While I did date two strippers while in my early twenties (a long story that is definitely for another time) I have little knowledge of what life would be like dating a stripper. Correction, I absolutely have no knowledge of this. But from what I can gather, it would be pretty hard to pluck the one in town with a heart of gold randomly off the street with my inability to drive a stick shift (and I can drive a stick shift).
Why did I choose this morning to throw hate at the “Pretty Woman,” an almost 25-year old movie? For three reasons.
First, this morning, I gave my wife a compliment. She smiled and said thank you. I gave her another compliment ten minutes later, and she gave me the usual frowny face she gives when I give her a compliment (which makes me hesitant to give her compliments). Whom did she blame? “Pretty Woman.”
Second, while in the shower thinking of what I was going to do with my conversation with my wife, I remembered a throw-away conversation between a news anchor and an entertainment reporter at the end of a story about Julia Roberts. This is where the movie and her role as the ‘hooker with a heart of gold’ mentioned at the beginning of this piece was mentioned. The entertainment reported gushed about it being one of her favorite movies for all the romance and some-such. The anchor basically stated that the some-such was just a hooker getting lucky. There is a reason the film sits at 62% on the Rotten Tomatoes website after almost a quarter century.
Third, and most important, is my daughter. At just under two, I don’t want her to grow up being brainwashed by popular culture and peer pressure, led to believe in really stupid things like not being able to take compliments is accepted, as in that is in the script of your live that you were handed, with no chance of rewrites. There are thousands of other tropes that I have been trying to figure out how to deflect from her, but this one struck a nerve this morning (I haven’t quite given up on the fight against wearing pink, but I did concede by just mixing in a lot of grey and black).
I get that the messages the media broadcasts are supposed to sell ideas and physical stuff. I work in broadcast radio and produce many forms of content for consumption on the internet. I even write motivational and self –help literature. I so get it.
The power of a powerful message, even if the source is a silly romantic comedy, can be overwhelming. I just hope Johanna Jasmine falls more in line with Erin Brockovich (from 2000 with an 84% rating). And I hate both movies.