Pretty Woman, which celebrated its 25th anniversary , cemented Julia Roberts’ fame, and her portrayal of the sex worker Vivian Ward has formed part of the great, unconscious archetype of sex workers in our society.
She is the so called ‘hooker with a heart of gold.’
But the film, for all its dramatic tension and its romance, gets nearly everything wrong about sex work – everything about who sex workers are, what we do, and what our work means.
Vivian is far from the typical sex worker.
We are not all young, thin, white, and glamorous, and street-based sex workers face particular and immense danger, particularly from the police.
For a real Vivian, getting into a car with someone like Richard Gere's Edward would be fraught with risk.
A real Vivian might face an undercover officer, or a violent and controlling client.
If she were assaulted, she could not seek recourse with police, who would rather jail her than help her.
We all have limits and needs.
The narrative arc of the film hinges on the transformation of Vivian from fallen woman to lady in clothes, behavior and social status – and this is portrayed as a fairy tale, a desirable romantic dream.
Her status as a sex worker only bears stigma because the film writes it that way, conforming to the social norm that a sex worker is low, and never a lady.
In the real world, Edward’s controlling and stalkerish behavior would not be romantic – it would be terrifying, especially to a sex worker.
This sort of story is a very old one, from the Book Of Esther to My Fair Lady to Fifty Shades Of Grey, and it’s a dangerous one.
It is time to put it to bed.
Let’s hear the stories of sex workers raising themselves up, building their businesses, families and lives.
I fear, though, that as long as sex work remains criminalized, those stories will remain largely untold in mainstream cinema.
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