12 Classic Movies That Got Away With Problematic Scenes

The way Legally Blonde treats its gay characters is just vulgar.

Yes, the movie does have a large gay following, but given that when the film was released in 2004, gay representation consisted of stereotypes or nothing, it’s fair to say it likely wouldn’t be as popular if it dropped today.

Elle Wood’s big victory hinges on outing a gay couple, which in itself is ethically dubious, but the manner in which she ‘cracks the code’ is just insulting. Enrique, a flamboyant man literally wearing glitter and speaking with an effeminate affectation, tells Elle ‘don’t tap your last season Prada shoes at me, honey’.

And just like that, she realises he’s gay, which solves the convoluted courtroom mystery. ‘Gay men know designers’, Elle tells the legal team smugly, ‘Straight men don’t’.

The likes of Prince, David Emanuel, Tommy Hilfiger and Ralph Lauren obviously don’t fit into Elle’s neat little system, but apparently that doesn’t matter.

However, if the film is just going for the full on stereotype, it way overplays its hand when it comes to making Elle a legal genius. Enrique is every gay joke you can think of rolled into one; in their world of binary logic, how did only Elle figure it out?