Erika Kirk has turned Turning Point USA’s latest event into a social media spectacle, and she’s brought friends. For a lot of the weekend, in between people laughing at Jake Paul getting knocked out, folks have been digesting the TPUSA conference.
Today’s point of contention on social media is the arrival of Nicki Minaj after her hard MAGA pivot recently. Another discussion about Kirk’s use of pyrotechnic entrants during the festivities has also consumed most of social media. Users cannot believe that a woman that they believed to be in mourning is running around like a WWE superstar.
Rudy Havenstein said, “Normally if you die you just hope your wife doesn’t remarry within the first three months, but I never even considered fireworks.” And, honestly, he’s not alone!
Nicki Minaj and Erika Kirk?!?
Minaj put herself back in the spotlight in recent weeks for her high profile tit-for-tat with California Governor Gavin Newsom. During today’s appearance at the TPUSA conference, the rapper took aim at the legislature again. Needless to say, there’s a lot of distraught Barbz out there on different social media feeds lamenting the positions being spouted by their favorite rapper. Over the course of the last couple of years, multiple different fandoms have felt the sizzle of the devoted fan base for Minaj. But, these latest incursions have the Barbz feeling introspective.
In light of the goofy nature of the saw, some of the grandiosity around Kirk’s presentation during this conference has fallen by the wayside today. But, it is a unique spectacle to the widow of a man murdered in broad daylight stumping for JD Vance to become the next president of the United States and courting friendships with rappers who symbolized everything that her and her husband say that they hated for the last decade and change. We’re locked into an unspeakable reality. The ride doesn’t look like it’s stopping for the next six months, or more! So, Kirk gets her Wrestlemania interests and social media gets to deal with the ensuing discourse until morale improves.
Erika Kirk’s pyro entrance enjoys some real scrutiny
Now, to take on the actual text of Kirk’s presence at Turning Point USA, we have to look at what the organization does. Her deceased husband, Charlie Kirk, used this organization as a rallying cry for a sort of new conservative movement. (One that looks distinctly similar to the old conservative movement, but with smart devices this time!) Kirk was a man devoted to the spectacle of “debate culture.” So, it should only follow that the aesthetics on display at the TPUSA conference would echo combat sport. After all, that kind of contest, especially professional wrestling is making an argument into a show.
Kirk Isn’t Cody Rhodes or Roman Reigns, i’m not arguing that by any means. But, the use of Pyro for entrances as it relates to professional wrestling, especially WWE, bears mentioning. (For the uninitiated, former WWE executive Linda McMahon currently serves as the Education Secretary for the United States. Current Chief Creative Officer for the promotion, Paul Levesque, also has been present around the White House since Trump’s return earlier this year.) At its core, pyrotechnics symbolize an “arrival.”
What’s in an entrance?
In a normal wrestling show, the effect is underlining a wrestler’s entrance. A performer has taken the stage, and you should pay attention to whatever is going to come about next. Here is how they’re dressed, here’s how they are approaching this particular conflict, and here are their credentials headed into a “fight.” Most of these ideas ring true for Kirk as well. Kirk took up the cause of her deceased husband, and in turn Minaj has joined the MAGA movement. So, while most social media believes that Kirk should perform that kind of mourning, she’s back out on the campaign trail both literally and figuratively.
(featured image: Caylo Seals/Getty Images)
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