Charlie Kirk

Charlie Kirk was a high profile conservative political activist, media personality and ally to President Donald Trump. At 18 he founded Turning Point USA, a right-wing nonprofit active on high school and college campuses. Well known for his staunch opposition to abortion, LGBTQ rights, DEI and gun control, Kirk claimed in 2023 that “it’s worth it to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the second amendment.” On Sept. 10, 2025, Kirk finished answering a question about gun violence at an event at Utah Valley University when he was shot in the neck and killed. 

Trump’s Cartoonish Performance of Masculine Strength, from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C.

PUBLISHED 6/13/2025 by

Donald Trump’s decision to mobilize the military in Los Angeles was made against the reasoned judgment and expressed wishes of LA Mayor Karen Bass and California Governor Gavin Newsom. The recent actions of the president present yet another opportunity to observe, in real time, how the Trump era continues to be shot through with destructive and antiquated ideas about masculine strength – along with growing pushback against them.  

It might or might not be coincidental, but the fact that Trump called in the National Guard and a contingent of Marines into downtown L.A., just the week before the president’s expensive and ostentatious celebration of military prowess for his 79th birthday and the Army’s 250-year anniversary.

Outperforming Men, Undervalued Anyway: How Conservative Myths Undermine Women in Medicine

PUBLISHED 5/29/2025 by | UPDATED 9/15/2025 at 10:00 A.M. PT

Medical literature extensively documents differences in practice by a physician’s gender. Women are more likely to practice evidence-based medicine and adhere to clinical guidelines. Nationally, women outpace men in both college and medical school enrollment. In medical training, women outperform their male peers on clinical assessments and are more likely to attain an honors degree.

Therefore, the merit-based hiring practices that the Trump administration vociferously demands should logically reflect these data. Yet, in 2022, women accounted for 38 percent of active physicians in the U.S., up from 26 percent in 2004. 

Might this indicate that men, not women, are the “diversity hires” of medicine? 

‘Money, Lies, and God’: The Rise of Christian Nationalism and the Battle for American Democracy

PUBLISHED 2/14/2025 by

Katherine Stewart’s Money, Lies, and God exposes the alarming rise of Christian nationalism as a well-coordinated, anti-democratic movement seeking not just power, but the destruction of democracy itself. She describes this movement as “more political pathology than political program,” with its leaders intent on “burning down the house.” Stewart reveals how right-wing religious and political forces use disinformation, authoritarian alliances and targeted outreach—particularly through churches and media—to gain influence.

Despite internal contradictions, she warns that their strategy is effective: “A fractured and ill-informed public is easier to control than a well-informed one.”

However, she argues that a broad, pro-democracy coalition can push back, emphasizing the need to expose dark money, defend public education and strengthen the separation of church and state.

Against the Normalization of Trump’s Misogyny

PUBLISHED 2/7/2025 by

In just over two weeks, an emboldened and angry Donald Trump, restored to power, has plunged the federal government into chaos and threatened the rule of law, separation of powers, and other core tenets of American democracy.

It’s important for people to stand up and take action in real time, and do whatever they can—through lawsuits, legislative action and public protest—to block the implementation of immoral and illegal policies. But let’s take a moment to step back and ponder a broader question: Trump’s legitimacy as the nation’s leader, and what that means in terms of social norms, or what effect Trump’s behavior has on what it means to be normal.

Feminist Roundup: The Best and Worst Quotes of 2024

PUBLISHED 12/11/2024 by

“A bird may sing in Kabul, but a girl may not.”

“I want all women who have been raped to say: Madame Pelicot did it, I can too.”

“Our ability to end a pregnancy with just a few pills—safely, privately, at home and without shame—was too much for them to take.”

“The rules were that you guys weren’t going to fact check.”

“Birth control really screws up female brains.”

A collection of this year’s most inspiring and infuriating things said by and about women.

White Men Elected Donald Trump, Again

PUBLISHED 11/15/2024 by

Male grievance, especially white male grievance, is the beating heart of Trumpist populism.

Kamala Harris ran a truly impressive campaign under extraordinarily difficult circumstances. It would be reductive and absurd to say that her campaign’s decision not to put her on The Joe Rogan Experience is why she lost. But it does point to a Democratic Party mindset that needs to change.  

If Democrats want to win future presidential elections, they need to communicate more effectively with men, including blue-collar white men and young men of all ethnic and racial backgrounds, whose vote for Trump was less a vote for his policies or against those of Kamala Harris than it was the loudest and angriest statement they could make that we still matter. 

New Ad Creates ‘Permission Structure’ for Men to Support Harris

PUBLISHED 11/1/2024 by

Among the most memorable ads of the political season are a pair of 30-second spots with explicitly gendered themes featuring voiceovers from two of America’s most beloved movie stars. The ads each play on the idea of “permission structures,” the assumption that voters sometimes need to be given permission to vote for a candidate or party that is not popular with their social group.

During this election cycle, Democrats and Democratic-aligned groups seem finally to have figured out that they need to respond, in part by creating a special kind of permission structure for men to support them. Permission for men to vote for their values and conscience just might make a difference in what promises to be a very close election.

Promise Keepers Revival? The Ms. Q&A With Jackson Katz on the Trump-Era Resurgence of the Largest Organized Men’s Movement

PUBLISHED 8/29/2024 by

In the 1990s, Promise Keepers were an evangelical group of Christian men who pledged to keep their promises to their wives and children in exchange for female submission and service. Relatively apolitical at the time, Promise Keepers even pledged to work toward “racial reconciliation.”

Filling football stadiums, evangelical men and boys felt safe to cry and hug, while reaffirming each other’s masculinity and entitlement to male dominance. By the end of the 1990s, Promise Keepers had faded from the headlines, but now thirty years later they are staging a revival. 

Ms. sat down with Jackson Katz to get his take on the Promise Keepers revival. “Elements on the Trumpist right understand very well that right-wing, white evangelical men are an incredibly important constituency within the larger MAGA coalition. … The ‘crisis in masculinity’ has now become a crisis in democracy.”

Keeping Score: Right-Wing Activists Spread Disinformation on Birth Control; Larry Nassar’s Survivors Reach $138.7 Million Settlement; Breast Cancer Screenings Should Start at Age 40

PUBLISHED 5/9/2024 by

In every issue of Ms., we track research on our progress in the fight for equality, catalogue can’t-miss quotes from feminist voices and keep tabs on the feminist movement’s many milestones. We’re Keeping Score online, too—in this biweekly roundup.

This week: the Supreme Court hears oral arguments on emergency abortion care and criminalizing homelessness; new EEOC and Title IX regulations protect sexual violence survivors, pregnant people and the LGBTQ community; Arizona repealed their 1864 abortion ban, while Florida now has a six-week ban; birth control misinformation goes viral on TikTok; the United Methodist Church repealed their ban on LGBTQ clergy; the chilling effects of the global gag rule; three in five Americans support a national law protecting access to medication abortion; and more.