Too Fat, Too Slutty, Too Loud: The Rise and Reign of the Unruly Woman

by Anne Helen Petersen

Femininity cloaked power and strength, made it more palatable, less threatening.

The political power of drag resides in its ability to draw attention to just how performative gender can be.

It’s no coincidence that several of her roles were originally written for men, or mapped onto traditionally “male” genres, like the buddy cop film, the spy movie, or the ghost-busting narrative—McCarthy’s characters have the confidence and shamelessness of a pompous white male.

The progression of Broad City ultimately suggests that freedom should not be equated with enlightenment—and while being a woman who doesn’t define yourself in relation to men is incredibly powerful, the danger is when you fail to see yourself, or the freedoms you enjoy, in relationship to those of anyone else.

Madonna also embodies the ideologies of postfeminism, with its attendant privileging of the desires, power, and pleasure of the individual woman over actual equality and rights for women in general.

a hope that someday, the only rules a woman will have to abide by are those she sets for herself.