On last night's Bachelor, Shawntel gets to live out what viewers are made to believe is every woman's fantasy - the Pretty Woman shopping scene. Brad kicks off their one-on-one date by taking Sahwntel on a shopping spree at a high-end Las Vegas mall (no doubt funded by ABC).
When she gets back to the suite she's sharing with the rest of Brad's harem, Shawntel shows off her designer gifts and changes into an obscenely overpriced dress while the other girls' jealousy flares. Suddenly their self-professed dreams go from living out a fairy tale, achieving their very own "happily ever after" by snagging their very own "Prince Charming," to living out the Julia Roberts classic Pretty Woman.
Um... is everyone forgetting that Julia Roberts played a PROSTITUTE? Richard Gere's character is a wealthy businessman who picks her up in the obligatory pleather hooker boots and an equally horrendous mini skirt-half top combo and decides to PAY HER to extend her stay for a week and accompany him to fancy pants social obligations. He ends up taking her on a shopping spree after she tries to use his money to purchase appropriate clothing on her own and is snubbed by snobby saleswomen who (correctly) assume she is a PROSTITUTE.
Now, don't get me wrong - I love watching the Pretty Woman shopping scene, especially when Julia Roberts goes back to the store she was shamed out of, gigantic shopping bags in tow: "You work on commission right? Big mistake. Big. Huge... I have to go shopping now!"
If I were ever a prostitute, I would hope to be the spunky Vivian Ward type. But do I dream of living out Pretty Woman? Of exchanging sex for money and clothes? Of having to fight off the creepy advances of George Costanza? Um, no thanks. And I sincerely hope I'm not in the minority on that sentiment.
Photos courtesy of abc.go.com and Wikipedia.
4 comments:
lol good blog. I totally agree with you there!
Exchanging sex for money and clothes? *Clutches pearls*--- who would ever join in a close intimate, heterosexual relationship in order to obtain material goods? It sickens me!
More seriously, though-- it's funny, because there are some radical feminists from back in the heyday that made exactly this connection, claiming that midcentury, upper-class housewives were prostituting themselves out for a new fur coat, etc.
Sex has always been used as a commodity, but...here's the blessing of our twenty-first century life--- we really do (mostly) have the luxury of choosing "yes" or "no" to what we want, and how we choose to obtain it...these shows, I feel, teach women (and young women) to desire shopping over other pursuits, to keep them shackled to a material need for lots of money. Hilariously, though, this self-proclaimed feminist went on a big shopping spree last weekend...but by myself. On my own money. Which in itself was strangely liberating.
In other news--- fellow Chicagoan, how is the Snowmaggedeon treating you?
Also remember that Shawntel will also have to pay taxes on all that loot. I hope embalming pays well!
Sex for a beautiful shopping spree? Nah! I am with you on that. Even with all the designer clothes, shoes and bags, i would still feel cheap.
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