#CalendarGate began in December of 2023. It is part of the new Conservative company, “Conservative Dad” advertisement of their new “Ultra Right Beer”.
The launch of this new beer came amidst the Budlight boycott following their partnership with Dylan Mulvaney. This is where the branding of “Real Conservative Women” comes from as Mulvaney is a transgender woman who has been a common recipient of criticism from the right so this branding is very much against the idea of “Trans Women are real Women”.
The calendar features some prominent female conservative and right wing commentators such as Ashley St Clair and Josie “The Red Headed Libertarian”. It seeks to call back to old fashioned pin up calendars from the past which were fairly common for men to own. This caused a great controversy on the right the Calendar drew criticism from Christians who believe that such a calendar is antithetical to Christian and conservative values, labelling the calendar as “soft pornography”. Here is an example of a Twitter/X exchange between Christian Conservative rapper Bryson Gray and The Red Headed Libertarian.
The classical Christian and conservative beliefs towards the roles of women are more focused around their roles as mothers and care givers and that the women who partook in the photoshoot for this calendar are going against their values. The Red Headed Libertarian in particular faced criticism for adopting the Christian housewife aesthetic for her photo in the calendar.
This calendar has also been called a blatant attempt to try and grift off and profit from older conservatives by pandering to the their nostalgia, this has now been a common concern on the right that most seemingly right wing commentators seem to just want to profit off of their audience rather than actually promote the ideas and values they espouse