In “Selections from Hard to Get: Twenty- Something Women and the Paradox of Sexual Freedom”, Leslie Bell brings light to an identity crisis that modern day women are beginning to face. Bell supports her argument through the three individuals she introduces all with various backgrounds, cultures, and moral standards. She confirms these women are split between the two personas of “good” girl and “bad” girl that interchange based off the current situation. Bell’s examinations of the lives of Claudia, Jayanthi, and Alicia prove how sexual freedom coupled with societal, familial, and cultural pressures have influenced women in their twenties towards contradictions of their personalities. In order for women in their twenties to avoid and or expunge this dilemma from their lives, they must learn to not only reject such pressures, but also allow themselves to transgress past the point of “splitting” and achieve discovery of their own identity and beliefs. This major paradigm stems from the massive changes that women’s role in society has underwent throughout history. Women are no longer assumed to be loyal housewives that cook, clean, and take care of the children. They have more opportunities and more freedom than ever before in this day and age. However, as Bell has stated, “In modern western culture, autonomy and all that accompany it are much more highly valued than are interdependence and all that accompany it” (Bell 29). Because of the high standards and enormous amount of pressure that western culture has placed on women to become more independent and free, many woman, including the three women Bell investigates, feel shunned and afraid to even display any amount of sexual desire that they may have building inside of them. However, at the same time, the media is also playing a crucial role in further psychologically confusing women in their twenties. “Their peers, television shows such as Sex and the City, and movies seem to encourage sexual experimentation But at the same time, books, such as Unhooked and A Return to Modesty advise them to return to courtship practices from the early 1900s” (Bell 27). Because of the contradictions that society and the media have established towards modern day women, women in their twenties are left in a state of confusion and self-distrust. It is this very paradox that causes Claudia, Jayanthi and Alicia to not be able to discover who they truly are. Bell begins her introduction by immediately stating the conflicting feelings that Claudia had felt on her first night stand. “Excited yet embarrassed, Claudia told me about a one-night stand she’d had the night before our interview” (Bell 25). The reader is instantly introduced to the social anxiety that Claudia is facing when confronted with the two contrasting emotions excitement and embarrassment. She even claims that she wished “I weren’t so horny, so I didn’t need to go out and get it so much” (Bell 25). Although Claudia displays a clear inclination towards her sexual desires, she is quickly policed by fear of appearing as a “bad” girl to her family. “She imagined that her Mexican Catholic family would be horrified if they knew about the number of sexual par