Pretty Women is a 1990 American romantic comedy film directed by Garry Marshall, starring Richard Gere and Julia Roberts. The film’s story centers around a prostitute and wealthy businessman falling in love. While Edward Lewis (Richard Gere) is on a business trip in Los Angeles, California, he hires Vivian Ward (Julia Roberts) to be his escort for several business functions he has in the upcoming days, further leading their relationship to flourish over the course of the week.
Throughout the film, there are several examples of how the difference in socioeconomic classes between Edward and Vivian oppose identity and power injustices towards Vivian. The first example in the film of identity injustice is a scene where Edward thinks Vivian is doing drugs in the bathroom because of her recognition of being a prostitute, though, Vivian is just flossing her teeth. This example shows how Edward othered Vivian based on her identity of being a prostitute and the stigma that surrounds her line of work.
Following this scene, the next day, Vivian is told by Edward to go shopping for an outfit for a business function that night. On Vivian’s trip for clothing, she encounters a rude saleswomen and is turned away due to her appearance. Although Vivian had the money to be able to purchase clothing items from this store, the saleswomen othered her as less due to her appearance and used her power against Vivian. This is another example of othering based on Vivian’s socioeconomic class and people using their power against her. An image below shows this encounter in the story.
Later in the movie, Edwards’ attorney Phillip suspects that Vivian is a spy. Edward reveals to Phillip that she is not a spy and is a prostitute. Following this conversation, Phillip is rude to Vivian, doesn’t treat her as an equal, and forces himself onto her for her services without Vivian’s consent. This is an additional example of Vivian being othered by Phillips’ thought of their power indifferences and how he believes he can take advantage of Vivian because of her identity. Although she is a prostitute, this is not who she is as a person. While Vivian is equal to Phillip, the saleswomen, and Edward, she is othered and overpowered because of her identity, the way she dresses, the amount of money she has, and the stereotype that is placed around her job and her socioeconomic class.
In the image below, we can see Vivian dressed as a prostitute and also dressed up to go to an event with Edward. This film does an excellent job of showing Vivian being othered as her character on the left, though treated as an equal while dressed up as her character on the right. This difference in treatment can clearly show the audience the difference of treatment between one character with two different identities, closely showing us the value of identity, othering, and power.
