He is a ruthless, righteous, corporate tycoon that thinks he is above everyone, including Vivian. .
Vivian on the other hand is a beautiful and kind-hearted woman who is independent and assertive; refusing to have a pimp and fiercely reserving the right to choose her customers and what she would do and not do when with them. Why is Vivian frowned upon and Edward is not? Edward is favored because he is wealthy and he knows how to act upper class. Money is power, which makes our society flawed. In today's society, it is believed that a person with money is above others without. And unfortunately, that attitude brings less than desirable behaviors to others who are in a lower class. It's a misfortune that people from lower social economic populations can be stereotyped as more ignorant, less attractive and unclean. .
The film, Pretty Woman, is an example of Hollywood getting us, the viewers, to side with the upper class and to get us to want to be them rather than being okay being the kind hearted and hardworking lower class. Parenti makes a valid point when he expresses that the media likes to portray the hardworking poor class as undesirable because that is exactly what Hollywood did to Vivian. "The entertainment media present working people not only as unlettered and uncouth but also as less desirable and less moral than other people. Conversely, virtue is more likely to be ascribed to those characters whose speech and appearance are soundly middle- or upper-middle class." (Parenti 421) She is looked down upon by Edward and everyone in the hotel when she first arrives due to the fact she is not wealthy and comes from lower class. Edward is found desirable wherever he goes because he does come from money, is good looking, and well educated. I find this very repulsive because as a society we should not put wealthy and good looking people up on a pedestal because they have money.