A calendar featuring pictures of “the most beautiful conservative women in America” has come under fire from those on the right.
Conservative Dad’s is behind the 12-month wall calendar, which features photos of Riley Gaines, Dana Loesch, Kim Klacik, and Ashley St. Clair to name a few.
On Wednesday’s show, Megyn was joined by the hosts of The Fifth Column – Kmele Foster, Michael Moynihan, and Matt Welch – to discuss the controversy.
Conservative Dad’s Calendar
Late last year, the company behind Ultra Right Beer – the beverage maker with the mission of selling “anti-woke beer” in the wake of the Bud Light-Dylan Mulvaney partnership – started offering its “Conservative Dad’s Real Women of America 2024 Calendar.”
The $25 calendar has swimmer and activist Gaines lounging poolside in a red, white, and blue string bikini on its cover. Inside, Loesch poses with a pair of firearms in a t-shirt and jeans, while St Clair riffs on Mulvaney’s infamous Audrey Hepburn impression in his Bud Light March Madness video.
The brand bills the date book as a “celebration of conservative women who are fighting woke extremist[s] to preserve real women” and says 10 percent of sales will be donated to the Riley Gaines Center “to protect women’s sports from extreme leftist ideology seeking to destroy real women.”
Conservatives Cry Foul
It didn’t take long for the calendar to turn heads online. “A lot of people on the internet are upset about this – conservative women are saying this is not what we need,” Megyn explained. “I’ve gotta be honest, I couldn’t care less about people doing it. I think this is great.”
Megyn admitted she was approached about being a part of the calendar and turned down the offer but said she has no problem with the finished product. “Dana Loesch [is] amazing – she’s not showing anything, she’s like holding guns,” Megyn said. “Riley Gaines is in a bikini. Hello! She’s a swimmer. She’s gorgeous.”
Even so, there has been pushback from women on the right. “A lot of conservative women who I love are like, this is not the way forward,” Megyn noted. Allie Beth Stuckey, for example, posted on X that she “hate[s]” the project. “Of course these women are gorgeous, and of course I’m all for celebrating true femininity in an age that can’t define ‘woman,’” she wrote in part. “In my view, this doesn’t accomplish that at all.”
Back in 2010, Megyn gave an interview and posed for a photoshoot with GQ magazine in which she wore a “sultry little dress.” Former President Donald Trump brought up the spread on the 2016 campaign trail, and Megyn recalled his wasn’t the only backlash she received. “I got a lot of blowback… from conservatives who were like, ‘That was a mistake. That’s not what conservatives stand for,’” she shared. “I was like, What do you mean conservatives can be saucy? Why do we have to be all stuffy and, like, not sexy?”
In Moynihan’s view, it speaks to a larger issue on the right. “That’s why conservatives lose the culture war,” he concluded. “They give you a hard time about being in GQ.”
You can check out Megyn’s full interview with The Fifth Column by tuning in to episode 694 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s Triumph (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.