In her chapter titled "The New Girliness", Susan Douglas describes how the 90's saw the sudden rise of "chick flicks", movies aimed primarily at girls and young women. Movies like Clueless, Legally Blonde, and Miss Congeniality sent the message that feminism was overrated and done because it was a hindrance to the new femininity that was more "fun" and that equality between men and women had already been achieved. The first film Douglas talks about is Clueless, which was revolutionary in its use of the female voice over (that it was told from Cher's point of view). These interior monologues were supposedly voicing the true hopes and desires of females; however according to Cher, women were simply obsessed with dieting, shopping, men and having babies. By the late 90's, this "new girliness" said that girls could be sexual objects who still looked at the world with a critical anti-patriarchal viewpoint. There was a growing consensus that men and women were inherently different, supported by books such as Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus and The Rules. Women were told they had to play hard to get to find "Mr. Right" and had to embrace their femininity to attract the opposite sex. As all of this was going on in pop culture, however, a series of school shootings involving teenage boys with guns was taking place. This contradiction existed between the media's portrayal of women embracing their feminine power and women in the real world being as suppressed and powerless as ever before.
Douglas continues this chapter by going into a detailed description of the hit TV show Ally McBeal and the top-selling book and movie sequel following the fictional life of Bridget Jones. While Ally McBeal was a successful and intelligent lawyer on the show, she was portrayed as "an embarrassing whiner" who at times was so emotional that she could barely even do her job. The show presented an interesting dichotomy between the two sides of Ally, the strong, impressive business woman and the frail, insecure whiny girl. The show was called both progressive and regressive, bordering between female empowerment and self-abnegation. Douglas describes how the show was neither "feminist or antifeminist: it was both". Women flocked to this show because they were able to relate it to their own experiences, facing the demands of both their professional and personal lives. Women especially, had to navigate between the outward persona they showed the world and the inner thoughts that helped or hindered getting through the day. This show, however, simply re-enforced the common perceptions that even successful professional women simply spend most of their time thinking about girly things and focusing on their own failures. Bridget Jones was a similar character, with books and movies chronicling her life through her inner thoughts. A mess of a woman, Bridget obsesses over gaining the approval of men and monitoring her daily calorie intake. Bridget aims to fulfill the gender stereotype of the 1950s instead of embracing the role of the "new 90's woman". Douglas claimed that Bridget "wallows in prefeminist preoccupations about men and marriage that women are not supposed to obsess about anymore". The interesting thing about Bridget Jones, however, is how many women flocked to the theaters to see her shallow story. Perhaps it was primarily to feel better about their own lives, Bridget Jones' fans got enormous entertainment out of both reading the book and watching the two films.
Mel Gibson's movie, What Women Want, provides a similar view of the inner workings of the average woman's mind. In a story about a man who can hear women's thoughts following an electrical accident, women are portrayed as shallow people who only think about men, hair, make-up and babies: not a single thought on religion, politics, philosophy or finances. These popular movies of the 90's told women and men one thing: feminism is no longer needed. Douglas also discusses the movies Legally Blonde and Miss Congeniality, both of which equate feminism with "being deliberately unattractive, out of touch with, and indeed antagonistic toward other women". The films imply that feminism is hostile toward femininity, which the films also emphasize is essential to both find love and be taken seriously in life.
In the chapter titled, "Yo Go, Girl" Douglas describes the societal difference between black women and white women in the media. As a culture, we love the "sassy black woman", but upper and middle class white women are still expected to be diplomatic, calm and nurturing. Black women are able to "code-switch", or switch between "black speak" and "standard English. On Grey's Anatomy, Miranda Bailey is an African American female professional character who is completely uninterested in being liked. She is respected by both the rest of the hospital and by all of her fans who tune into the show each week. Later on in the show, however, she ends up having to choose between work and her husband, and is left professionally successful but privately lonely. These powerful black women provide the illusion that these characters exist in the real world, when in reality black women are still struggling in today's society, experiencing persistent discrimination, increased chances of developing cancer and heart disease, and increased odds of getting pregnant and/or STDs. These contradictions between black women depicted in the media and black women in America are huge. Oprah Winfrey is another example of this contradiction. She has overcome the obstacles to success and a black female and has won over both white and black women viewers by aiming to personify empowerment for ALL women. Oprah's rise to fame and power, however, is extremely unrealistic and nearly impossible. Douglas describes how she "personifies the massive contradictions- and illusions- that run through how women are portrayed in the media". African American music and television, including Living Single and Martin, struggled with the issue of portraying women as strong, male-bashing figures, and yet at the same time weak, insecure girls who are simply looking for love and attention. In the rap industry, women were primarily considered sexual objects, featured promiscuously in the music videos and concerts.
The few women who did make it in the music industry tried to assert their right to be sexually expressive without submitting to the dominant norms about proper female sexuality, but they were always faced with the problem that, to "present yourself as a woman with sexual desires equal to any man's, and as a woman proud of her body, and no matter what your intent you are giving permission to be objectified and, inevitably, cast as a slut".
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