Some models now speak about the cars and gather feedback. With the increased societal push for gender equality and against the objectification of women, the presence of female models at auto shows has largely declined. The presence of female car models has not been eliminated completely, and there are several reasons. As women have the right to choose their careers, some women simply enjoy working as models. Advertising and modelling agencies employ women who are glad to work around cars and get paid well for a live gig and auto shows do pay well. Some models who do still work at car shows have undergone a makeover—not necessarily a physical one, but in their role. Many automakers have relied on the models to gather customer reactions to new vehicles, getting much-needed public feedback that gets discreetly jotted down on tablets by the models who are asking questions.

Sexy women in bikinis really do inspire some men to see them as objects, according to a new study of male behavior. Brain scans revealed that when men are shown pictures of scantily clad women, the region of the brain associated with tool use lights up. Men were also more likely to associate images of sexualized women with first-person action verbs such as "I push, I grasp, I handle," said lead researcher Susan Fiske, a psychologist at Princeton University. And in a "shocking" finding, Fiske noted, some of the men studied showed no activity in the part of the brain that usually responds when a person ponders another's intentions. This means that these men see women "as sexually inviting, but they are not thinking about their minds," Fiske said.

TMZ flickers on mute as her five dogs howl. Sitting crisscross on her couch, she unzips a duffel bag stuffed with year-old stripper thongs. By the time she gets to the bottom of the bag, her couch is covered in ancient bedazzled panties.