#2372: Suzanne Venker

Suzanne Venker is an anti-feminist journalist who writes articles for Fox News. Venker is also the niece of Phyllis Schlafly, and has even co-written books with Phyllis (The Flipside of Feminism: What Conservative Women Know – and Men Can’t Say) published by WND Books. Her style, topics and approach are pretty much what you’d expect from a wingnut member of the Schlafly family, and she is, in particular, profoundly confused – even admitting so herself – about what feminism actually is.

Anti-feminism

A sympathizer with MRA causes, Venker was a central part of Fox News’s 2012 coverage of “War on Men”, their MRA-style attempt to rebrand the War on Women. She wrote a book with that title, and the ideas presented in that book constitute a recurring theme in her more recent writings, including lamenting how Mad Men is a thing of the past and women only have themselves to blame. Well, media is to blame, too, for instance through insidious feminist tools like Everybody loves Raymond. She is, however, remarkably vague on what reversing the trend would actually amount to.

 

A defender of some version of complementarianism, Venker has also asserted that in order to be happy in marriage, one must admit that men and women are not equal, defending the claim with your typical patriarchal heteronormative nonsense – for instance in her book 7 Myths of Working Mothers: Why Children and (Most) Careers Just Don’t Mix (the qualifier matters since Venker herself has both children and a career), which of course takes it for granted that women, when faced with the choice, should choose the latter – Venker is the kind of anti-feminist that would right away tell a young daughter not to become a brain surgeon because it would inferfere with her baby-making (her example). As such, it is, according to Venker, a problem that society has bred “alpha women incapable of love”; as she sees it, “women have become too much like men. They’re too competitive. Too masculine. Too alpha.” Her attempts at slut-shaming must almost be seen to be believed.

 

Her book How to Choose a Husband is superbly reviewed here. She had a follow-up interview on the book and the breakdown of marriage in America with a highly sympathetic Rush Limbaugh, who has been married at least four times. They did not appear to grasp why some people would perceive a certain irony here. Meanwhile, Beyoncé, for instance (wingnut fundies are remarkable obsessed with Beyoncé), is, according to Venker, “a poor excuse for a wife” given her “slutty behavior”, and she will never be able to find a “quality husband” that way.

 

Diagnosis: Now, we suppose most readers would groan at such hateful silliness, but keep in mind that Venker’s position e.g. with the Eagle Forum makes her quite influential in certain wingnut circles.