‘Pretty Woman’ hides the ugly reality of prostitution

Actors may have the excuse of artistic licence, but a news programme should not be glamorising a crime that destroys the lives of girls and women around the world, writes Nina Burleigh

IT IS 25 years since an iconic movie which centred on the the fantasy of a prostitute street-walking her way into a millionaire’s heart hit cinema screens all over the world.

To celebrate the anniversary of Pretty Woman, NBC’s Today show hosted a reunion this week.

More of @MLauer's interview with the 'Pretty Woman' cast, tomorrow on TODAY! #PrettyWomanTODAY pic.twitter.com/7zr4fBlzWw

— TODAY (@TODAYshow) March 24, 2015

Such was the film’s impact that it may even have contributed to the mainstreaming of “prostitution style”: Miniskirts with over-the-knee boots and the bikini wax and thong phases of the 1990s and early 2000s.

Interestingly, those trends coincided with the arrival of the first comprehensive federal human trafficking law. US Congress passed the Trafficking Victims Protection Act in 2000, partly in response to the flood of trafficked women arriving from former Soviet Union countries and Eastern Europe.

This celebration of Pretty Woman comes at a particularly fraught political moment, as a major piece of legislation directed at beefing up the fight against domestic sex trafficking (the Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act) is stalled in Washington due to a disagreement over the idea of providing funding for abortions for trafficking victims.

Also on TODAY...A reunion 25 years in the making. #PrettyWomanTODAYhttps://t.co/JvVnsGFtxV

— TODAY (@TODAYshow) March 24, 2015

Human trafficking is usually one of those rare issues that bridge the political divide, especially when presented as harmful to children. But when it comes to adults —women make up the vast majority of sex-trafficking victims — prostitution is still often regarded as a possible career choice, as something that women might want to do, and might even enjoy.

Pretty Woman, of course, bolsters that perception, and that’s why activists have long criticised the film.

“I am appalled that this would be celebrated now,” says Judy Kluger, a former New York judge and executive director of Sanctuary for Families, a group that provides assistance to trafficked women. “Actors are actors, but that a legitimate news organisation would glorify this is very disappointing. Maybe 25 years ago you could make the excuse that people didn’t understand the corrosive effect of trafficking on the victim and on society, but we know so much now.”

A publicist for Today did not respond to a request for comment.

Journalist Victor Malarek, author of The Johns: Sex for Sale and the Men Who Buy It, spent several years studying sex tourism brothels in Asia and global sex trafficking before infiltrating North America’s online “john” community.

Speaking to Frontline a few years ago, Malarek said, “You can never convince me that a million women and girls, mostly teenage girls, make a conscious career decision and say: ‘Oh, this is great career choice, because I saw that stupid movie Pretty Woman and I want to meet a guy like Richard Gere, so I’m going to go out there and I’m going to service 10, 15, 20, 30 doughy, middle-aged, greasy, hairy white men every night, only to have the privilege of turning that money over to my pimp.’ ”

'Pretty Woman' and the Ugly Truth About Prostitution undefined

— Julie Bindel (@bindelj) March 23, 2015

In the years since Pretty Woman, anti-trafficking activists, women’s rights groups, and self-described abolitionists have tried — with moderate success — to change the language and the policing of trafficking so that women are seen as victims and sex buyers as criminals.

Ziba Cranmer runs Cities Empowered Against Sexual Exploitation, which aims to reduce demand for sex trafficking by 50% in eight years by working with cities across the US.

“Pretty Woman wrongly glamorises something that ruins lives,” Cranmer says. “Most sex buyers do not treat the women they buy to strawberries and champagne, or shopping sprees on Rodeo Drive. Buying sex is not a first date.”

Launch of CEASE #Boston- Cities Empowered Against Sexual Exploitation, a natl initiative against sex trafficking pic.twitter.com/W8EA78ARiV

— Immigrant Advancement - Boston (@BOSImmigrants) March 6, 2015

The average age at which girls are recruited is 12 to 14 and that more than 70% of women in prostitution experience physical assault. The homicide rate among female prostitutes who work the streets in the US is 40 times higher than for other women, and more than six times higher than for those in the riskiest male occupation (taxi driver), studies show.

Irish author Rachel Moran recounted her years in the sex trafficking business in Bought and Paid For: My Journey Through Prostitution.

A woman needs a “strong stomach” to engage in the business, she wrote, quoting American feminist Andrea Dworkin: “Prostitution is not an idea. It is the mouth, the vagina, the rectum, penetrated usually by a penis, sometimes hands, sometimes objects, by one man and then another and then another and then another and then another.”

I answered phones in enough brothels 2 know the most common questions is always "What is the youngest girl you've got?" #Honeyballyes

— Rachel Moran (@RachelRMoran) February 23, 2014

Like the blockbuster film, human trafficking is big money — perhaps too big to fail. The amount generated by human trafficking in the US alone is estimated at $9.5bn (€8.7bn) annually.

Meanwhile, as Roberts and Gere kicked back on their stools and joked with Matt Lauer and the Today crew, trafficking victims around the country were wrapping up a night’s work, many having been forced to have sex 20 to 48 times before dawn, advocates say.

“People can say this movie was a fairy tale and a Cinderella story, but it’s not any of that,” Kluger says. “It’s a movie that glorifies a practice that is abusive, demeaning, and destructive to the people involved. The women we see — and it is mostly women who have been trafficked — are severely traumatised and exploited. Recovery is very difficult and individual and has to do with how old they were when they started. Some have been trafficked since they were 13 years old.”

The anniversary celebration is not the end of the Pretty Woman fantasy, but possibly the beginning of a revival. A Broadway version of the film is said to be under discussion.

Read More: Pretty Woman stars enjoy screen reunion