In The History of Sexuality (1976), Michel Foucault writes about the “repressive hypothesis” – that, in human desire to become fully liberated and the masters of our sexuality, our overbearing discourse and need to tell about it has actually made us more subject to it than ever. The more we voice how incredible our new Magic Wand is; the guy we met at our friends’ party who we gave an anonymous and simultaneous hand-on-genitals to; the more we admit our complete and utter lack of power. This example of duped self-owning can perhaps best be seen in two works about infuriatingly zesty women written over two centuries apart: the March sisters (Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy) of Little Women (Louisa May Alcott) and the “fashionistas” of HBO’s Sex and the City (Miranda, Carrie, Charlotte, and Samantha). While all of these women openly discuss their liberation ad nauseum, one cannot help but notice their slavery to the heteronormative white male regime. And above all: none of these women can really grasp how truly annoying they are because of this.
