A calendar launched by a “woke-free” beer company featuring conservative women in pinup poses has sparked a controversy about morality from the right.
Conservative Dad’s Ultra Right Beer teamed up with women’s sports champion Riley Gaines to sell a ‘Real Women of America’ 2024 calendar. It features Riley Gaines, Dana Loesch and a host of others in red, white and blue, bikinis and other sexy poses.
After its release in time for the holiday season, the product drew backlash from some Republicans who believed looking at images of women in seductive poses went against Christian values ​​at the core of the conservative movement.
“I just don’t see the value in marketing what is basically, in some images, soft porn for married (or single) men,” said the evangelical commentator and podcaster Allie Beth Stuckey.
But others, such as Megyn Kelly, have pushed back, saying the conservative movement is no longer based solely on Christian values ​​and that women can be “sexy.”
Conservative Dad’s Ultra Right Beer Teamed Up With Women’s Sports Advocate Riley Gaines To Sell ‘Real Women of America’ 2024 Calendar
The calendar featuring conservative women in pinup poses has created a controversy that has divided the right-wing community
Along with Gaines, many other well-known conservative women, including former NRA spokeswoman Dana Loesch, are featured in the calendar, which showcases their gun collection
Evangelical commentator and podcaster Allie Beth Stuckey (pictured) criticized the calendar, calling it ‘soft porn’
The controversy dubbed ‘calendargate’ comes as conservatives debate the movement’s future. The party has become more secular in recent years as Trump has served as president and is running for the White House again.
Conservative Dad’s Ultra Right Beer was launched to compete against Bud Light after its disastrous partnership with transgender Dylan Mulvaney.
Along with Gaines, many other well-known conservative women including Kim Klacik, Sara Gonzales, Ashley St. Clair, Josie The Redheaded Libertarian and Peyton Drew in the calendar.
In the calendar, St. Clair posed with her hair in an Audrey Hepburn-esque updo and pearl necklace similar to Mulvaney’s Bud Light ad.
But the calendar caused outrage from some evangelicals such as Stuckey.
‘You can probably guess what I think of a calendar labeled for “conservative dads” filled with pictures of women, many of them married and many of them very scantily clad. Hate it.’
“I also find the discourse ridiculous, as if we should all pretend we don’t understand the purpose of a calendar of posed, full-body photos of women,” Stuckey said.
Former Trump lawyer Jenna Ellis said: ‘This is the problem with conservatives who think they can act just like the secular world. If conservatives are not morally grounded Christians, what are we “preserving?”
‘This whole calendar thing is a no from me, but it’s not surprising given the current state of the movement.’
The calendar is the first to “specifically showcase the most beautiful conservative women in America,” the company claims.
The collaboration pledged to donate 10 percent of sales to ‘the Riley Gaines Center’ – a foundation created by the swimmer that aims to ‘protect’ women’s sports from ‘extreme left-wing ideology that seeks to destroy women’s athletics’.
Christian activist Morgan Ariel said: ‘A conservative beer calendar that sexualizes women in our movement and markets it to married conservative men is DEMONIC.’
‘Question for women: When will you want to be loved, valued and appreciated by a man as opposed to being sexualized and objectified by them? Your integrity should be worth more to you than a check received for a photoshoot that devalues ​​you.’
Some have said that the calendar is degrading to women and goes against the Christian values ​​of being conservative about modesty and faithfulness in marriage.
In the calendar, Ashley St. Clair posed with her hair in an Audrey Hepburn-esque updo and pearl necklace similar to Dylan Mulvaney’s Bud Light ad
Conservative Dad’s Ultra Right Beer launched to compete against Bud Light after its disastrous partnership with trans Mulvaney
The calendar features conservative women posing in bikinis and wearing red, white and blue
Critics of the calendar represent a rift at the heart of the conservative wing, which is torn between evangelical Christian values ​​and a more fear-mongering side of the party
Madeline Kearns said in National Review‘Either the sexual revolution was all fun and games until a bunch of overzealous feminists and LGBT activists ruined it, or the sexual revolution was doomed from the start and the 90s-style nonsense found in adverts, movies and calendars isn’t far removed from our present degradation.’
“What must be preserved is not yesterday’s liberalism, but timeless virtues and norms: a culture of courtship, a culture that emphasizes male and female sexual complementarity, abstinence before marriage, fidelity within it, openness to the gift of children, as well as the cultivation of a culture in which beauty is valued over the vulgar and obscene. Desire, however lucrative, undermines this project.’
Former Ron DeSantis speechwriter Nate Hochman said in a piece for The American Conservative‘The narrow ideological framework within which the right operates allows only a long, endless array of “conservative alternatives to (X),” which reproduce the dominant culture’s values ​​and animate assumptions with a thin layer of right-wing political priorities painted on. top.’
‘An anti-trans Bud Light is still essentially Bud Light. An anti-woke Playboy is still essentially Playboy.’
Critics of the calendar represent a rift in the heart of the conservative wing, which sees a growing split between evangelical Christian values ​​and a more jaded side of the party illustrated by the rise of Trump and online culture.
Kristin Kobes Du Mez, a historian who has studied evangelism and masculinity said New York Times‘As with so many things with Trump, it’s a longer story, but he’s also changed the game.’
“On that basis, it’s a healthy thing for a boy to desire a very sexy woman.”
Seth Weathers, 39, who founded the ‘wake-free’ American beer said: ‘Beers used to be about great beer, American patriotism, fun, fast cars and beautiful real women. We’re bringing all these things back, but better than ever.’
Megyn Kelly – who once posed seductively for GQ – challenged critics’ perception that posing in seductive pictures is against conservative values.
‘Conservatives can be sassy, ​​why are conservatives, why do we all have to be stuffy and like not sexy?’ Kelly said.
Megyn Kelly challenged the critics’ view that posing in seductive pictures is against conservative values
Michael Moynihan, co-host of The Fifth Column podcast said: ‘Not everything has to be the way forward, something can be staying in place or having no lateral or backward movement.’
‘All that matters here, Megyn, and you know as well as I do, is whether they’re hot. If they’re warm, that’s fine. If they are not hot, then I am opposed to the calendar.’
Political commentator Tim Pool said on his podcast with singer Phil Labonte: ‘Republicans are complaining about a calendar while Democrats just removed Donald Trump from the ballot in Maine.’
‘I see these tweets about Josie and they’re like “that’s demonic” and I’m like “what?” She’s wearing a sundress and an apron, and she baked a pie.’
Labonte said: ‘I understand there are people who have serious religious beliefs, shut the hell up with this stupid bullshit.’