Troubling as it is to parents when they take their children school shopping, scant and sexy clothing gives girls power, says UC Davis scholar and cultural critic Sarah Projansky. When girls go shopping in malls, little more than sexually provocative clothing is on the racks. "So, girls do what they can with what they have," Projansky says. "By adopting the sexualization to their own ends, they can express individuality, self-acceptance and an ironic distance from the culture's sexualization of them." Projansky, an associate professor of women and gender studies, analyzes how television and films portray girls and teen-agers.