The most pervasive motif throughout Pretty Girls is feminine beauty. Julia’s and Anna’s cases draw so much local attention in part because the victims are young and pretty, and society values those traits while devaluing the women who lack them. Objectifying women even in their most vulnerable states leads to a subtle dehumanizing gaze that further situates women as helpless victims. This tendency carries the heavy implication that if some girls weren’t as “pretty,” then their cases would be ignored by news networks, or perhaps they would have avoided abduction in the first place.

Not only does society prioritize “pretty” women as victims, but it also blames them for the assaults that happen to them. The fact that Julia’s police description quickly changes from a good, “pretty” girl to a “whore” who ran away to live with degenerates in the woods is evidence of how aggressively the narrative is controlled to place blame on women while diverting attention from the police’s failings.

Girls who are labeled as “pretty” also end up forcing that standard upon themselves, like when Lydia shames her overweight body. The internalizing of sexist standards can also present externally, like when Claire mocks the female policewomen in the beginning.