Pretty Woman sales staff were rude, but were they really wrong?

[Weretheywrong]

Yes, I know. We are meant to cheer for Vivien as she triumphantly returns to have her moment of revenge, all beautiful and with her shopping bags full of thousands of dollars worth of clothes. She was such a likeable character that we did cheer.

But really, the chances of a sex worker coming into your high class boutique having a black credit card that wasn’t stolen would be next to zero. The staff worked on commission probably had kids to feed and mortgages to pay so clearing out the sex worker who would deter customers and would be almost certain to not be able to pay for anything seemed eminently sensible. They were wrong, but how on earth would they have known that?

This movie is problematic in many ways but in this instance, my sympathies lie with the saleswomen.

Let’s not forget Kit offering a blow job to the elderly gentleman in front of his wife at the hotel reception. What on earth did they do to deserve that crudeness. I would be furious if someone spoke to my grandparents like that. But again, it is apparently another stand up and cheer moment.

And Edward is just vile when he gave her the eye to give him his paid for blow job when she was happily watching tv.

Round here ( South Coast) they do. I see a woman often around the station I think getting the train back from London but she is very obviously dressed for work.

Ah I missed that bit! Maybe I'll watch the film again, will be interesting to see just how cringy I find it after so long!

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5534280-to-think-that-scarletts-first-2-children-are-one-of-the-most-overlooked-bits-of-gone-with-the-wind

It was of its time.

I actually had the exact same experience in the late 80's. I grew up on a farm and we had taken some lambs to the mart in the local market town. My Dad dropped us off at the local high street on the way in. My Mum and I went into some sort of posh woollen shop and I remember her looking at jumpers. I can recall one of the staff members coming over and saying 'there is nothing suitable for you in here.' My poor Mum was so embarrassed.

Looking back, maybe we smelled like sheep (which is ironic considering the shop we were in!!).

That scene creeps me out.
There is something very childlike and vulnerable about her as she enjoys watching the tv show and that’s when he chooses to pounce.
I hadn’t seen it for years then it was on one night and I was appalled.
IRL Julia Roberts was just 21 when they filmed PW. Richard Gere was 40.
His character was horrible and he didn’t redeem himself spectacularly. The weird thing is the ending is supposed to be romantic but it’s actually a bit half arsed and underwhelming as these things go.
She would have been better off if he’d grown a conscience and funded her getting an excellent education.
I sort of think she should have ended up with the older guy’s grandson David, while Edward’s happy ending is he learns his lesson and stops being such a sleazy letch and all round bastard.

The Adam Sandler story isn’t true.

He did try to sexually assault her after she had told him no

Yes, but the grit was rewritten as a romantic comedy which does an awful lot of work in making prostitution seem like a harmless temporary phase and softening the cynicism of the setup.

Yes, at the beginning we have what is presumably a leftover from the original script where a prostitute's body is found (and the detective is the first screen role of Hank 'Voice of the Simpsons' Azaria!), but the second Vivien gets into that nasty little car, we're off to rom com land where a notoriously heartless corporate raider romances a streetwalker he's hired for the night, and because he gives her champagne and strawberries and lets her watch TV before he has sex with her, the fact that he then hires her for a week seems like a harmless eccentricity rather than the deeply cynical act of a man so emotionally dead that it's easier for him to hire a pretend girlfriend off the street than actually have a relationship where he's not paying.

Look at the flossing scene, which is presented as cute, and evidence Vivien is really a terribly nice girl who just took a temporarily wrong path. I mean, she's flossing because she just gave Edward a blowjob. Because she doesn't want pubes in her teeth. But it's presented as cute that she's not doing drugs, she's fussy about her dental hygiene, like nice American girls.

He did offer to put her up in an apartment but Vivien turned it down because " I want the fairy tale ".

I think I was confused as she tells her flatmate she is going to finish high school , so I thought she had moved there for Uni originally ( my bad there )
I suppose he just throws money at her at the end and she lives in luxury forever! I’d love a follow up where it goes wrong , but I doubt anyone would have wanted that sequel where they don’t live happily ever after!

I used to live near a few areas where prostitutes operated.
I used to regularly see a girl walking around in thigh high boots, boob tube top etc. She talked very loudly about what she was doing.
She was about fourteen or fifteen at most. She always had two boys with her about the same age for “protection”.
She would regularly have black eyes or bruises or a bust lip.
That is the reality.

What did he mean by put her up in an apartment?

Not true , the lady who eventually helps Vivian find a nice outfit for her first proper date with Edward was lovely to Vivian (I’ve seen this film too many times 🤦🏻‍♀️)

Yep, this is the sanitized version of prostitution isn’t it. The remake of Cinderella. He isn’t all bad, she lives by her wits and never beaten up, looks gorgeous. I suppose it wouldn’t be made nowadays.
The soundtrack is good though.

He offered to pay her rent on an apartment and visit her when he was In towm

"visit", he offered exclusivity as her only client. So romantic.

I was thinking recently how things in films become iconic moments but most don’t translate into real life.
That whole film is disturbing but it is so watchable
Him hiring her in the first place is gross
I was happy in Jack and Sarah where he finds happiness with the nanny and it’s all feel good but the age gap is disgusting.
So many examples are just not realistic

I saw it when it came out, at about 17. I was a bit underwhelmed and eye rolly even then.

I’ve watched it, just gone with the flow and enjoyed it without looking too deep. I have recently been re-reading H E Bates, the Darling Buds of May series of books and judging by today’s standards, they are terrible, sexist, racist, joke about underage sex and sexual assault. But at the same time they are beloved books which I personally enjoy reading.

Yes to your alternate ending theory!! I’ve always thought that too, but anytime I mention it (this sounds like all I do is talk about pretty woman in depth 😂) people look at me like I’m mad, because yknow Richard Gere.
Whoever said upthread about shop assistants in high end stores being snooty to the ‘outsiders’ is a win win for them, what a good point.

eta i adore pretty woman and have watched it many times (altho I wasn’t even born when it came out) but I’d not opt to show it to my daughter, and it’s best not to think about it too hard, I think, as it is very problematic

I think that's a valid point. If you're wanting to "protect" the brand, you don't really want someone who's an obvious prostitute to be "advertising" it by either being in the shop or wearing it around town.

I don't think you a salesperson should be rude to anyone, but if you're mostly paid on commission and you had the choice of a well dressed customer or a scruffy customer and they're taking up your time it makes sense to them to give more attention to the well dressed one.

It's often said that the sequel to Pretty Woman was Sleeping With The Enemy, starring Julia Roberts.

I've never watched Pretty Woman

Well at that point, she was living the dream, wasn't she? She wasn't introduced to him as prostitute, and she didn't know that he knew until he told her. She was at a lovely event, wearing lovely clothing, with lovely people, and she thought she was being seen as a lovely woman. He brought her back to the reality that she was just a commodity.

I am presuming that most of the posters trying to make out this sales assistant was right I am presuming have never been served in a retail establishment because of how they look or what clothes they have on.
Or been guided out of somewhere because of some mistaken belief they had no money

It is definitely humiliating.

The weird thing is the ending is supposed to be romantic but it’s actually a bit half arsed and underwhelming as these things go.

It was half arsed, because it wasn't the ending written. It was tacked on at the last minute because people hated the original ending in the pre-screenings. Edward was just supposed to leave, and she went back to the streets.

I've never seen anything that goes into detail about the original but I suspect it either ended at the 'take care of you' point where she says goodby to Kit and leaves to an unknown future with the intention of finishing high school; or she was in the position that in the final cut was given to Kit - still on the streets but with enough money and renewed hope to try to get out.