In an era in which more that fifty percent of all women work outside the home, the 1980s and 1990s have seen the intensification of this new femininity that identifies itself within the public sphere. This new femininity defines itself and its pleasures (its libidinal economy) on a marketplace in which her capital is constituted by her body and her sexual expertise, which she herself exchanges. She is not exchanged by men, but acts as her own agent….
(1993, p.59)
Which is why she is trying to convince herself that she is truly her own agent when she repeats after her friend their motto: “We say who, we say when, we say how much.” Their power is imaginary; they cannot exactly make their own fortunes. They know that they are caught in this circle which always brings them back to the same place. And it is in this point that we see how different Vivian is when she asks her friend if she does not want to get out of here and her friend asks her back where else can they go. But the future is already prearranged for Vivian when she meets Edward who, we already know, is going to get her where she yearns to reach.
Going back to the idea of women as consumers, Edward says to Vivian in the middle of the film that he was quite surprised with her buying only one dress and he encourages her to do more shopping. He seems to validate her existence with how much shopping she can do and, therefore, he wants to get her into the shops again to give her more importance. He takes her into a shop and, when he is about to go, hands over his credit card to her and tells the shop manager: “She’s got my card”. To that the manager replies: “And we will help her use it”. Her whole value as a woman is attached to this little bit of plastic because we already know that this man would not give her a second look if Edward had not given her his card.
In the book mentioned above, Radner talks about the notion of female as a consumer. She says that “a woman’s value is measured by her sexual expertise and her appearance as the feminine-consumer-self” (1993, 61) . This is a theme that we see constantly in this film. Vivian is using money to gain respect, she is using them to give her self education, she is even using them to show Edward her feelings when she tries to leave him without taking the money he left on the bed. They are validating her whole existence.
Romantic comedies have their roots in the stories that have been around for a very long time, maybe as long as Vivian’s profession. The story of Cinderella has influenced the storyline of “Pretty Woman” more than anything else. Yet when they refer to the fairytale character, they call her “Cinda-fuckin’-rella”. Radner thinks that this is done deliberately to draw attention to the differences between Vivian and Cinderella. My opinion is that there are not that many differences between those two. They both come from poor environment, they both dream of getting out of the life they live and they both needed a prince to “save” them. Cinderella used her innocence and Vivian used the exact opposite. The ending for both heroines is the same: happy.
Men and their need to teach in any way is strongly promoted throughout the film. Edward is teaching Vivian how to dress, behave and everything other skill she would need to adapt into his world. He, somehow, prepares her for their future life together, although he does not know or want it yet. In the beginning of the film, on the breakfast table after their first night together, Edward informs Vivian that there are several chairs around the table, in an attempt to teach her table manners. Although they are not in any kind of relationship, he tries to reinforce his thoughts and needs on her. He teaches her what to order in a restaurant, how to behave in a polo game because he does not like it when she yells during the match, how to dress by telling her what to buy for their dinner together. The hotel manager also plays the role of the teacher by teaching her table manners and which cutlery and crockery she should use in a restaurant. Teaching seems to be an important piece of a man’s psyche. In fact, they change her so much that her best friend tells her that she was scared to touch her so she would not crumble her clothes. Along with the clothes, her whole personality has disappeared. She seems more distant, more “proper”. I do not think that she would be happy in this world that has taken away the sparkle from her eyes.
What Vivian teaches Edward is how to love again and how to feel compassion, something he has forgotten how to do. All the things she teaches him are about emotions and feelings, things that women are stereotypically good. Things like that are not necessarily useful in the world we live in. Attributes and characteristics like that are not for ruthless businessmen. Nevertheless, there is always the question of whether Vivian was actually in love with Edward. In the book “Film theory goes to the movies” mentioned above, Radner writes:
…from the point at which Vivian issues her challenge, we must question the extent to which she does fall in love with Edward. Does she simply raise the stakes in her takeover strategy? Has she stopped “screwing” for money, or has she started “screwing” for more money? That Vivian succeeds in her takeover, a takeover in which it is the loser, Edward, who appears to claim the spoils of victory by asking her to marry him, is only a sign of how well she has done her job, how completely she has won..
(1993, p.62)
One has to wonder whether Radner has got a point. If this is the case, Vivian’s “all or nothing” attitude would make sense on why she left him in the end. If she could not have him completely, she did not want him at all. She wanted to make the rules for the first time in her life. Like Edward, she wanted the whole company and not just a piece of it. She even used the money to fund her friend’s beauty course, which could make her a feminist idol. But the rule of romantic comedies is that the audience cannot question her motives. She is only driven by emotion and not greed. She was dreaming of her “knight in shinning armour” to come and rescue her and Edward fitted that role completely. And he finally did come and rescue her from the top of the tower she was kept imprisoned, even though her knight suffered from vertigo.