Dear Julia,
Today is the 25th anniversary of the Disney movie Pretty Woman. Tomorrow, you’ll be celebrating on the Today show, along with the other stars who helped make the movie successful. In the photo I saw promoting the event, you were smiling, and no wonder. Pretty Woman catapulted you to stardom, or as one TV announcer said, it made you “America’s sweetheart,” the “spunky hooker with a heart of gold.”
150318-news-pretty-woman
Other stars turned down the role you played, including Daryl Hannah, who said the movie was “degrading to women.” Even so, Pretty Woman is listed as “one of the most popular films of all time,” and you got an Oscar nomination. I can see why you like the movie.
Maybe that’s why you’re smiling. But I’m not. When I see pictures from your movie, I don’t think of romance or comedy. I think of the fact that it was meant to be a drama about the dark side of prostitution, but since that wouldn’t sell, Disney re-packaged it as a comedy instead. I think about the fact that they removed the uglier aspects of your character to make you more appealing. They turned truth upside-down and made it a fairy tale.
You are aware of what the movie was originally meant to be. In fact, you described it as, “A really dark and depressing, horrible, terrible story about two horrible people and my character was this drug addict, a bad-tempered, foulmouthed, ill-humored, poorly educated hooker who had this week-long experience with a foulmouthed, ill-tempered, bad-humored, very wealthy, handsome but horrible man and it was just a grisly, ugly story about these two people.”
But Pretty Woman was re-written to be a princess story, rags-to-riches, where the girl finds herself in a hard place but love brings her out of it. And of course the guy in the story isn’t normally into prostitutes. This is an exception for him, so somehow it’s okay that this love story started out with a guy paying money for sex. He’s not exploitative and she’s not exploited. In fact, the one guy who treats your character like she’s a prostitute is the bad guy. The good guy showers your character with riches and power and respect. What women doesn’t want that?
So maybe you watch the movie and are proud of your good acting, and you are an amazing actress. Maybe you’re even pleased with the story. You say you remember the lines. Do you remember saying, “No woman chooses this?”
You’re wrong. Some women do. Because of you. Because of your movie. They watched Pretty Woman and thought maybe if they left their horrible home situation, where they were already being abused, and became a prostitute, Richard Gere would find them one night. They’d end up in a penthouse with a credit card and a man who respected them. Maybe they would even find true love.
Real quotes by young girls:
“I saw Pretty Woman and I liked the clothes they wear”.
“I saw a great movie and I thought, Wow, what an easy and fun way to make money.”
“I wanted to be treated like a lady.”
No one told them it was just a fairy tale. No one told them it was re-packaged, a diseased story prostituted in a cute little outfit to be more sell-able.
Ironically, these girls end up doing even more acting than you do. “They have to be the best actresses in the world,” one of my abolitionist friends said. “They have to smile, pretend they like this, when they hate it.” She has met many prostitutes, and has heard many stories. One was sold into it by her father. Another just wanted to be loved. Several chose the life willingly, thinking the happily-ever-after love story might happen to them–the story they watched in your movie.
Maybe you just don’t know the truth about what the dark side you’re movie was meant to portray really is. Did you know that there is a huge overlap in prostitution and childhood sexual abuse? One girl said, “At least I get paid for it now.” Did you know that one study found that two out of three men who pay for sex know that the majority of prostitutes are “coerced, tricked, or trafficked”? Did Richard Gere know that when he signed on for his part? Did he care. Do you?
Did you know that over 50% of the times pimps recruit sex trafficking victims, they do so by pretending romantic interest? The pimps and traffickers know how to act, too. If you don’t believe any of this, I highly recommend you watch the documentary “Nefarious.”
Did you know that one study of prostitutes revealed they are beaten on average 12 times per year? That 50% of the prostitutes worldwide have contracted the AIDS virus? That the murder rate for prostitutes is over 20 times the national average? That the average age for a girl to enter prostitution is 14?
Here’s just a small glimpse into the reality:
In a Farley & Barkan study of 130 prostitutes in San Francisco, 68% of the women met criteria for diagnosis of posttraumatic stress disorder.
In a health study on 73 women in prostitution in twin cities, Minnesota, 46% of the women attempted suicide, and 19% of the women tried to physically harm themselves.
You might want to read this article. Yes, it mentions you. http://wgbhnews.org/post/pretty-woman-vs-real-world-prostitution
Here’s another one that mentions your movie compared to real life. You might not want to read this–it’s pretty graphic. http://www.vancouversun.com/Daphne+Bramham+Teen+prostitute+life+Pretty+W...
Miss Roberts, you were just making a movie, but you need to understand that your movie sent a message and is still sending a message twenty-five years later. You made a lot of money prostituting yourself in that movie, but you didn’t have to degrade yourself by actually performing the acts your followers do. You got success and stardom by your short experience pretending to offer yourself for money. They get used and abused in ways you probably don’t want to know about.
I’m a sucker for a good love story, but I hate your movie. I wish people would stop watching it and stop believing its lie. I’d like to send them to Annie Lobert’s story instead, the prostitute who found hope in God, and now shares hope and freedom with other women in prostitution (www.hookersforjesus.net). She’s as spunky and unconventional as your character was, but her purpose is to get women out of the life, not inspire them into it.
If you ever do actually read this letter, I’d like to say I recognize you probably had no intention of leading girls to make the choice of prostitution. You were just making a movie, trying to get ahead, playing a part. But now that you know, would you please do something about it?
Thanks for your time.
Sincerely,
Kimberly Rae
