Falbo and Peplau (1980) found that females use unilateral and indirect power strategies in intimate relationships, whereas males use direct and bilateral power strategies. Differences in power strategies reported by 6th, 9th, and 12th graders in response to mother, father, and same-sex friend targets were examined by using the same two-dimensional model. Friends differed from both parental targets in receiving fewer unilateral and indirect strategies. Fathers, hypothesized to have the most power, received fewer direct and bilateral strategies than mothers and friends. Weaker strategies were used more with parents and stronger strategies were used more with friends. Gender effects, alone and in interaction with target and grade, did not support previous gender differences. Overall, the study supports the usefulness of the Falbo and Peplau model in examining the effects of targets on the use of power strategies and a power interpretation of gender differences in intimate relationships. The concept of interpersonal power can be denned as the ability to influence another person to do or to believe something she or he would not have necessarily done or believed spontaneously (Johnson, 1978). Women have long been seen as using more indirect, that is devious, strategies to get their way than have men. It is said that men debate and women manipulate. Support for this observation, however, cannot be based solely on a demonstrated sex difference because the issue of gender differences in power strategies is confounded with power inequality between the sexes (Miller, 1976). Differences in the strategies women and men use to exert interpersonal influence, particularly with each other, may be more a function of power or status inequality than gender per se. Research on power strategies was accelerated with the introduction by Goodchilds, Quadrado, and Raven (1975) of a procedure that directly asked subjects how they get their way. Since then, several studies have employed this procedure to assess power strategies

In light of the rapid growth of the Hispanic population, accompanied by a recent backlash against affirmative action and claims of reverse discrimination, there is a need to understand the factors that contribute to perceptions of discrimination among Hispanics and among Anglos. The current study expanded on Kobrynowicz and Branscombe's research on perceptions of discrimination by investigating the relationships between perceived personal and group discrimination and self-esteem, control, individualism/ collectivism, and social dominance orientation (SDO) among Hispanics and among Anglos. Correlates of discrimination by gender within ethnicity were also assessed. Among Hispanics, personal self-esteem and personal and interpersonal control were negatively correlated, and collectivism was positively correlated, with perceived personal discrimination. Among Anglos, SDO was positively correlated with perceived group discrimination. Multiple regression indicated that collectivism and personal control were significant predictors of perceived personal discrimination among Hispanics, whereas SDO was a significant predictor of perceived group discrimination among Anglos.

Women can contribute to the perpetuation of sexual violence when they support victim-blame. Participants were 155 college women who completed a questionnaire assessing hostility toward women; the beliefs that rape is caused by victim precipitation, male sexual needs, and male pathology; and victim-blaming sexual harassment beliefs. Significant relations were found for hostility toward women and the other measures, controlling for general hostility. The tendency of some women to support rape and sexual harassment myths may be based on the level of hostility toward women as a group.

Feminists have been concerned about the debasement of women in sexually explicit material. The purpose of this study was to determine the extent of domination and sexual inequality in x‐rated videocassettes through a content analysis of 45 widely available x‐rated videocassettes. The sample was randomly drawn from a list of 121 adult movie titles widely available in family videocassette rental stores in southern California. Over half of the explicitly sexual scenes were coded as predominantly concerned with domination or exploitation. Most of the domination and exploitation was directed by men toward women. Specific indicators of domination and sexual inequality, including physical violence, occurred frequently. The growth of the videocassette rental industry and the popularity of x‐rated films, coupled with the messages these films convey, is a cause for concern.

Racism and sexism were examined in interracial (BlackMlhite) X-rated pornography videocassettes. Five female coders coded 476 characters in the sexually explicit scenes in 54 videos. Characters were coded on aggregate measures of physical and verbal aggression, inequality cues, racial cues, and intimacy cues, as well as other specific indices. Sexism was demonstrated in the unidirectional aggression by men toward women. Racism was demonstrated in the lower status of Black actors and the presence of racial stereotypes. Racism appeared to be expressed somewhat differently by sex, and sexism somewhat differently by race. For example, Black women were the targets of more acts of aggression than were White women, and Black men showed fewer intimate behaviors than did White men. More aggression was found in cross-race sexual interactions than in same-race sexual interactions. These findings suggest that pornography is racist as well as sexist.Videocassettes are the main mode of pornography production and distribution. It is estimated that by 1995, 85 % of all American homes will have videocassette recorders (U.S. Attorney General's Commission on Pornography, 1986). In 1989, X-rated tape rentals represented 12% of all rentals, with 395 million X-rated videos rented that year (Johnson, 1991). Previous content analyses of pornography videos have focused on the prevalence of violence and sexualized violence toward women (Palys, 1986;Yang & Linz, 1990) and on the exploitation of women in pornography (Cowan,We are deeply indebted to Tommi Jones, Cassie Lubens, Kathy Bell, and Cristal Waits for coding the videos.