A brewery that aims its beer at conservative consumers recently announced it will sell a 2024 calendar featuring “real” women who happen to be conservative.
Models for the calendar marketed by Conservative Dad’s Ultra Right beer include former NCAA swimmer Riley Gaines, NRA spokeswoman Dana Loesch, businesswoman and former GOP congressional candidate Kimberly Klacik, and BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales.
Conservative Dad’s Ultra Right brewery, founded in April during transgender TikTok personality Dylan Mulvaney’s controversial partnership with Bud Light, says it sells only “100% woke-free beer.”
A noble and novel mission, yes. But Ultra Right’s new endeavor leaves much to be desired.
Although I respect the tremendous work these women have done, and what the Ultra Right brand does to fight liberal nonsense, the brewery can, and must, do better. We don’t need a “conservative” version of Sports Illustrated’s celebrated swimsuit edition.
In selling a calendar that includes soft porn in the name of celebrating “conservative women who are fighting woke extremists to preserve real women,” Conservative Dad’s Ultra Right falls short.
Yes, conservative women are beautiful. Yes, “real” (and conservative) women look much different and are much easier on the eyes than a man masquerading as a woman, with the help of makeup, plastic surgeries, and fake body parts.
But selling a collection of sexually explicit photos of women, even if the proceeds go to the worthiest of causes (10% of proceeds reportedly will go to the Riley Gaines Center to protect women’s sports) isn’t the way to go about it.
Conservatives, representing a movement that is pro-life, pro-family, and pro-civil society, should never be inviting lust in any way, shape, or form.
Yes, we can and should highlight the women who make our movement the strongest, best, most attractive movement in the world. But doing so by flaunting their bodies is absolutely not the way.
According to a 2014 report by Diverse: Issues in Higher Education, 79% of men between the ages of 18 and 30 view pornography monthly; 67% of men between 31 and 49 view it monthly; and 49% of men between 50 and 68 do so.
Saddest of all, according to the report, men who say they are Christians watch pornography at work at the same rate as the national average.
We live in a broken world, and my criticism isn’t meant to shame anyone who struggles with this issue, nor any of the women who chose to be part of this limited edition “calendar.”
It is a call, however, to do better. Conservatives can’t expect to change our culture if we run the same plays as the Left does, be it to raise more money, get more clicks, grow our audience, or whatever. We can’t say we’re different from the woke Left if we do the same kinds of things it does, only with a different label.
While not every photo in the “calendar” is sexually explicit, some are. We have become so callous as a society to the constant broadcasting of sex everywhere that we don’t even bat an eyelash anymore to sexual exploitation, especially if it’s “soft.”
Most research indicates that boys are first exposed to pornography between ages 8 and 10. The conservative movement shouldn’t be responsible for facilitating the gateway to that exposure, even if it is for a good cause.
Perhaps more disturbing, though, is the fact that this calendar is marketed to dads. Men should honor women, and fathers especially have a duty to honor the mother of their children, and to set an example for those children both in public and in private.
Anything that invites lust is dishonoring. Conservatives who claim to love family, and pride themselves on being part of a movement that is going to change the culture, lose credibility in moments such as these. It’s hard to respect a movement that says it wants to protect women, build strong families, and change the culture when it does the same things that contribute to the downfall of the culture—but with “conservative” packaging.
The Left has no problem with sexually exploiting women to its own advantage, whether biological women or those who claim to “identify” as a woman.
Women are sexually exploited to sell everything, from movies to food to clothes to alcoholic beverages—you name it, it’s been done. As conservatives, we shouldn’t stoop to that level.
Women are more than their parts, as beautiful as they are. Why not honor them by showing off what they do, rather than objectifying their beauty?
True masculinity honors women. We can’t say we’re trying to build a more civil society with strong families, strong marriage, and strong communities when we encourage the very thing that often destroys relationships, marriages, and families.
Pornography is a “quiet family killer,” according to research featured in the Huffington Post (of all places) that was conducted by Patrick Fagan, senior fellow and director of the Marriage and Religion Research Institute at The Catholic University.
Although Fagan’s research found that watching pornography does indeed contribute to infidelity, the pornography addiction of a spouse “was a factor in 56% of divorces.”
We can do better. If we truly want to change the culture, build strong families, and eliminate wokeness, we must.
The Daily Signal publishes a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Heritage Foundation.
Have an opinion about this article? To sound off, please email [email protected], and we’ll consider publishing your edited remarks in our regular “We Hear You” feature. Remember to include the URL or headline of the article plus your name and town and/or state.