In Miss Congeniality, Gracie is shown to have unhealthy eating habits unlike the other women in the pageant. This is shown in the scene where Gracie brings a large cheese pizza and beers to the fellow pageant contestants. The other women are shocled by this and say ‘are you crazy?’ and ‘do you know how many calories you’re talking about?’ as they about what the pizza would do to their ideal bodies. Gracie resists her womanhood, but the fact that she had the essential female body is what got her the undercover part, yet she lacks all of the additional characteristics of femininity. The name Gracie is ironic due to her absence of ‘stereotypical feminine qualities’, and the opposite of graceful (Sherman, 2011, p. 85), unlike Elle, a name that
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Acknowledging the contradictions between Legally Blonde’s fixation with an attractive appearance and feminism, according to Dole (2007, p. 63), feminist commentators do not agree that Elle would be a suitable role model. O’Leary states that the film, ‘becomes a subversive tool for motivating young feminists’. Columnist, Ellen Goodman, argues for many second-wavers, if a difference can be seen between the ‘new Hollywood message that women can be dolled up and successful’ and the earlier message that you’re only successful ‘if you’re a doll’ (cited in Dole, 2007, p. 63). While Legally Blonde and Miss Congeniality maintain sisterhood values and liberation. Gracie’s feminism is shown to be actively destructive, instead of being useful for women, possibly crueller than patriarchy. There are two competing ideals in the film; sisterhood and neoliberal femininity. Neoliberal femininity may seem to be slightly feminist, but it is truly an antifeminist ideal that is built on ‘disregarding structural inequality and embracing competition as the solution to all problems’. The film promises an impossible solution; that one can have neoliberal femininity and sisterhood at the same time, which provides a ‘fantasy solution to one of the deepest contradictions of society. Miss Congeniality wants to have its cake, eat it, and stay slim too’ (Sherman, 2011, p.
Acknowledging the contradictions between Legally Blonde’s fixation with an attractive appearance and feminism, according to Dole (2007, p. 63), feminist commentators do not agree that Elle would be a suitable role model. O’Leary states that the film, ‘becomes a subversive tool for motivating young feminists’. Columnist, Ellen Goodman, argues for many second-wavers, if a difference can be seen between the ‘new Hollywood message that women can be dolled up and successful’ and the earlier message that you’re only successful ‘if you’re a doll’ (cited in Dole, 2007, p. 63). While Legally Blonde and Miss Congeniality maintain sisterhood values and liberation. Gracie’s feminism is shown to be actively destructive, instead of being useful for women, possibly crueller than patriarchy. There are two competing ideals in the film; sisterhood and neoliberal femininity. Neoliberal femininity may seem to be slightly feminist, but it is truly an antifeminist ideal that is built on ‘disregarding structural inequality and embracing competition as the solution to all problems’. The film promises an impossible solution; that one can have neoliberal femininity and sisterhood at the same time, which provides a ‘fantasy solution to one of the deepest contradictions of society. Miss Congeniality wants to have its cake, eat it, and stay slim too’ (Sherman, 2011, p.