Prettiest Woman
Uncovering Hollywood’s perpetual longing for a lost industrial America
“We don’t make things in America anymore”: like clockwork, this refrain resurfaces in political discourse, a reflection of yearning for a bygone era of industrial productivity. In his latest work, Grant Farred uses the 1990 film Pretty Woman to expose and critique this lingering nostalgia for late-industrial capitalism.
Situating Pretty Woman alongside Reagan-era films including Wall Street, Farred examines the congealment of such a pervasive romanticized view of the United States as a fading industrial powerhouse. Drawing on an eclectic range of thinkers-from Raymond Williams and Slavoj Žižek to Mick Jagger-The Prettiest Woman offers a unique analysis of the ways Hollywood perpetuates the myth of a lost “productive America,” highlighting the seductive power of this fantasy despite its disconnect from economic and political realities.
Grant Farred is author of several books, including What’s My Name: Black Vernacular Intellectuals; Martin Heidegger Saved My Life; and An Essay for Ezra: Racial Terror in America (all from Minnesota).