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relates to the satire of Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest.

A discussion of this quotation should certainly address the topic of power. What makes a person powerful or powerless? We tend to think of powerful people as those having education, money, high positions in society, armies, or weapons. In any society, the person who is powerless is lacking one or all of those elements of power. What is left to that person to express his or her point of view?  All a powerless person has are words, right? What happens to a powerless person who writes or speaks about ideas that contradict those in power?  In many societies, the consequences could be deadly. That leaves the powerless person who wishes to express a contrary idea with one choice, to disguise the message.  Satire is a means of making a point without expressing the idea directly.

Oscar Wilde himself used to say that, when he was satirized in the comedy "Patience", the fact of being talked about was better than not. In his many biographies it states how he was often the center of much criticism from the way he walked, to the way he looked, to the way he lived his life. Yet, he seemed to feed off such criticism and actually challenged plenty people by reinstating the persona that he wanted to present and create it in a bigger and better (and much more exuberant) way. 

This also translates into his plays- he self-portrays in the mode of the dandy such as Algernon and other characters which basically tell those critics "yep, that's me" and makes him more powerful.