From Legally Blonde to the likes of Clueless and 10 Things I Hate About You, the film industry has always had a specific stereo type in the way that it depicts our iconic “Chick Flicks”. However, despite modern society calling for the reformation of our leading ladies’ image– strong and empowered, the way that the industry publicises this genre with its’ particular typography, has ceased to alter and reflect this.

In the words of Elle Woods herself;

'’whoever said orange was the new pink is seriously disturbed”.

Your average “chick flick” is quite often identified by the stereotypically pink, girly colour of the titles, while the text itself is in bold capitals with spaces between the lettering. These titles are always loud and garish and make a clear statement about the nature of the films; whimsical to say the least.

When choosing a film to watch, it is not uncommon to judge the theme, pace and integrity from the cover poster that is presented to us. Considering the sheer volume of films that are made easily accessible to us by platforms such as Netflix, it is far easier to differentiate between content that advertises itself just so. Titles such as Clueless, Mean Girls and Legally Blonde all share these definitive features such as colour, size and formation to embody the ‘Rom-com’ genre and adhere to the idea of an easy watch.

I am focussing particularly upon Legally Blonde, which tells the story of a blonde bombshell who turns her life around after being ‘dumped’ by a guy who did not believe she had anything more to her than her collection of shoes. Instead of feeling defeated, Elle follows him to Harvard Law school, much to everyones surprise and disbelief. The lettering for the poster complies with the Rom-com/ chick flick nature of the film, with its extremely vibrant pink lettering with golden outlining and bold font; initially portraying the flighty and effeminate ways of Elle Woods.

Contrary to the way that this film is marketed, i do believe that the choices of typography demonstrate the high levels of female oppression that are seen in this industry; especially in 2001 when the film was made. By choosing the girly colour scheme and wide set font, it does not depict Elle as the intelligent, misunderstood woman that she later becomes. Instead she is seen merely as the naive, somewhat oblivious girl that could never be pictured in a court of law, according to producers. It also demonstrates the way that the marketing team wanted you to believe that a woman Such as Elle could never be both interested in her appearance or have an overzealous preference for pink, while also being the highest achieving student at Harvard Law School. Henceforth, when she does inevitably prove that she has brains as well as beauty, the audience is shocked.

Today, Reese Witherspoon who plays Elle Woods is an advocate for both women and leading ladies who have these kinds of roles, following the founding of her production company; Hello Sunshine. The company is designed to create more neutral and empowered roles for women which do not conform to the ‘dumb blonde’ stereotype which Reese had to play in one of her most poignant roles- Elle Woods.