Latest news with #YoungWomensLeadershipSummit
Washington Post
15-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Washington Post
Is a floral dress a political statement?
When the conservative youth group Turning Point USA was planning its recent Young Women's Leadership Summit in Texas, organizers sent out a Pinterest mood board of suggested looks. Amid a few images of sleeveless vests, skirt suits and pleated skirts were a number of floral dresses: some with puffed princess sleeves, others with a more casual, backyard-barnyard fit and a few that looked like vintage nightgowns.
New York Times
02-07-2025
- Health
- New York Times
The Unrepentant Return of Christian Diet Culture
'Less Prozac, more protein.' That quote, uttered by the wellness influencer Alex Clark, jumped out at me from coverage of the Young Women's Leadership Summit, a gathering of around 3,000 hosted by Turning Point USA, a conservative nonprofit organization focused on the next generation. Clark went on to discuss the melding of diet, exercise, religion and politics that, as she sees it, defines the conservative brand for 20- and 30-something women. 'The girls who lift weights, eat clean, have their hormones balanced, have their lives together' are right wing, the 'cool kids' and 'mainstream.' By contrast, liberals are 'TikTok activists with five shades of autism, panic attacks and a ring light.' My first reaction: Enough about protein (that macronutrient needs a rest) and grass-fed beef from Whole Foods is neither Republican nor Democrat. I lift weights, married and got pregnant in my 20s; yet by Turning Point standards, I am basically a Marxist career harpy. But my second reaction is that our ever-present diet culture once again has a conservative, Christian bent to it. I had recently seen some social media postings about sinfulness, gluttony and 'SkinnyTok,' and since Trump's re-election there have been magazine articles tying thinness to conservative values and the idea that women should take up less physical space in the public sphere. But it was the explicit pushing of diet and exercise at the Young Women's Leadership Summit that tied it all together for me: religiosity, conservatism, the Make America Healthy Again movement and diet culture. Despite rumblings about 'body positivity' that peaked about 10 years ago, for decades the white American beauty standard has been thin. As part of the focus on body positivity in the 2010s, it became unfashionable to talk about skinniness as a goal, so it just got rebranded as wellness, health or self-care, though the pressures to conform remained the same. In the '90s and '00s, thinness had a debauched, libertine air to it; if anything, I guess it was default coded as liberal, but it wasn't really tied to electoral politics or health. The image that comes to me is of the model Kate Moss at the famously muddy Glastonbury Music Festival in 2005, where her uniform was tiny shorts, Wellington boots, a troubled rock star boyfriend on her arm and a cigarette dangling from her mouth. The subtext was always that the skinniness came from cocaine and dancing all night, or simply not eating. Many women of my vintage can quote a relevant line from 'The Devil Wears Prada' (2006): 'I'm just one stomach flu away from my goal weight.' Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
The Independent
19-06-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
Charlie Kirk tells 14-year-old girl the main reason women should go to college is to find a husband
Conservative activist Charlie Kirk told a 14-year-old girl her main reason to attend college should be to find a husband. The founder of Turning Point USA was speaking at his recent Young Women's Leadership Summit in Grapevine, Texas, when a high school freshman asked for his "pros and cons" on attending college, mentioning her aspiration for a career in political journalism. Kirk, who dropped out of community college in Chicago, responded by advocating for the "MRS degree." "We should bring back the celebration of MRS degrees," he said. An 'MRS Degree' is a slang term for someone who attends a university to find a spouse and become a Mrs. "College is a scam but if you're going to find your life partner, that's actually a really good reason to go to college", he added.
