Men Have Depended on the Government for Centuries—So Why Shouldn’t Women Do the Same? Rebecca Traister, The New Republic, October 8, 2014 (h/t Echidne)

Where once American women were forced to depend on husbands for economic stability and social and sexual sanctification, they now rely, to some degree, on the American government to protect the rights and benefits that make independent citizenship possible.

But what too often goes unacknowledged is that women aren’t the only Americans who have relied on the government as a partner. Rather, it’s a model of support and dependence that has bolstered the fortunes of American men throughout the nation’s history.

It’s hard to remember that guys did not rise to the top of business and political worlds passively, by dint of their hard-wired inclinations and the gravitational pull of their penises alone. Men too, even the rich, white married ones who vote Republican as reliably as single women vote Democrat—in fact, especially those men—have benefitted terrifically from government policies and practices. Call it “The Wifey State,” and come to grips with the fact that white guys have been taking advantage of it since the founding.

Wal-Mart Advances ObamaCare, BooMan, Booman Tribune, October 9, 2014

Wal-Mart’s decision to kick their part-time employees off their health care rolls and onto the ObamaCare exchanges is great news. There are more younger, healthier people going on the exchanges, which makes the exchanges stronger and cheaper. A bigger percentage of working people are getting their health care from the government. More working class people are getting the benefit of a subsidy to help pay for their health care. The idea that employers should be the providers of health care for their employees is eroded even further.

Toxic Tokenism, bspencer, Lawyers, Guns & Money, October 9, 2014

If you accuse a woman who’s also a misogynist that she enjoys the attention and validation she gets from male misogynists, you’re bound to be accused of misogyny yourself. It’s a cute trick, but here’s why it doesn’t work: so long as there are oppressed groups there are going to be members of those groups who work to appeal to the dominant group. (These dominant groups always seem to made up primarily of straight, white men–it’s weird how that works.) Anyhow, toxic tokenism is certainly not something that only conservative women engage in. People of color and LBGT folks also dabble. Why? It’s the allure of being extraordinary!