Monday, February 20, 2006

Meet Loredana Vuoto



She is the speech writer for Wade Horn, Assistant Secretary at the Administration for Children and Families at the Department of Health and Human Services. Wade Horn thinks that without a father there is no family at all. Or perhaps Vuoto thinks so, given that she writes speeches for him.

I came across her name when I read a review she wrote about Warren Farrell's new book Why Men Earn More: The Startling Truth Behind the Pay Gap — And What Women Can Do About It. Warren Farrell is an extreme anti-feminist nutcase. If you want to find out the truth about the wage gap between the genders, click on the website I have at the top of this blog and read all three posts on it. Farrell's book just uses the wingnut legend I criticize thoroughly in my piece, the one about women's lower earnings being wholly caused by their own choices. If you read my gender gap series you know that this is simply just not true. It is a lie, actually.

But Vuoto loves Farrell's book and gives it a glowing review. She concludes:

But he also lays bare the unpleasant truth about working women. For decades, feminists and Hollywood have perpetuated the myth that a woman can have it all — a successful, high-powered career, with time for a loving husband and children, all the while looking glamorous, sexy, and carefree. The reality, however, is that working women today are more stressed, overworked, and underappreciated than they were prior to the women's liberation movement. Pursuing a career carries trade-offs and costs, which usually come at the expense of family and children. A similar dynamic holds true for women wishing to spend more time at home: The result will be less time and less productivity at the office. This book poignantly illustrates why feminism's war on human nature is destined to fail: Instead of chasing the chimera of perfect wage parity between the sexes, women will continue to harbor the natural desire to be devoted mothers and wives.

This is what caught my attention: that "the natural desire to be devoted mothers and wives" should be taken as a permission to mistreat women in the labor markets. For remember that the latest government study on the wage gap left about half of it unexplained after taking into account the sorts of variables that measure a woman's household duties. But Vuoto doesn't care about this. She is a good foot soldier in the wingnut army, and facts might get in the way.

So I got really interested in what else she might have to tell us, and I found this bit about the dangers of politically aware and voting women:

Although women are a force to be reckoned with their emancipation has not come without a price—something Lake and Conway fail to discuss. Women have rejected the quintessential essence of their being: Their ability to love and be loved. This has undermined the beauty of marriage and the happiness that comes with raising a child. Women may be more successful and influential than ever, but are they truly happier?

Here it is again. The idea that love and equality are not mutually compatible. What must Vuoto's background be to believe this? And why is she still writing speeches and articles? Is she that alone and unloved? If only she could pack it all in and regain the essential feminine of her heart all would be fine.

Maybe the reason she hasn't done this is that what might be good for all those "other" women doesn't really satisfy her. She has far too much fun bashing liberals and feminists to go home and put on the heart-shaped apron with the bow on the back:

Limbaugh cuts right to the chase and offers countless examples of how the Christian voice is being muted in our educational, judicial, and social systems. Examples range from the current ban of a Ten Commandments monument in the court of Alabama to the elimination of religion in school curriculum, as well as prayer in the classroom to the attempt to strike the words "under God" from the Pledge of Allegiance. Limbaugh also does an excellent job at citing more obscure cases where the religious voice is being stifled, such as the discrimination of churches in certain local zoning areas and the prohibition on Christian speakers in certain schools and other forums.

Limbaugh argues that liberal zealots are not being sincere about their true intentions to push religion out of society. The liberal claim that this should be done so as not to offend nonbelievers is hypocritical, since Christians are the ones being discriminated against by having their First Amendment rights infringed upon. Moreover, liberals claim to champion intellectual and social "diversity" but are quick to obliterate any religious or conservative perspective at odds with their agenda. This lack of genuine tolerance is incongruent with the spirit of democracy and freedom that America was founded on.

The idea of Christians as oppressed if they cannot force everyone else to live like they do.

I really should diversify into some wingnut writing. They need someone like me, badly. Otherwise they will have to keep on using people like Vuoto who find every wingnut book just mahvelously insightful and shockingly new.