It’s called “Calendargate,” and it’s raising the question of what — and whom — the right-wing war on “wokeness” is really for.
While most people were enjoying the holidays, extremely online conservatives were fighting about a pinup calendar.
Last month, Ultra Right Beer — a company founded as a conservative alternative to allegedly woke Bud Light — released a 2024 calendar titled “Conservative Dad’s Real Women of America 2024 Calendar.” The calendar contains photos of “the most beautiful conservative women in America” in various sexy poses. Some, like anti-trans swimmer Riley Gaines and writer Ashley St. Clair, are wearing revealing outfits; others, like former House candidate Kim Klacik, are fully clothed. No one is naked.
But this mild sexiness was just a bit too much for some prominent social conservatives, who started decrying the calendar in late December as (among other things) “demonic.” The basic complaint is that the calendar is pandering to married men’s sinful lust, debasing conservative women, and making conservatives seem like hypocrites when they complain about leftist immorality.
I’m really enjoying all the right wing women getting offended by this. Like, no shit these men don’t respect women, they never did. You’re not different or special just because you’re a giant pick-me, and conservative men only put you on a pedestal when they can use it to insult liberal women. Cry more about the situation you put yourself in.
Yep.
Andrea Dworkin:
“Right-wing women have surveyed the world: they find it a dangerous place. … They see that traditional marriage means selling to one man, not hundreds: the better deal. … Right-wing women see that within the system in which they live they cannot make their bodies their own, but they can agree to privatized male ownership: keep it one-on-one, as it were. They know that they are valued for their sex— their sex organs and their reproductive capacity—and so they try to up their value: through cooperation, manipulation, conformity; through displays of affection or attempts at friendship; through submission and obedience; and especially through the use of euphemism—“femininity, ” “total woman, ” “good, ” “maternal instinct, ” “motherly love. ” Their desperation is quiet; they hide their bruises of body and heart; they dress carefully and have good manners; they suffer, they love God, they follow the rules. They see that intelligence displayed in a woman is a flaw, that intelligence realized in a woman is a crime. They see the world they live in and they are not wrong. They use sex and babies to stay valuable because they need a home, food, clothing. … Male violence acts directly on the girl through her father or brother or uncle or any number of male professionals or strangers, as it did and does on her mother, and she too is forced to learn to conform in order to survive. A girl may, as she enters adulthood, repudiate the particular set of males with whom her mother is allied, run with a different pack as it were, but she will replicate her mother’s patterns in acquiescing to male authority within her own chosen set. Using both force and threat, men in all camps demand that women accept abuse in silence and shame, tie themselves to hearth and home with rope made of self-blame, unspoken rage, grief, and resentment.”
See also: right-wing women who are obsessed about trans women being rapists, drag queens and bathrooms. Obviously trans women raping women is incredibly rare. But they’re a ‘safe’ and acceptable target for victimised and often traumatised women. Women who are too weak to criticise or attack the men who actually hurt them. Eg. JK Rowling is a victim of sexual and domestic abuse. The perpetrator was her husband. Instead of attacking straight men, she spends all day going on about trans women.
You see this kind of psychology in most (quasi-)fascists. It’s sadomasochistic. Kiss the boot of those who opress you, hold those you hold to be below you in contempt and treat them accordingly. Of course, in reality right wing women have common cause with all the people they hate. Just like most right wing men have more in common with a poor black trans sex worker, than a billionaire.
As you say, it’s hard to feel sorry for them. They’re sabotaging themselves, their gender and their class. They’re actively hurting those who could be their allies. It’s partly self-preservation, but it’s also vanity. They lie to themselves that they’re not (fellow) victims.
TLDR: humans are weird.
conservative men only put you on a pedestal when they can use it to insult liberal women.
Also when they want to keep “known predators of white women” (anyone who isn’t a white Christian) out/away. Though statistically they have no reason to fear the “competition”, they are already the biggest predators themselves…
This is it. Every conservative imagines that they’re at the center of the in-group. In reality, they’re usually closer to the edge.
Can you have a calendar with hot women in it while respecting women?
Yes. In believe so in many different forms. I don’t think extremely toned shirtless guys on magazine covers are disrespectful. It is just puritanical thought process that pushes the rhetoric that it is bad. Is employing women disrespectful? Not at all. There can be completely clothed women, completely nude women, a mixture of everyday people… which surprise, women who are found attractive do exist in. If someone doesn’t like something, they can not purchase it for their home. Note that when you looked at the not so covered man sexily draped across a poster/calendar/movie/book cover you don’t look down on all men because of it. They aren’t being disrespected. If someone thinks it is to revealing they think, that guy shouldn’t have done that. They are shunning the individual, not the whole gender/sex. So why would it be different for women?
I think so. If you recognize that women aren’t just neatly categorized as either a Madonna or a whore and they can want to look hot while also still being a full human being worthy of respect, then sure.
I’d go so far as to say that being a whore and being a human being deserving of respect are not mutually exclusive. Being a whore doesn’t inherently have to be a bad thing.
I meant more the proverbial whore than a literal one. Of course you can be a literal whore and be worthy of respect.
It’s the Leopard Party mindset.
Did you read the article? The point here is that there is a division in conservative circles, so talking about conservative men as a single group is missing the point.
The same division, presumably, exists among conservative women (albeit bearing in mind that in the USA men are more conservative than women) so there will be an alliance between pearl-clutching Christian women who decry the debauchery, and women who are feminist but for whom feminism culminated with the third wave, for whom objectification exemplified in a mildly raunchy calendar is something to, at worst, roll ones eyes at.
So by all means enjoy the division in conservative ranks, and hope that it splits their base and ruins their chances of victory, but at least understand what is going on properly. What you think of as “respecting women” is probably not what conservative women think of as respecting women; you’re judging and understanding their beliefs through your own lens, in a way that makes you misunderstand quite badly.
Do you have to practice being that condescending or is it a natural ability? First, there’s no such thing as a conservative man who actually respects women, so this “division” is really just a disagreement about how they want to be disrespectful - via mildly titillating pictures, or via religious control.
Second, I spend huge amounts of time in ex-fundie communities, and both religious and secular conservatism are basically the topic of conversation. I know what conservative women consider to be “respect,” and was applying their standards to this subject. Even by their absolute bottom of the barrel expectations, men are letting them down in this case. The only men on “their side” still view women as property and are only really upset because they think women should only be showing their bits to the man who owns her.
I know what conservative women consider to be “respect,” and was applying their standards to this subject. Even by their absolute bottom of the barrel expectations, men are letting them down in this case.
Do you think the conservative women who appeared in the calendar agree with you? I would guess they don’t. So it seems to me your understanding of the spectrum of opinion is clearly missing something.
Maybe your views on this are out of whack because of spending “huge amounts of time” in a community with a view of conservatism skewed by their unique experiences? That’s not a knock against doing so or against those people, just that fundies have particularly extreme experiences of politics and religion which is bound to mean you hear a lot of outliers.
so this “division” is really just a disagreement about how they want to be disrespectful - via mildly titillating pictures, or via religious control.
I am not conservative but I don’t think looking at mildly titillating pictures of women is disrespectful, and I think that’s an opinion which is pretty common across the political spectrum in the West.
Well since my original comment was exclusively addressing the women who were offended by the calendar, I thought it was pretty obvious that I wasn’t talking about the women who participated, but please, feel free to write a few more paragraphs showing me that you either didn’t read or didn’t understand what I wrote.
“Grab-em-by-the-pussy” Conservatives vs. Puritan Conservatives is pretty funny to watch. However, I presume that both sides will vote for Trump because they have no sense of hypocrisy or irony.
There’s a reason “woke” became the rallying cry over the past few years. It’s the only common thread holding the political coalition together. Everything else in each camp is nearly antithetical to one another. They vote together because they have the same enemy, not because they have the same interests or values.
That’s every election cycle with them, they need a boogyman to get people to vote. For “us” it’s Trump, (try to imagine how many people wouldn’t give a shit about voting if it was “only” Biden vs Romney.) For “them” it’s whatever fox says to keep them glued to the t.v, so last time it was vaccine conspiracies and abortion, before that it was the big bad Hillary boogyman and abortion, and now it’s “Woke.”
(As a side note, I get so unbelievably disgusted when I see discussions on “Steam” with new games where it’s always some form of “woke game? Bad! Bad woke game! Don’t buy, woke!” Like for fucks sake, if you don’t want to set a pronoun then don’t! If you don’t want a male character with female hair styles then don’t you don’t have to do these things, they’re options!)
Who knows what it will be next time, maybe they’ll come back around to holding snowballs in Congress to “debunk” climate change… Then again if Trump wins I’m not really sure if there will be a “next time.” I think Republicans know long term they’re going to lose so they need to consolidate power permanently this time.
They willingly ignore those things and embrace that discordant feeling, calling that sensation of unease “loyalty”.
I’m not sure if you mean in primaries or election, but wouldn’t their situation in elections be the same as the other sides: you vote for the less bad (from your pov) of the two. Surely it’d be Trump rather than Biden for them, even if they’re on the wrong side of that right-wing divide
I have a hard time understanding any justification a Christian puritan would have for voting for Trump. The man embodies the excess of every sin that they obsess over, but I guess he’s the only politician who’s so open to lying to them about the things they most want.
Would Biden and Democrats be more up their alley?
I don’t think I’ve met anyone of any political leaning who would like Biden to be president. People, myself included, still see him as practically perfect compared to Trump.
I’m not defending the Democrats (I’m independent and have no party loyalty). I’m just noting the outrageous state of American politics where puritanical conservatives are so terrified of change that they’d rather vote for a person who openly hates them and their way of life because he lies to them that he’ll maintain the status-quo.
Trump is trash. Biden is trash. Almost all people with any proximity to the presidency are party-loyal trash or wannabe dictators (I.e. Desantis). That said, I’d still rather vote for trash who isn’t openly quoting Hitler and insisting he’s completely above the law.
I just meant in the sense of better out of the two. I know basically nobody thinks of him as a great candidate, but from what I understand of the American system, the only thing that matters is whether the other guy is worse.
LOL, let them fight. Also, the right wing’s weird obsession with trans women is just soooo revealing. I think they have some real inner demons they are wrestling with. I truly think some of them are deathly afraid they’ll be “fooled” by a trans woman and one of their buddies will find out and tease them mercilessly and their inner proclivities will be revealed…
I think people that are on the more hetero end of the sexuality scale don’t really think about this kind of thing at all (other than - “hey, that’s not really my jam, but live and let live”). But it seems to consume a certain kind of man, I’ve noticed.
The left should absolutely fan the flames with questions about who is actually in charge: the people making decisions or the people shutting down those decisions?
Is a calendar that celebrates women a bad thing if it embraces feminity?
Does a man have the right to his own decisions or does he have an obligation to lead and, by extension, be a moral leader?
How can a man enjoy being moral and enjoy women?
This is how the left breaks the right: the small minded man vs the moral minded man.
There is a great desire to see this kind of turnabout - for a long time people have said, without evidence, that the most anti-gay people are closeted, self-hating gay people themselves.
The real reason for this is because that juxtaposition, when it does occasionally happen, sticks in the mind precisely because it’s so weird. But good luck backing it up, especially to the degree people portray it, as you have done. (which is fairly black and white, “more hetero people don’t really think about this kind of thing”)
By definition, a man being attracted to a femininity is the least homo thing possible. A man dating a woman is a hetero relationship, irregardless if she is cis or trans. Ironically, this post is telling on yourself for your own bias against trans people.
If you are gonna speak about trans issues, then you need to understand the issues they face. Because frankly, this sort of argument does more harm than good.
Having dated as a pre-op trans woman, there absolutely are a bunch of guys who clearly want cock (as in they beg me to top them/let them go down on me/cover them in rivers of sticky jizz), but still want to think of themselves as straight and feel guilty about wanting said cock. I think this is the population OP was talking about, they are often referred to as “chasers”.
My guess is that there are more conservatives in this situation because of the social repression associated with that belief. I also know from experience that unwanted feelings of attraction are often sublimated into anger and disgust … b-b-b-BAKA!
The guys who call themselves pan or bi and are like “I like tits, I like cock, let’s do this” behave completely differently and far less weird.
And there are also haters because Fox News told them to be (my father is one of them).
Perhaps! I am a trans woman not interested in bottom surgery, and that has led to a lot of men seeing me as a man and thus a relationship with me “where there is two pensises” being gay, regardless of the fact that I pass and have no interest in “using” my penis. Chasers were a real problem for me as well while I was dating before my current (ace) relationship. I think we could probally agree that there is a lot more conservative bigots out there then closeted chasers, but that’s kinds inherently unknowable, it’s not like these guys are gonna self report on survey.
So to my mind, it seems more likely to read this as a well intending yet confused ally instead of the much smaller subset of “publicly republican/closeted chasers”.
(and Im sorry for your father, my own family thinks I am dead because they are too concerned with making America great than respecting me)
I think you misinterpreted their comment
more hetero end of the sexuality scale
It is not homosexual for a heterosexual cis man to be attracted to a trans woman. I’ll forgive and edit if the original poster misspoke or I misread, but if they are saying it’s gay for a man to be with a trans women (or it reveals their proclivity) then they are wrong and have the same biased takes as the conservites they are mocking.
I don’t think that’s the take they’re claiming. I interpreted what they wrote as referring to straight men not understanding why they are attracted to trans women. I think the “hetero end of the sexuality scale” portion was just to clarify the situation doesn’t really apply to bi or gay people as much, though I personally think a fair amount of cis gay men are very transphobic.
Nothing you said is false at all, I just don’t think the original commenter was trying to have that take. If that was the take, then I 100% agree with you.
Nah, nothing more masculine than gay sex.
Having a woman in the mix makes it too feminine.
the calendar is pandering to married men’s sinful lust
I’ve been looking porn since I was a teenager. Which would be 30 years now. I’ve been married for 23 years. Figure it out, Christians. You don’t have to fuck everything you look at, even if what you’re looking at is naked.
Many Christians believe that lust is just as sinful as actually doing the deed. It’s based on one saying of Jesus where he says if you look upon another woman with lust, you have already committed adultery in your heart.
This interpretation is foundational to a lot of Christian sexual thought and explains why they have failed to have a healthy relationship with sex.
I mean, at that rate the only viable solution is to nudify everything to the point it becomes completely desensitized. Then they won’t feel lust every time some girl shows her ankles.
But game theory isn’t religion’s strong point.
I think one of the main issues with the interpretation is the meaning of lust.
Is it attraction? Is it masturbation with a woman in mind? Is it flirting?
In the time these things were written, women were widely viewed as property and desire was not a huge part of marriage. Who knows what specific sort of cultural thing he might have been referring to?
Personally I think lust is the debasement of a person for your own enjoyment. People consensually engaging in sexual exhibition and other feelings of attraction or sexual fantasy are probably not what Jesus had in mind and aren’t really harmful to healthy adults.
Not widely.
Ancient Egyptians, who were around when the Bible was written/collected, absolutely had the concept of women being more than objects and while not having equal rights, as I recall they were at least allowed to own things/land and go out on their own.
Ditto the Gauls and Celts. Hell, one of the reasons for Boudicca’s revolt is the massive loss of rights for women going from Celtic culture/law to Roman culture/law.
Widely in the Semitic and Roman culture and religious context who made up Jesus’ audience*
This is what I find most hilarious about it. The whole point of that teaching is to remove the lust - if you actually love your wife, you won’t lust after others. But simpletons’ answer is to not look at stuff. It’s bizarre.
But even that is ridiculous. You can love your wife and find other people highly attractive. You can even fantasize about them. You can even have little crushes.
We’re human beings and evolution is a powerful thing. Sex is in our DNA - it’s probably the strongest urge we have after our basic survival needs are met.
The difference is that most healthy adults know that you can be turned on by someone and not take it any further than that. You are free to make your own choices. You and your significant other decide what kind of relationship you want and agree to respect whatever boundaries you do or don’t set.
I see gorgeous women with great personalities all the time. They’re very attractive but I love my wife so I stay faithful to her. It’s not difficult.
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“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” - Jesus
And oh yeah I discovered porn at age 8 or 9. He knows he’s setting an impossible standard which was his point, but the people arguing about a sexy calendar don’t understand.
“Don’t be horny. Here’s a horny brain. Lol.” -God, probably
I like to ask this question. If men’s lust is uncontrollable, why aren’t there more assaults in go-go bars? The answer is always the same; there’s a big bouncer at any club to defend the girls. Controlling lust is easy if you know there will be consequences.
I don’t even think a bouncer is necessary for a lot of men. I’m not into strip clubs myself, but if I was, I’d still be able to keep it in my pants because there’s the whole consent thing. I realize a lot of Republicans don’t give a shit about consent, but most of the rest of us do and I’m guessing that the majority of men who visit strip clubs would never think of sexually assaulting a stripper.
I’m not suggesting they shouldn’t have a bouncer, because there are some men who can’t control themselves, I’m just saying plenty of men are perfectly able to see strippers and not attack them.
I realize a lot of Republicans don’t give a shit about consent, but most of the rest of us do
I’m pretty sure the core goal of right wingers in their respective domains is preventing us from gaining the ability to consent to more stuff - or in their more extreme, for taking away our ability to consent to things - so yeah you’re right about that. Democracy is a system of consent, and our progress towards that was being challenged during the Enlightenment. Today, for example, many right wing economists are against democratically elected managers/bosses, unions, democratic government owned enterprises, government welfare safety nets for the vulnerable, housing cooperatives as a solution to the housing crisis, the list goes on. The pattern being that all of those increase the average person’s ability to consent to more stuff by leveling power asymmetries.
“Go into the cage, it’s for your own protection.” Forcing women to dress and act a certain way isn’t about protecting the women, it’s about controlling them. Look at how the Taliban are treating women and young girls. The preachers will swear up and down it’s to protect the women.
You don’t have to fuck everything you look at, even if what you’re looking at is naked.
I mean, they’re a bunch of ascetics, so they’re wound up tighter than shibari ropes.
Those pictures aren’t even going to move the needle in a world with internet porn on your smartphone.
Good article, because it really could have just been this line:
On one level, this is all very stupid.
This was always the bargain of the patriarchy for the men in power, right? Barstool conservativism in private (ie “locker room talk”, strip clubs, paid for mistresses) but then a religious culture that enforced their public power (ie family, chastity for at least women, bans on people gossiping about their private Bartool Empire).
They are at odds, but not really. What’s the point in religiously subjugating women if you can’t ogle them and cheat on your wife? This hypocrisy IS patriarchy. At least as I understand it.
The No True Scotsmaning cycle of othering and auto-cannibalization continues unabated, I see.
You might be a bigot but there is always someone more bigot than you. It reminds me of this anti-secularist protest walk in Turkey. Some participants were playing music during the protest and some other guys came and started arguing with them saying it was not very Muslim like to play that kind of music so loudly out in the open. It is just so delicious when this happens.
It’s good to see that this problem can affect the right as much as the left for a change. Let them pick each other apart.
The basic complaint is that the calendar is pandering to married men’s sinful lust, debasing conservative women, and making conservatives seem like hypocrites when they complain about leftist immorality.
Oh, sweetie… it’s not the calendar.
Am I the only one who hates “-gate” used to call something a “scandal?”
Watergate was the name of the hotel, it wasn’t a scandal involving water!
This is easily resolved. Just start referring to the scandal involving the Watergate hotel as “Watergategate”. Then the contradiction is resolved with only one change.
Yes, I am with you! I have always hated it, it’s such an American thing to do, not understand our own fucking language.
What shocking information to come out! Not even two weeks into 2024, and we’ve already started Gategate
I’m glad my comment was so powerful and meaningful that it’s creating a whole scandal of its own!
Is this a reference to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vB9JgxhXW5w or have you just converged there by happy accident? :P
I haven’t seen this video before. Thanks for that!
That makes it so much better :D
I know it won’t happen but could you imagine if this was the event that fractured the republican party instead of all the previous BS
“This is the problem with conservatives who think they can act just like the secular world,” writes Jenna Ellis, one of Donald Trump’s attorneys during the 2020 election fight. “If conservatives aren’t morally grounded Christians, what are we even ‘conserving’?”
Such a good slam by the writer that probably went over Ellis’s head.
She was this close to saying the quiet part out loud
…and making conservatives seem like hypocrites when they complain about leftist immorality.
Everyone knows they are hypocrite. They fool no one but themselves. And even that is done poorly.
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Good…good
Let the dumbasserry flow thru your whole party
The problem is, stupid people vote.
https://newrepublic.com/article/159662/libertarian-walks-into-bear-book-review-free-town-project
letThemFight.gif
Side note: what a bizarre thing for them to be squabbling over. All the pressing problems in the world, and this is what they are prioritizing. Even funnier that the reason they after picking isn’t “should women be treated like objects?”, but “should men be responsible for controlling their sexual urges?”
