Terminus 

In the introduction to his book, The Sublime Object of Ideology, Slavoj Zizek acquaints readers with his book’s tripartite aim.  He plans, among other things, to illustrate concepts fundamental to Lacanian psychoanalysis – an intention which will serve to further his more ambitious goal “to reactualize Hegelian dialectics by giving it a new reading” in the light of Lacanian psychoanalysis – and “to contribute to the theory of ideology via a new reading of some well-known classical motifs” (7).  In this broad category of classical motifs associated with the theory of ideology, I have isolated both fetishism and the commodity-form and intend to briefly illustrate some of these concepts against the backdrop of the movie Pretty Woman -- a popular rags-to-riches romantic comedy from 1990.

Looking through the prism of Lacan and Marx, Zizek brands us as “fetishists in practice, not in theory”; he posits that we “do not know” or we “misrecognize” the fact that in our “social reality itself, in [our] social activity – in the act of commodity exchange – [we] are guided by the fetishistic illusion” (31).  Amidst this discussion on ideology, Zizek highlights one of the most significant differences between Marx and Lacan:

In the predominant Marxist perspective the ideological gaze is a partial gaze overlooking the totality of social relations, whereas in the Lacanian perspective ideology rather designates a totality set on effacing the traces of its own impossibility.  (49)

This difference corresponds to the one that distinguishes the Marxian from the Freudian notion of fetishism:  In the former, “a fetish conceals the positive network of social relations,” whereas in the latter “a fetish conceals the lack (‘castration’) around which the symbolic network is articulated” (49).

Considering that he has published widely on philosophy, politics, culture, film, and psychoanalysis, it should come as no particular surprise to readers that Slavoj Zizek refers to everything from Shakespeare and Coca-Cola advertising slogans to science fiction in order to illustrate the various claims made in his text.  Technically his book, The Sublime Object of Ideology,  was published in 1989, so one can only wonder about whether Zizek would have included commentary on the quasi-Cinderella romantic comedy, Pretty Woman, released in the following year.  It certainly warrants a more exhaustive study, but focusing briefly on a few key points in the movie – particularly in the light of theory concepts such as ideology, fetishism, and the commodity-form – should prove equally interesting.  While some critics attacked the movie's fantastical plot – charming hooker/heroine Vivian Ward, played by Julia Roberts, is “picked up” and essentially “rented” by troubled corporate mogul Edward Lewis, played by Richard Gere, with the pair eventually falling in love and living “happily ever after” – it was a complete box office success.  The film has brought in 178 million dollars since its release in 1990, placing it among the top 50 grossing movies of all time (Internet Movie Database Ltd.).

Pretty Woman displays our fascination of “fetishism” of the commodity-form on multiple levels. We have the relatively straightforward case of prostitution, for instance, where sex and the woman's body is a “commodity” in itself. And while it would seem impossible to lose sight of the “crucial social relations” (Zizek 26) at work in selling the body for sex, Vivian’s character manages to do just that.  She will not kiss her “customers” on the mouth because this is “too personal” and works by the motto:  “I will not let myself become emotionally involved in my business.” Equally enigmatic is the real-world reality that the body of the actress playing the lead role, Julia Roberts, is simultaneously commodified by the movie/entertainment industry as part of what helped “sell” the movie to potential theater-goers.  Ironic, as well, was the return of polka-dotted dresses and the sudden popularity of long, red evening gowns (both featured on Roberts in the movie) with American consumers that year.

Edward's job – orchestrating hostile takeovers -- requires a commitment to detachment not unlike the one given in Vivian’s motto. At one point in the movie where Edward lies resting in Vivian’s arms inside a huge bubble-bath, he reveals to her the dull reality embedded in that old cliché:  “The child is father to the man.”  He tells her how his mother died soon after being divorced by his father, who had abandoned her for another woman and taken the family money with him. Forever nonchalant, he continues by joking about the ten thousand dollars worth of therapy required for him to admit:  “I was very angry with my father.”  In a deadpan voice, Edward finally relates the most telling detail of all: that his father was president of the third company that he [Edward] ever bought and sold off piece-by-piece. It is not until the end of the movie that he finally allows himself to sympathize with the “real” people – living, breathing individuals and not merely faceless companies, stocks, and profit margins – behind one business he would normally have chosen to buy and auction off without mercy.  Instead, Edward shocks everyone by choosing to save his intended corporate “victim”; he goes in with this, a onetime rival company, in order to build ships for the navy -- a change coming in part, oddly enough, out of Vivian’s strange concern that in his job he did not produce or “make anything.”

In one of the closing scenes of the movie, Vivian and Edward have parted ways, seemingly for good; he checks out of his ritzy hotel, intending to leave it, her, and the city behind.  Edward hands a box to the Hotel Manager and requests that he return the $25,000 ruby and diamond jewelry contained inside – jewelry borrowed for Vivian to wear on one of their last evenings together. Already won over by Vivian’s beauty and charm, the Manager examines the exquisite jewels and then pins Edward with his piercing gaze and the knowing declaration:  “It must be difficult to let go of something so beautiful.”  The movie is jam-packed full of such desirable “somethings” -- potentially fetishized objects which characters use in an effort to compensate for a “lack” in their lives:  cash, a silver Lotus, clothes from Rodeo Drive, a personal jet, the “kill” of a hostile takeover, or the company of a beautiful woman.  In the movie's conclusion, Edward does go through with the jewelry-return; he does not leave behind the ruby-haired Vivian, though, and the audience receives their “happy ending” – perhaps a fetish in its own right.
 

                                         WORKS CITED

The Internet Movie Database Ltd.  (An Amazon.com company.)  http://us.imdb.com  [Accessed 11 November 1998].

Pretty Woman.  Dir. Garry Marshall.  With Richard Gere and Julia Roberts.  Touchstone, 1990.

Zizek, Slavoj.  The Sublime Object of Ideology.  London:  Verso, 1989.
 
 

TheoryCrossingCrossing

 Engines

 Term Crossing