, not because my mother hates women, rather because my mother thought she knew exactly how to bully other woman/girls into submission
sure there are women with internalized mysoginy but judging from how the author acts around both men and women, she is just a shity person all around and just focuses on attacking other women because they seem like easier targets
EDIT: also as an AFAB nonbinary person, i feel like the whole girls supporting girls/sisterhood thingy is a terf dogwhistle. please please just let women be friends without all this creepy sisterhood stuff! it feels so gnc/nb/transphobic to emphasize this weird womanly bond and I'd hate to find out that one of my fav yters is like that :<

Wait, wasn't Jesus Is the Weight Gwen Shamblin's program? 😯

I would love to see a video essay on "I need to marry a Jackie, not Marilyn".

I know you're not feeling great and that things are hard, but this was really awesome, so please don't apologize!

I found the video very cohesive and well put together. I always appreciate your videos! I never read the book and certainly hadn't expected it to be that bad.

I really enjoyed this video is, I think it's a great comparison and really shows how important perspective is in storytelling.
I hope things get less hectic for you soon, take care of yourself 💜.

i absolutely love the movie legally blonde, some things may have aged a bit poorly, but overall the movie is fantastic and i am so happy they turned this nightmare of a book into a portrayal of actual female empowerment. Definitely one of the rare instances where the movie is better than the book.

If you need a pallet cleanser I recommend reading “a jury of her peers” by Susan Glaspell. It’s a story about misogynist men having trouble finding the motive for a woman to kill her husband meanwhile the men’s “stupid” wives manage to piece together the motive and method for the crime. It’s a short story but it’s an interesting read.

This is a great video. I've never read the book or watched the film. I learned a lot. Thank you!

It's wild to me that the movie was able to use a real life dog in a more interesting, creative, and dynamic way to make him a real character, where the book just used him as an accessory.

The negative self-talk in this video was concerning. You called yourself an idiot twice in the first hour, when we know you're not an idiot and you know you're not an idiot. I hope you're doing okay!

The film would have bombed if they had made Elle like book Elle.

I think one of the 1st times that I heard about Legally blonde was in an English as 2nd language class in uni. We were having a presentation of a film of our choice for our speaking skill grade and a girl presented this film. However, the professor, a film bro, completely dismissed the movie because it was about a feminine blonde woman and because he couldn't relate with the message. I think the girl didn't get a very high grade and the film choice probably had an influence on it. I hated that professor

I have never seen any iteration of this movie but I hope I can keep up as I do want to watch this

If you’ve never watched legal eagle’s video on legally blond I highly recommend it. I always liked legally blond but it twas Intresting hearing an actual lawyer talk about it fairly positively. 😊

Don’t know he’s ever read the book. 😂

Orange really compliments your skin tone <3

The nail tech accent was clearly being used as a racist caricature of an Asian nail tech

Legally Blonde is my favorite movie. I love how it challenges the idea of beauty being shallowness. We don’t have to pick a strength or act like men to be successful and valid

Please stop calling yourself stupid for forgetting small details like somebody's name. It's not stupid it's just human everyone does it. (No hate it just made me kinda sad to hear)

and now i'm rewatching legally blonde hahahahhah

The stage musical is one of my all time favourite movie to musical adaptations if not one of my all time favourites and I fully recommend it

I feel this about How to Train You Dragon and Howl's moving castle. Although the books and the movies were Great. There are a lot of differences (Httyd more than Hmc) but I love all of them! :3

I never got a notification about this!

I love Elle Woods but not this fake book Elle. This is slander

That moment where Elle turns in her bunny outfit and Watch Me Shine by Joanna Pacitti starts playing and it transitions into a studying montage is honestly the main thing that gets me through my IT degree and pretty much anything that is difficult for me and where I need to put a lot of work in.

Sounds like they turned amanda into warner…

Ohhhh this is so interesting. I didn't know at all that there was a book for Legally Blonde, so when I first saw the title of your video I though it would be about the movie (and the title scared me, because this movie makes me so happy), but this is a big surprise! Very, very interesting

The ‘scratching nose, instead of snorting cocaine’ feels like a retcon of her own drug use, there is no other explanation for that segment otherwise

Angela said "Larvard Haw." I love it!!!❤❤❤

I dyed my hair red cause of you- you’re just the coolest

Wow thank you! Not just for fabulous, tireless and pin-sharp analysis, but for saving me from buying this damn book and adding to the list that also includes Auntie Mame (Rosalind Russell's human, generous and big hearted character is in no way comparable to the downright narcissist in the book) and maybe controversially, Holly Golightly, who has zero charm compared to Audrey Hepburn's beautifully realised creation. (Book Yunioshi is a lot better though)

Great video, sounds like I need to watch this film.

I haven’t seen the movie but I LOVE how in the dress shopping scene in the musical Elle didn’t just avoid getting scammed - she baited the clerk into outing her own bullshit AND referenced the EXACT magazine issue (last May’s Vogue) that supports her claim. Elle isn’t just an expert in her field, she has excellent memory for details she can use as proof. What an amazing scene to show she has what it takes to be a lawyer.

This gave me the itch to watch the movie and musical

I didn't know there was a book. It's such a garbage fire.

Love this video! Furthermore on the point about Bruiser is that he even has a few key moments in the musical. I especially love his entrance in OMIGOD when they go:
Bruiser, where is Elle?
bark
She doesn't have an engagement outfit?
bark
She's totally freaking out?
bark
She's trapped in the old valley mill?!
bark bark
Oh, whoops, sorry, THE OLD VALLEY MALL

Like of course the Delta Nu ladies are equally obsessed with the only man in the house they can all agree on - Bruiser.

I didn't know there was a book, and now I'm glad lol. I recently read The Devil Wears Prada and.... Wooooof ... That was a ride haha. Nothing like the movie at all.

Rachel: "...this didn't need to be in here."
Me: ...the book didn't need to be here, and yet here we are."

The book and film are like night and day. One of those rare instances where the movie is actually better.