TPUSA's new message to girls: Hate yourself [View all]

TPUSA’s new message to girls: Hate yourself
Speakers at the women's leadership summit continued Charlie Kirk's misogynist mission

By Amanda Marcotte
Senior Writer
Published June 12, 2026 6:45AM (EDT)


(Salon) Turning Point USA was co-founded by Charlie Kirk and its fundraising apparatus since his death has centered around fading MAGA fantasies that he will be a movement-reviving martyr. So it was a little surprising that one of the speakers at TPUSA’s Women’s Leadership Summit in San Antonio, Texas, Alex Clark, spoke about how Kirk made her feel bad about herself. Speaking last weekend to a crowd of largely high school and college-aged attendees, the host TPUSA’s “Culture Apothecary” remembered the cruelty of Kirk’s talk at last year’s summit, in which he shamed women who aren’t married by 30, suggesting they are old maids who likely would never find a husband.

“I was sitting in the audience and it stung a little bit,” Clark, 33, confessed. “I was sitting there as a woman in her 30s who very much wanted marriage. And I know that there’s a lot of other ladies in this audience who are in the same boat.” She even complained about “right-wing men” who “act like we’re supposed to just I guess live under an overpass and wait for our husband to fall from the sky.”

....(snip)....

Clark’s entire speech was a bundle of contradictions. She argued that it’s okay to be single, but then also chastised the audience, “I think we love ourselves a little too much.” She promised that being single isn’t God’s punishment, but then criticized unmarried women for being too picky, adding, “Now ask yourself, would you want to marry you?” At the end of this confusing speech, however, she reassured the audience that all this self-loathing and frustration was worth it.

....(snip)....

The message of self-loathing for women was carried throughout the San Antonio summit, which drew over 2,000 women, a remarkable turnout for TPUSA, which has been seeing dwindling crowds in recent months. Charlie Kirk’s widow, Erika Kirk, kicked things off with a speech denouncing feminism for teaching women to pursue “self-fulfillment,” which, she argued, is trying to be “like men.” She also coached them to “have more babies than you can afford,” without mentioning that her preferred party, Republican, keeps chipping away at social services that make it possible to raise them. ...............(more)

https://www.salon.com/2026/06/12/tpusas-new-message-to-girls-hate-yourself/