“Pretty Woman”, Ugly Lie

“Oh Pretty Woman” was a great song by Roy Orbison and a shallow, superficially attractive (albeit fundamentally disgusting, and ludicrous) 1990 movie. The song is about a “pretty woman walking down the street, pretty woman, the kind you'd like to meet”; the movie is about a “streetwalker”, the kind you'd have to pay to "meet".

The movie tells about an LA hooker (Julia Roberts), improbably innocent and fresh, who is swept away by a rich, attractive, young, corporate raider (Richard Gere). Think “Officer and a Gentleman” but substitute a jerk and a whore and add a large cast of “Johns” off screen and uncredited. It is a twisted perversion of the princess and knight in shining armor. Nothing beats a prostitute as a healthy role model for young women idolizing Julia Roberts. That this movie became iconic speaks volumes about modern America, none of them good.

Both the song and the movie were a long time ago, so who cares? Well, what once-upon-a-time was dirty and essentially embarrassing – pornography – has somehow now gone entirely mainstream. The “industry” amounts to over $10 billion annually, more than the professional football and baseball combined! The magazine “Playboy” and it's associated clubs went from aspirational in the 1960s, to pitifully outdated in the 1980s & '90s, to an miraculous rebirth as a prime time TV show. Stripper poles are now exercise equipment. Snoop Dog and Howard Stern are considered good businessmen, instead of perverts.

I don't say make pornography illegal, but stop justifying, stop legitimizing it, and put it back where it belongs – in the darkness.