In the movie, Pretty Woman
It is the last day of Vivian (Julia Roberts) being with Edward (Richard Gere), he tells her that he has set up an apartment, got her a car, Credit Cards for shopping - the salespeople will suck up to you at your whim, a stipend is set up, everything is arranged. She resists, and he says it will get you off the street. And she says, which I don’t get “That’s just geography”. What does that mean?
Wouldn’t any girl who is a prostitute, living off whatever they can get, hand to mouth, be going for that. I know she’d be a kept woman, she wouldn’t be whoring herself (except to Edward - I don’t really count that though), she could get her room-mate Kit to live with her, they can go to school, and she could get a job at Rodeo Drive. This could change her life, I know Vivian really wants love from Edward and to be rescued and be swept/taken away.
I am probably putting too much thought into this, but everytime I watch this movie, I always ask this.
Instead of being a public whore on the street, she’d be a private whore, for Edward in the apartment he paid for.
The point is that yes, she wants to be his girlfriend or whatever, not just a kept woman he sees when he’s in town.
Well, there you go. She wants his love, and if he can’t give her that, she’d rather go back to an environment where the expectations and boundaries are clear. If she takes his apartment offer, she’s stuck being a commodity rather than a lover.
I think the movie also makes it pretty clear that her experience with Edward as a respected person opened her eyes to her own possibilities. She’d been on the streets so long, and come from such a crappy background, that she had no respect or hope for herself. Seeing that she was capable of a lot more made her reject the idea of ever being a prostitute again (she tells Kitts she’s going back to school, etc. before Edward shows up with colors flying at the end). Edward’s offer doesn’t allow her to stop being a prostitute, it just changes where she conducts business and for whom.
I can’t believe I wrote that much about it.
I agree with Beadalin - she stopped being a prostitute when she kissed him. (remember? Never kiss - it’s too personal) She’d decide that she wasn’t going to sell herself anymore, even to Edward. She was worth more than that. She says “It’s a really great offer for someone like me, and if you’d asked me a week ago I’d’ve jumped at the chance.” She’s not the same girl turning tricks on the street corner or in an apartment with an allowance.
StG
Also - remember the lines after he made the offer?
Edward: I never treated you like a prostitute.
Vivian: You just did.
StG