Author: Rebecca Traister
Quotes of Author: Rebecca Traister
For if single women are looking for government to create a "hubby state" for them, what is certainly true is that their male counterparts have a long enjoy the fruits of a related "wifey state," in which the nation and its government supported male independence in a variety of ways. Men, and especially married wealthy white men, have a long relied on government assistance. It's a government that has historically supported white men's home and business ownership through grants, loans, incentives, and tax breaks. It has allowed them to accrue wealth and offer them shortcuts and bonuses for passing it down to their children. Government established white men's right to vote and thus exert control over the government at the nation's founding and has protected their enfranchisement. It has also bolstered the economic and professional prospects of men by depressing the economic prospects of women: by failing to offer women equivalent economic and civic protections, thus helping to create conditions whereby women were forced to be dependent on those men, creating a gendered class of laborers who took low paying or unpaid jobs doing the domestic and childcare work that further enabled men to dominate public spheres.But the growth of a massive population of women who are living outside those dependent circumstances puts new pressures on the government: to remake conditions in a way that will be more hospitable to female independence, to a citizenry now made up of plenty of women living economically, professionally, sexually, and socially liberated lives. book-quoteHumor can be such a good way to hide anger at racist, sexist degradation and to challenge white male authority sideways-without risking as much direct blowback-that it perhaps shouldn't be a surprise that the comedian Tina Fey wrote jokes about Harvey Weinstein's sexual predation-lines about being pinned under Weinstein, and turning down sex with him-that aired on her show 30 Rock in 2012, years before his behavior could be reported straight. In 2013, during the Oscars, the white male comedian Seth MacFarlane also made a Weinstein joke-about the lead actress nominees no longer having to pretend to be attracted to the producer. After 2017 reporting revealed the extent of Weinstein's predation, MacFarlane explained that a friend of his, an actress who'd been harassed by Weinstein, had confided in him, prompting his joke. "Make no mistake," he said at the time, his one-liner had come "from a place of loathing and anger. book-quote
