 Phyllis Rackin is an example of a scholar who reads the speech ironically, especially in how it deals with gender.She points out that several lines in the speech focus on the woman's body, but in the Elizabethan theatre, the role would have been played by a young boy, thus rendering any evocation of the female form as ironic.Reading the play as a satire of gender roles, she sees the speech as the culmination of this process.