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Susan Douglas starts her chapter Sex ‘R’ Us by discussing what the impact of the furthering of women’s rights has done for the sexuality of women and the implications in the world of women. She discusses how women now were free to dress in as little as they want and to be a free with themselves as they want. But she says the paradox is that women were given freedom and then went and did exactly what men wanted – sexify themselves – while feeling like they were making the decisions and were empowered. She talks about how this played out in advertising such as Calvin Klein and Abercrombie and Fitch, how this effected younger and younger women making its way into children’s beauty pageants and the tragedy of Jon-Benet Ramsey, and also how this new sexuality invaded women’s reading materials especially focusing on Cosmo. Douglas continues her discussion by focusing on the male’s version of Cosmo, Maxim. She says that Maxim was crucial to her ideas of “enlightened sexism” because in this magazine, men were able to objectify women and joke about how a woman is at times in control of a man because of how they played it off by saying that’s it was all a joke because our society was so far beyond this (24).

She continues by discussing the large role Sex and the City had on our society and how the other TV shows of the era made sex more accessible and acceptable to younger and younger audiences. She goes on to talk about the Clinton/Lewinsky scandal and how this allowed America to discuss sex at all times in all places and how this played into the popularity and acceptance of Sex and the City. She discusses the irony at times of Sex and the City and how this show paved the way for others shows that would have been unacceptable a generation before.

This leads Douglas into a discussion of Janet Jackson at the Superbowl and the following ways the black women were portrayed and portrayed themselves in things like rap videos. She goes onto show how these black women were made out to be sexual and harsh and how this had(has) an adverse effect on the young black women that see their works such as music videos.

Douglas concludes by talking about how all of these factors have come together to have an adverse effect on all women and how while the increased sexuality of women could have been a good thing, the way that things have played out have left women in a tough position where nothing they do is quite right or good enough.

Collins talks about Black women and how they have been seen throughout history and how this has shifted in some ways throughout history and in some ways remained the same. The two biggest characteristics she feels black women are given in the collective minds of the world are animal-like and sexual. She talks about how this has been embraced by women over time and discusses how a woman like Jennifer Lopez – a Latina – can flit back and forth between both groups. She talks about how this image is not restricted to women and the fact that it goes to men as well is part of a racism that is influenced by white people having a majority of the media that the world sees. She then connects the struggle of black people to escape these stereotypes to the struggle of many types of people who want sexual freedom and to live in a nonjudgmental world. She continues by telling us how these sexual behaviors that some view as not right are showcased to the extreme on shows such as Jerry Springer. She concludes by discussing how these factors all play into the ways that blacks and other minorities are repressed.