When “Legally Blonde” first came out, I was ready to write off Elle Woods for similar reasons many first- and second-wave feminists dismissed Marilyn Monroe. Gloria Steinem spoke at length about her early presumptions about Monroe in a 2006 interview, admitting that one of the few films in her life that made her walk out of the theater was “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.”
“I was embarrassed by her because she was a joke,” Steinem told Gail Levin, who directed a documentary about the screen icon for “American Masters.” “She was vulnerable. She was so eager for approval. She was all the things that I feared most, being a teenage girl.” Only much later in life did Steinem, who wrote a biography about Monroe, realize her initial disdain wasn’t the actress’ fault. Monroe was simply playing the part assigned to her by a patriarchal society, capitalizing on a male-approved artificial creation that made her a star.
