Instant Caramel

drowsy-salamander asked:

What are your thoughts on Keely in general?

As someone who grew up on Legally Blonde, I’m a big fan of dismantling the idea that blonde, fashion-forward lovers of traditionally feminine things are in any way lesser than everyone else around them. Keeley fits that message to a T. She’s introduced with a joke about how disappointed she is that the boys in the locker room are descent, is established as Jamie’s girlfriend, and exits encouraging everyone to look at her ass. A lot of other shows would have just left her character at that, but not Ted Lasso (a message that's established in Keeley's very next scene when she smiles at Ted covering her picture with the tape).

Over the course of two seasons Keeley demonstrates just how intelligent and multi-faceted she is. I love that originally her work with the club is positioned much like Ted’s presence: a model is presumably no more fit to be a PR consultant than an American football coach is fit to coach soccer. Yet also like Ted, Keeley reveals that she’s got far more to offer than what most would assume by judging her on first impressions alone. The “stupidity” of optimism and kindness vs. the “stupidity” of beauty and sexuality.

During this development, Keeley is never made to feel (nor does the show act) like her time as a model is somehow lesser than the work she’s doing now. At no point is she made to feel ashamed of her former job, or praised for finally getting into the “real” workforce. Her friends tease her a little for the over-the-top filming she did for the nightlife at the hotel (which Keeley encourages by putting on that persona again), but all of that is in good faith. Even her talk to Nate about her mother, which could have easily slipped into some version of, “Mom did ____ all her life, but I wanted to be more” is instead framed as, “Mom worked so hard, but she never found the courage to take that credit for herself.” Keeley takes the credit for both being a badass model and a badass PR consultant. This isn’t the story of a woman finding a “real” career, it’s the story of a woman having two different careers that she’s great at, adopting different skills at different points in her life.