'The View' schooled on traditional marriage

Suzanne Venker, a conservative pundit and author of the soon-to-be-published by WND Books "How to Choose a Husband," has taken her perspectives on men, women and marriage, which she sums up as "The War on Men," to the women of "The View" on ABC.

Joining Whoopi Goldberg, Joy Behar, Elisabeth Hasselbeck, Sherri Sheppard and guest Mike Tyson on the set of "The View," the conversation shifted to Venker's recent FoxNews.com article "The War on Men," in which she argued that the empowered modern female was turning men off from the idea of marriage.

Sheppard introduced Venker, stating, "Conservative author Suzanne Venker had heads spinning when she claimed that successful women are waging a war on men that has resulted in lazy men who aren't interested in marriage and angry powerful women who are still playing the victim."

Tyson, at one time the heavyweight champion of boxing and a convicted rapist, let out a powerful, albeit high-pitched, "Yeah" when Sheppard finished her introduction of Venker.

"I'm asking women to shine a spotlight on what has happened over the past 40 years, with the rise of women. Today's generation of women are told not depend on a man, what's happened is that they are carrying it with them into their relationships. It's more contentious in the relationship," said Venker.

"Men want to feel needed. Just because we've proven we can do anything men can do, doesn't mean they want to hear it," said Venker.

"We are teaching women that equality means sameness; if you are trying to be like a man, you'll end up doing this. If we want lasting love, we should be allowed to have women act with femininity and men with masculinity. "

Both Goldberg and Behar attacked Venker's arguments, with Goldberg bringing up the 1950s image of a distressed housewife chained to her kitchen as the type of scenario Venker would like to see return.

Before Venker could even answer, Tyson interjected with a rambling story of his wife at home.

In an interview with WND, Venker said of Tyson's commentary: "It was very helpful. The things that he did say were good at deflecting what could have been said. Whoopi and Joy were coming in for the kill, and Mike Tyson did a great job of deflecting."

Venker said it's not "a political conversation, it's about marriage and love."

Hasselbeck asked Venker asked how men are evolving to deal with empowered women, but before she could answer, the conversation shifted.

Asked by WND to address Hasselbeck's question, Venker said: "Men don't need women to be wives anymore. The dating world has changed dramatically, the chase concept, whether you call it courting or demonstrating value to a potential partner and making that really drawn out and worthwhile is gone. Now, it's like, 'Hello, let's have sex.' When did you believe that men were going to want, or need, to get married when this scenario exists?

"While many women want to get married, do men need to get married anymore when the 'empowered' woman allows this situation to continue? That's how men are evolving," said Venker.

Venker also took issue with Goldberg castigating the 1950s, telling WND: "I take issue that 1950s housewives were a mess … that every woman from that era is a caricature of June Cleaver. You're basically talking about your mothers and grandmothers. Women are basically saying their mothers and grandmothers lives were a joke.

"I take issue that this time period was the worst time of being a mother. It's a script that women were sold on, that being a housewife in the 1950s was oppressive. I'm sure that was the case for some women, but that doesn't make it true across the board," she said.

Venker's book, "How to Choose a Husband," will be published Feb. 5, 2013.

In it, Venker notes that 40 years after the sexual revolution women of America have everything they want. Everything, that is, except a husband. Women may be schooled in the art of sex, she says, but they have failed in the art of love.

She says the modern generation is living in a culture that isn’t the least bit interested in helping them get hitched. For decades women have been taught to sleep around indiscriminately, to pursue an education and career at all costs, and to never depend on a man.

As a result, women delay marriage indefinitely or ignore it altogether, as though marriage has no bearing on their happiness. As though it were a nice idea, or nice accompaniment to an otherwise satisfying life.

This is an unprecedented worldview. Until recently, women have always mapped out their lives according to what they considered their most important role: wife and mother. Today, women plan their entire futures around big careers. Husband and children come last.

In "How to Choose a Husband,” Venker says American women need a detox.

If they want to be happy, or just plain satisfied, they must do a 180 when it comes to their attitude toward sex, courtship and married life.

If they do, marriageable men will reappear – and women will find the love that eludes them.

Venker's previous book, "The Flipside of Feminism," earned high praise from Focus on the Family founder James Dobson.

"Certain moments happen in all our lives that seem to be of incredible import. I would venture to say this could be one of those moments," Dobson said as the authors of "The Flipside of Feminism," Venker and Phyllis Schlafly, joined him on his program, "FamilyTalk."

The book explains that since the 1960s, American feminists have set themselves up as the arbiters of all things female. Their policies have dominated the social and political landscape. The "spin sisters" in the media and their cohorts in academia are committed feminists. Consequently, everything Americans know – or think they know – about marriage, kids, sex, education, politics, gender roles and the work-family balance has been filtered through a left-wing lens.

But the book asserts that it is conservative women who actually are "in the best position to empower American women."