-
sponsorship
Hi Abby, and welcome! You asked if I thought Bristol Palin "was going to present some kind of five-step plan outlining the ‘details of abstinence or safe sex' " in her interview with Greta Van Susteren. I never had any expectations of Bristol presenting any particular plans on anything—that is, until she explicitly told Van Susteren that she wants to be "an advocate against teen pregnancy." If she wants to take on this issue, then yes, I do think she needs to put forward some thoughts about how, exactly, to go about preventing the thing she's supposedly advocating against. You also asked, Abby, whether her mistake was "the sex part, the getting pregnant part, [or] the having the baby part." That's the same question I have of Bristol! I criticized Bristol earlier for her vague statement that she wished this had happened in 10 years. As Tina Morrison at the Kansas City Star astutely points out, "Pregnancy doesn't just ‘happen.' ... There are things leading up to it. Things you can control, such as how much wine you have with dinner, if your pants stay zipped, or whether or not to use a condom!" Right. So what, exactly, does Bristol wish she had waited on? Sex? Unprotected sex?
Lauren B.'s essay on abortion that Rachael found so appalling may have been a bit crass, but at least it made a point. Which is good: As a writer, she has a responsibility to say something substantive in her piece. As an 18-year-old mother—even one with a celebrity mom—Bristol has no such responsibility. She can go about motherhood as quietly as the media outlets allow (and they have been pretty quiet since Tripp's birth), and the public would have no right to demand that she use her situation to promote safe sex or abstinence education or a pro-life or pro-choice agenda. But Bristol made the decision to call herself an advocate. At that point, I think it's fair to expect a little more.
So what was her mistake? Saying she wants to be an advocate against teen pregnancy but dodging questions about abstinence and safe sex. Well, that and the obvious mistake, if it's true that she wants to break out from the shadow of her domineering mother: naming her child Tripp.
-
sponsorship
Jessica, I don't think we're quite "piling on" Bristol Palin for either her interview or her teen pregnancy, but I do see quite a difference between Bristol and Rachael's examples of Lauren B. and Amy Richards. Lauren B. is a writer and Richards is an abortion rights advocate, and they both decided to make their stories public. Bristol, on the other hand, was thrust into the spotlight—had her mother not been running for vice president, the news that the governor of a noncontiguous state had a pregnant 17-year-old daughter likely would have escaped notice altogether or been acknowledged only in short news items. Bristol chose to do this interview, but she didn't choose to become a poster child for teen momhood in the first place. I applaud Richards and Lauren for frankly discussing their experiences with abortion, but, as I'm sure they would both agree, they offered themselves up for discussion and criticism—two things Bristol has certainly been subjected to without having the same opportunity to tell her story herself first.
I don't know what her primary motivation for the interview was—to fight misconceptions about being an uneducated high-school dropout, to piss off her mother, or to warn other girls against unprotected sex (her "abstinence or whatever" comment seemed to me like a veiled attempt to advocate for contraception without speaking the words). Perhaps she merely wanted an excuse to put on makeup and do something a little exciting after six weeks of mothering a newborn.
Join the Fray: our reader discussion forum
What did you think of this article?