--- description: It's been 25 years since Pretty Woman was released, and even though it's still one of the most beloved romantic comedies ever, it presents a... title: Pretty Woman Turns 25: Here's What Former Sex Workers Think of It image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd4ab8ee061ec4511/698783b4524fc0d48edece87/pretty-woman.jpeg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Living](/tag/time-section-living/) ## Living Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Here's What Former Sex Workers Think of _Pretty Woman_  by [Charlotte Alter](/author/charlotte-alter/)  ## Charlotte Alter Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Senior Correspondent Mar 24, 2015 11:18 PM CUT  Richard Gere and Julia Roberts in a scene from the film 'Pretty Woman', 1990. Richard Gere and Julia Roberts in a scene from the film 'Pretty Woman', 1990.Hulton Archive/Getty Images  by [Charlotte Alter](/author/charlotte-alter/)  ## Charlotte Alter Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Senior Correspondent Mar 24, 2015 11:18 PM CUT It’s been 25 years since _Pretty Woman_ was released,and even though it’s still one of the most beloved romantic comedies ever, it presents a ridiculously sunny idea of what it’s like to sell sex. Vivian, the prostitute played by Julia Roberts, meets a cute john (Richard Gere), eats some strawberries, goes on a shopping spree, and ultimately ends up with the john, who happens to be a rich and charming guy who buys her necklaces and takes her to the opera. “I love romantic comedies,” says Marian Hatcher, a [sex trafficking survivor ](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marian-hatcher/pretty-woman-and-the-ugly-truth%5Fb%5F6904804.html "undefined")who now works as a project manager at the Cook County Sheriff’s office. “Before I was prostituted, raped, beaten, kidnapped, and incarcerated as a result of prostitution, I looked at it as a romantic comedy.” But soon enough, she says, the movie “became an ugly reality.” “There is nothing pretty about prostitution,” Hatcher says. “Nothing pretty about it at all.” For more thoughts from her, you can read a Huffington Post article she [wrote on prostitution.](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marian-hatcher/pretty-woman-and-the-ugly-truth%5Fb%5F6904804.html "undefined") **More** [Dear Johns: Actually You Should Be Ashamed to Buy Sex](http://time.com/3089219/jim-norton-johns-prostitution-sex-addiction/?iid=time%5Fspeed "undefined") The movie didn’t always have such an optimistic ending. Screenwriter J.F. Lawton told [_Vanity Fair_ ](http://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2015/03/pretty-woman-original-ending "undefined")his original script ended with Vivian (the Julia Roberts character) staring “emptily ahead” as she rides Disneyland-bound bus with her friend Kit, after getting a final check from Edward. _Pretty Woman_ was originally supposed to be “dark and gritty”– the idea that Vivian and Edward would end up together only happened once director Garry Marshall started to think of the movie as a “combination of fairy tales.” ### See the Most Memorable On-Screen Couples  Peter and Ellie - It Happened One Night, 1934 Columbia Pictures/Getty Images  Scarlett and Rhett - Gone With The Wind, 1939 Silver Screen Collection/Archive Photos/Getty Images  Walter Burns and Hildy Johnson - His Girl Friday, 1940 Columbia Pictures/Getty Images  Rich Blaine and Isla Lund - Casablanca, 1942 Popperfoto/Getty Images  Ricky and Lucy - I Love Lucy, 1951 Archive Photos/Getty Images  Don Lockwood and Kathy Seldon- Singin' in the Rain, 1952 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer/Getty Images  Tony and Maria - West Side Story, 1961 United Artists/Getty Images  Holly Golightly and Paul - Breakfast at Tiffany's, 1961 Movie Poster Image Art/Getty Images  Bonnie and Clyde - Bonnie and Clyde, 1967 Fotos International/Getty Images  Katie and Hubbell - The Way We Were, 1973 Columbia/Getty Images  Danny Zuko and Sandy Olsen - Grease, 1978 Paramount Pictures/Fotos International/Getty Images  Han Solo and Leia Organa - The Empire Strikes Back, 1980 Lucasfilm  Sam and Diane - Cheers, 1982 NBC/Getty Images  Frances 'Baby' Houseman and Johnny Castle - Dirty Dancing, 1987 Vestron/Getty Images  Wesley and Princess Buttercup - The Princess Bride, 1987 20th Century Fox  Harry Burns and Sally Albright - When Harry Met Sally, 1989 Hulton Archive/Getty Images  Vivian and Edward - Pretty Woman, 1990 Buena Vista/Getty Images  Beauty and the Beast - Beauty and the Beast, 1991 Disney  Cory and Topanga - Boy Meets World, 1993 SGranitz—WireImage/Getty Images  Jenny Curran and Forrest Gump - Forrest Gump, 1994 Paramount Pictures  Ross and Rachel - Friends, 1994 NBC/Getty Images  Doug and Carol - E.R., 1994 NBC/Getty Images  Jack and Rose - Titanic, 1997 20th Century Fox/Getty Images  Buffy and Angel - Buffy the Vampire Slayer, 1997 Getty Images  Carrie and Big - Sex and the City, 1998 HBO/Getty Images  Patrick Verona and Kat Stratford - 10 Things I Hate About You, 1999 Buena Vista/Getty Images  Noah and Allie - The Notebook, 2004 New Line Cinema  Jack and Ennis - Brokeback Mountain, 2005 Focus Films  Tom and Summer - (500) Days of Summer, 2009 Fox Searchlight  Carl and Ellie - Up, 2009 Pixar/Disney And a fairy tale, says Hatcher, is just what it is. “There are no Vivians,” she says. “There are no women who are being rescued by a Prince Charming like Richard Gere. Not all former sex workers agree. Melissa Petro, a freelance writer and former sex worker who worked as a call girl on Craigslist, says she’s heard of women who have had clients turn into boyfriends, if not husbands. “I had a couple experiences where the lines got fuzzy, including one man who took me on an all expense paid trip to Paris,” she says. “You might say we dated awhile after that. He was young, attractive, intelligent, wealthy– if I were looking for my Richard Gere, I suppose he would’ve been it.” Petro, who worked in the sex industry to help put herself through college, thinks the movie is more about class climbing than prostitution. “For many sex workers, that’s what prostitution is about– a means of improving one’s socioeconomic condition,” she says. Hatcher, who was forced into prostitution as a result of domestic violence and who works with trafficked women, disagrees. She notes that, while not all women who do sex work are trafficked, the majority of prostituted individuals she’s worked with have been victimized by someone who has benefited from their abuse. And according to a [report ](http://www.state.gov/j/tip/rls/tiprpt/2005/46606.htm "undefined")cited by the U.S. State Department, 89% of people who [work in prostitution](http://time.com/3089219/jim-norton-johns-prostitution-sex-addiction/ "undefined") globally want to escape. But Hatcher says that for her and the other survivors she counsels, the idea that escape might come from a man who buys sex is preposterous. “It’s ridiculous. Nobody’s thinking it,” she says. “They’re thinking of how to stay alive, they’re thinking of how to please the next man in order so the man that she has to report back to doesn’t beat her… not riding into the sunset with anyone.” Instead, she says, it’s usually the opposite. Instead of taking them to the opera, the men who buy sex are often violent towards prostituted women. “Personally, I was raped, beaten, and kidnapped,” she says. “My victimization in terms of the physical trauma was at the hands of the johns. I experienced very little abuse from pimps, mostly from johns.” Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart, who has led a [national movement to criminalize sex-buyers](http://time.com/3692993/super-bowl-sex-traffic-sting/ "undefined") from his jurisdiction in Illinois, says he thinks _Pretty Woman_ is not just unrealistic, it’s dangerously misleading. As part of his initiative to criminalize the johns over the trafficking victims, Sheriff Dart hires survivors to work in his office– Hatcher is one of them– and he says he’s never heard of a prostitution story ending like this. “I don’t know if it could be more unrealistic if it were animated,” he said. “Of all the backpage.com arrests we’ve made, I’ve never heard of any instance where the prostitute ends up marrying the john. Never ever ever ever ever.” “I’ve never heard anyone talk about what a great guy he was,” Dart continues. “I’ve never heard, ‘this all worked out so well.'” “There’s no benefit to anything that suggests there’s a happy ending involved,” he says. _Read next:_ [_How to Spot a Sex Trafficking Victim at a Hotel_](http://time.com/3525640/sex-trafficking-victim-prostitution-hotel/?iid=time%5Freadnext "undefined") [_Listen to the most important stories of the day._](http://time.com/newsletter/the-brief/?sl%5Fautoplay=true&xid=spl-fullbrief-article "undefined") Pretty Woman Turns 25: Here's What Former Sex Workers Think of It ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3756689/pretty-woman-prostitute-julia-roberts-richard-gere/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3756689/pretty-woman-prostitute-julia-roberts-richard-gere/"},"headline":"Here's What Former Sex Workers Think of Pretty Woman","datePublished":"2015-03-24T23:18:31.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:42:37.690Z","description":"It's been 25 years since Pretty Woman was released, and even though it's still one of the most beloved romantic comedies ever, it presents a...","url":"https://time.com/3756689/pretty-woman-prostitute-julia-roberts-richard-gere/","keywords":["Living","movies","Prostitution","Julia Roberts"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd4ab8ee061ec4511/698783b4524fc0d48edece87/pretty-woman.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Charlotte Alter","jobTitle":"Senior Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/charlotte-alter/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd4ab8ee061ec4511/698783b4524fc0d48edece87/pretty-woman.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Richard Gere And Julia Roberts In 'Pretty Woman'","caption":"Richard Gere And Julia Roberts In 'Pretty Woman'","creditText":"Hulton Archive/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-living/","name":"Living"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3756689/pretty-woman-prostitute-julia-roberts-richard-gere/","name":"Here's What Former Sex Workers Think of Pretty Woman"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Nepal: Escaped from the Sex Trade, Unable to Go Home","description":"Sold by her uncle into prostitution at age 15, Laxmi Bishwokarma escaped the brothels, but cannot go home. 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