orichalcum (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
orichalcum) wrote2008-09-03 12:36 pm
orichalcum) wrote2008-09-03 12:36 pm
The swinging pendulum: Should we really be glorifying Miss Palin?
My college, as well as many others, had a policy of not reporting or allowing the newspapers to extensively cover student suicides. In part, of course, this was meant to save its reputation; no one wants to send their kids to a place where undergrads are regularly killing themselves. But there was another, and more legitimate reason. Many very depressed, lonely, insecure people who are contemplating suicide very much want attention and affirmation. If a suicide victim is made into a tragic martyr, other vulnerable people may see their act as a success rather than a failure - they got publicity and group mourning and lots of attention.
I'm not criticizing Bristol Palin or her fiance's decision to keep and raise their child. That's their business. But in defense of her mother's candidacy, it appears that the Republican National Convention delegates are cheering her on and celebrating her and her choices. The boy in question will appear with the Palin family on stage tonight, having been flown out by the campaign. She's being held up as a role model for keeping her baby.
Frankly, this worries me - just as the coverage of Jamie Lynn Spears did and to some extent the movie "Juno" - because we should not in any way be glorifying teen pregnancy in this country. Yes, these girls - and I do mean girls - are making difficult choices now that they have been faced with a very hard situation. But it's not a good thing that they're pregnant in the first place! If these girls had been more responsible (one way or another) in the first place, they wouldn't be having to deal with the consequences of abortion, adoption, or becoming a mother while still a teenager themselves.
Figuring out how to treat teen mothers is difficult. I don't like the other traditional extreme of kicking them out on the streets or shutting them up in nunneries, obviously. I don't want public shaming, just a lack of positive coverage. I really worry about the lonely 15-year-old girl with a boyfriend who refuses to wear condoms, who reads about the Palins in People Magazine next week and thinks, "wow, see, everyone loves and supports her for having a kid! And her really cute hockey star boyfriend is going to marry her now, and they'll live happily ever after! Maybe my life would be better if I got pregnant too!"
Because, for most girls, it simply won't. And the RNC delegates and the media are acting extremely irreponsibily and unthoughtfully if they make her into a teen heroine.
I'm not criticizing Bristol Palin or her fiance's decision to keep and raise their child. That's their business. But in defense of her mother's candidacy, it appears that the Republican National Convention delegates are cheering her on and celebrating her and her choices. The boy in question will appear with the Palin family on stage tonight, having been flown out by the campaign. She's being held up as a role model for keeping her baby.
Frankly, this worries me - just as the coverage of Jamie Lynn Spears did and to some extent the movie "Juno" - because we should not in any way be glorifying teen pregnancy in this country. Yes, these girls - and I do mean girls - are making difficult choices now that they have been faced with a very hard situation. But it's not a good thing that they're pregnant in the first place! If these girls had been more responsible (one way or another) in the first place, they wouldn't be having to deal with the consequences of abortion, adoption, or becoming a mother while still a teenager themselves.
Figuring out how to treat teen mothers is difficult. I don't like the other traditional extreme of kicking them out on the streets or shutting them up in nunneries, obviously. I don't want public shaming, just a lack of positive coverage. I really worry about the lonely 15-year-old girl with a boyfriend who refuses to wear condoms, who reads about the Palins in People Magazine next week and thinks, "wow, see, everyone loves and supports her for having a kid! And her really cute hockey star boyfriend is going to marry her now, and they'll live happily ever after! Maybe my life would be better if I got pregnant too!"
Because, for most girls, it simply won't. And the RNC delegates and the media are acting extremely irreponsibily and unthoughtfully if they make her into a teen heroine.
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Mind you, I thought "Juno" was a very good movie. And my grandmother had my Dad when she was younger than Bristol. (I'm glad she did, or I wouldn't exist.) But that doesn't mean that I think that having a baby when you're a child yourself is a great idea.
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It's not that being a young mother can't work out, for both parent and child. But in almost any case it's going to be a lot harder than being a parent at a point when you've gotten to adulthood (and financial security) yourself.
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Also, my grandpa was polygamous, and she was wife #2 out of 3.
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And I suspect your gramma would have been just fine with waiting to begin her family until 20 or so, if she'd had the option. :)
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Er. I'm not sure how many kids total. I lose track. I'm sure it's in the 20 something range.
Heck, they even adopted one or two. As if it wasn't crowded enough.
My other gramma only had 6. But she was wife #1 of 2 (also polygamous) but the total is a measly 8.
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Chinese prioritize education so much, it's not even funny.
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Back in college, when the cheerleaders yelled "Defense!", the Band would retort, "Education! Social Spending! Health Care!"
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I would point out that among the notorious belligerent Aztecs, the glorious entourage of the Sun consisted of warriors who died in battle and upon the sacrificial stone, and mothers who died in childbirth.
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Interesting times!
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