Women in Hollywood...Not pretty enough?

      I enjoyed Jean Kilbourne’s lecture but would agree that it was very similar to Killing Us Softly 4. However, there was one part of her talk that stood out to me. Kilbourne showed us the cover of Pretty Woman and stated that Julia Roberts had a “body double” in this film. Julia Robert’s head was photoshopped into a body for the cover and this mysterious body was also used for many scenes during the movie. As Michael Loprete states, “Behind every Pretty Woman stands a prettier woman.” This clip does a nice job of illustrating the role of a “body double” and interviews the mysterious lady with nice legs and a flat stomach..the lady who I thought was Roberts all along. 

     I would love to ask the producer of the movie what was wrong with using Julia Robert’s figure? I mean she is “pretty woman.” I would argue that the use of a body double creates an illusion and suggests that there is something wrong with the original image. Kilbourne refers to this as “psychic pressure” and said that these artificially constructed images support the fact that 91% of cosmetic surgeries are for women. I would also be interested in doing different types of analysis on this movie. How many times was the body double used in Pretty Woman? Has the use of body doubles increased or decreased and what might this suggest about women in Hollywood...not pretty enough?