She has just announced another pregnancy out of wedlock, but she sounds so regretful and embarrassed…apparently this was an unplanned and unwanted pregnancy, which is a very unfortunate way to start a new life.
“I wanted you guys to be the first to know that I am pregnant.
Honestly, I’ve been trying my hardest to keep my chin up on this one.
At the end of the day there’s nothing I can’t do with God by my side, and I know I am fully capable of handling anything that is put in front of me with dignity and grace.
Just a suggestion, but God didn’t and won’t help you with this. What would help is sex education, availability of contraception, and willingness to use it. There is no shame in sexual desire, and getting pregnant can be a happy occasion — but when you treat it with guilt, as an obstacle in your life, and refuse to acknowledge that there are fairly easy things one can do to prevent an unwanted pregnancy, that is a problem.
It’s also a problem when you hypocritically shame other women for their sex lives.
What kills me is that she says she doesn’t want to be lectured about becoming pregnant.
This from the woman lecturing people about abstinence-based sex “education”.
I hope this isn’t a reference to the identity of the father. I always heard he was into virgins anyway.
Sort of a self refuting statement here. At the end of the day there’s nothing I can’t do with god by my side, except not get pregnant twice out of wedlock.
PS Yo, any xians reading this!!! Explain to me again why the Palins are heroic xian role models?
PSS Line up the all purpose excuses. Atheists do it too, she isn’t a True Xian, it is satan and the demons fault, and as always, it’s a false flag operation.
I put this in the Lounge before I saw this thread up. Sorry.
And I will bet dollars to donuts that Sarah Palin will, at some point, editorialize approvingly of her daughter’s choice to let the pregnancy go to term. And she will never see the irony.
And hot on the heels of the news that mommy dearest has lost her gig at Fox. Boo hoo. I may yet live to see the day when the Palins are no longer intruding in my world.
Ogvorbis @ 3
That would be my guess as well. Just as long as she “chooses life” (which is pretty damn easy when mommy gets a steady paycheck for incoherently rambling for right-wingers) and says she really, really sorry to Jesus, then all is good.
It’s everyone else who is a godless slutty-slut-slut who deserves to burn in Hell for the “sin” of fornication. Not to mention that THEIR children are “bastards” who deserve to be ostracized for not choosing who their parents are.
I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop, that the father is not her former fiancé.
It would explain why the wedding was called off suddenly a few weeks ago.
I’m still waiting for an explanation of “traditional Christian values and morals” and how they differ from “red in tooth and claw”, well, perhaps for the “Father, forgive me” at the end. Do you think if the dinosaurs had said those words they would have been saved?
Sigh…typical of these bloody hypocrites. Maybe now she’ll shut up about that Cyrus chick, eh?
*snicker* How many unplanned children are required for Bristol to:
A) understand how babies are made, and
B) understand that one can have sex, but not babies, with birth control?
/rhetorical
raven@2:
Pretty sure they aren’t — at least not among the Christians I know. Even the one so right-wing he switched to an orthodox sect (greek, I think?) when his new pope started acting vaguely socialistish and moderately less hateful. Even him, he thinks Palin and family are a disaster.
theignored @ 7
Don’t worry. They won’t.
Just in case anyone has forgotten this gem from Bristol’s past…
Thanks, Obama!
The rich don’t have to live by the same standards they demand for the poor.
Obviously the abstinence only sex education that Bristol Palin pushes doesn’t work for her.
The obvious question is who does that method really work for for until the woman is no longer fertile? Single digits percents I imagine.
Al Dente @ 14
The Right loves to claim that “abstinence works every time it’s used.”
So, why isn’t Bristol using it?
Akira MacKenzie:
Well, we are all sinners (thanks to Eve), we are born with sin, we will always sin, but only through our faith in the forgiveness symbolized by Jesus’ shitty weekend, we can, if we ask, be forgiven of our sins and avoid spending eternity bathing in a boiling lake of gods’ love.
Guess the aspirin between the knees didn’t work this time.
Ogvorbis @ 7
Funny how that works.
Akira:
#7 was not me. ‘Twas theignored.
Irony? :)
Sorry, that should have been @ 17.
There have already been a few tea partiers throwing Bristol under the bus for this, shaming her for being unwed and unemployed (and blaming Obamacare for enabling unwed, unemployed women to have sex, or something).
On Twitter, I meant to say. A few tea partiers on Twitter have thrown her under the bus.
It’s the liberals fault for talking about sex as something that happens and you should be prepared for. If you ignore something it goes away, right?
Also, Obama wants to take our guns.
Bristol P: I wanted you guys to be the first to know that I am pregnant.
So you haven’t told either of your parents, or the putative father(s), yet?
Or you just lied like a Palin (reflexively, obviously, obviously manipulatively)?
Jeb Bush says unwed mothers should be publicly shamed. This is how low the rethugs are stooping for votes…..
More recent weasel words from Jeb Bush.
@Ogvorbis
They already did that a while back. I think it was a picture of her and Sarah Palin both holding their kids, with something about “pro-life women”.
In any case, I feel a little bit sorry for Bristol – although that’s mixed with anger at her hypocrisy in lecturing others about not being abstinent while having two unplanned pregnancies. She’s clearly not happy to be pregnant a second time, but she basically never even had the chance of potentially doing an abortion without massive shame and anger from her family.
I’m going to bet that she got pregnant after having unprotected sex with Dakota, then they decided to get married to try and cover it up . . . except that he got cold feet later on and backed out. Or they started having sex during the engagement, which has been common forever – many brides in pre-modern Europe, for example, were pregnant at the time of marriage.
Things like this wouldn’t happen if only scientists would get busy and find some convenient and effective way to prevent unwanted pregnancies!!! What are they waiting for??? (Someone should suggest this to Sarah Palin as a “crusade” she might want to be a part of. She’d probably think it was a way cool idea.)
Damn, this is so stupid. Just use contraception. You have not only all the information available but also personal experience of abstinence failing. At least learn from it. Or, if you’re okay with it failing again and again, at least don’t attack other people who also aren’t abstinent, you holier-than-thou idiot.
Looks like I picked the wrong week to give up schadenfreuden.
I have mixed feeling about this comment thread. I feel mocking the hypocrisy is often sliding dangerously close to shaming by proxy (shaming her for having sex, for having an unwanted pregnancy).
Beatrice #32
I agree.
It’s not really possible to mock this hypocrisy without mocking the reluctant pregnant person (and the fetus which will likely become a person).
Congratulations, Bristol, on the happy news! (and for getting ahead of an embarrassing scoop by TMZ or Entertainment Tonight) Seriously. Sounds like you want the baby-to-be, and you and your family certainly have the means to adequately provide for the rugrat. Congrats. Stay near the phone. I suspect you’ll be hearing from TLC within hours. I hear they have a slot to fill.
Now, about your egregious hypocrisy..
You put out. You fuck. Maybe on the first date, maybe the 101st. Dunno, don’t care. You’re a human being doing the human thing. Just own it and quit badgering other people for being just as goddamn human and horny as you are.
And yes, many of us suspect that the paternity of this child is a factor in the recent cancellation of your upcoming wedding to Captain America or Sergeant Leaves Guns All Around the House, whatever his name is.. If that’s true, again, just own it. It’s your body and you can do whatever you want with it. Impulsive romantic dalliance or dumb drunken mistake, it’s you, and your decision. Everybody else can deal with it or STFU and GTFO.
Or don’t. Keep the facade up. But you’ll get called on it.
Oh, and I’ll just leave this here…
Gee, Bristol, didn’t you get the memo that a baby is always a blessing, no matter how unwanted? Why do you sulk about getting one of god’s blessings?
I don’t know why I’d feel sorry for her. She hasn’t had to pursue an education or career. She hasn’t had to purchase a home. She doesn’t have to work. She’s wealthy. Good for her. If I had the money and time I’d have five kids. Who cares if they have different dads? There’s a whole bunch of adults in her family to have (one hopes) positive influences on the kids’ lives as well as their mom and dads. Her family fully embraces the other two grandkids conceived out of wedlock. She’s got it made. She’ll probably get another reality TV show out of it.
What she needs to do differently is a) stop treating premarital sex as something shameful and b) stop discouraging the use of contraception including termination by people who don’t want and/or can’t afford to reproduce.
The only thing she has to feel badly about is her hypocrisy and shaming attitude towards others. I hope she doesn’t feel badly about the pregnancy and having another child soon.
It does make me giggle a little that the loser ex managed to marry the second girl he knocked up but Bristol’s got another called-off engagement to boast and baby on the way. I wonder if the latest ex will have anything colourful to share.
Is that how you got pregnant?
Dear Bristol Palin
From an atheist socialist sex loving woman.
Having kids can be a wonderful thing.
Having sex can be a wonderful thing.
Having sex when you want kids can be definitely a wonderful thing.
If you just want sex, there’s contraception.
All valid choices, none of them makes you a bad person. Nor does the decision not ot have sex.
Marriage doesn’t even come into this discussion.
Contraception fails. My best fried’s grandma got pregnant after doctors said they’d removed her uterus, so go figure.
When contraception fails, go deal with it. Have an abortion or have the kid. Your choice. Neither makes you a bad person.
But you know what makes you a bad person? Being a hypocrite. You are instilling shame in young women and tell them they have to follow rules you are not interested in following yourself. And you know what makes you a worse person? Making your children the poster children for moral failure, plastering it all over the internet. The internet doesn’t forget. One day your children will use it and probably somebody who isn’t nice will point them to all the sources that tell them that mummy didn’t actually want them, that they are not the result of love, but just another burder “god” put in front of you. That’S a shitty thing to to. Not having sex. Not having sex without protection. No having kids out of wedlock.
I thought it was a bit ridiculous when she said that she had to tell people she was pregnant earlier than she otherwise would have because of the
Way to externalize locus of control there, Bristol. I’m pretty sure that you could have held off telling people you were pregnant if you, y’know, took steps to avoid becoming pregnant.
You should fuck if you want to fuck, but constantly blaming other people for the natural consequences of your own actions is pretty fucking loathsome. Almost as loathsome as the bit about
from someone who makes tens of thousands publicly lecturing others. Oy, vey.
Of course, you did have a lot of training from your mom on both the lecturing and the blaming others, but you’re an adult now. So at least when making major public announcements you could choose to think about things long enough to figure out when you might be blaming others for the situations you create.
@ Beatrice #32:
I see your point, but how can I shame someone for doing something I don’t consider wrong? So young Bristol is having sex, good for her. No shame in that. However, having sex without birth control is plain stupid unless you’re planning on another child. And sticking by the “abstinence only” after having failed so miserably twice? Hypocritical doesn’t quite cover it. The best description I can think of is “Republican”.
I think there was a reality show about the Palin family back in the 1960s. It was called The Beverly Hillbillies. For those too young to remember the 60s I’m sure you can find back episodes on Youtube.
And I sometimes wonder if John McCain ever looks at the Palins and says to himself, “My god, what did I do?”
Going off on a tangent, here is another brilliant Republican mind:
“Ann Coulter Wants to Know Why She Doesn’t Make You Mad Anymore” http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2015/06/why-isnt-anyone-outraged-by-ann-coulter-anymore.html?wpsrc=nymag
Do we actually know Bristol didn’t use birth control? I mean, it not uncommonly fails even when you use it as its developers intended. She’s a hypocrite, right enough, but we don’t know what pressures she was under and whether she did take measures to protect herself. Now she’s probably going to have a very public baby instead of a very public abortion, but that’s her choice. She should be advised, equally publicly, to stop trying to deny other women that choice.
Birth control doesn’t often fail when used correctly. Failure rates reflect human error.
I’d just like to point out that safe sex doesn’t necessarily involve birth control. There are many forms of sex that don’t carry the risk of pregnancy or STDs.
@What a Maroon, oblivious, #44:
Lesbians. God’s chosen people.
=========================
@speedwell, #42:
Except that she’s pissed off that other people might lecture or express sympathy. That’s her offensive action right there, not the having-of-the-sex or the being-of-the-preggers.
Marinerachel is also correct, by-the-by, about failure rates largely reflecting human error.
Of course, there are cases where one party is aware of the error and another isn’t – like, say, condom breakage – that would indicate that there was nothing more Bristol could do without some info from her partner [and if that info wasn’t forthcoming, well, her partner acted the jerk and deserves way more than 50% of the responsibility for the new pregnancy.
Improved birth control advice reduces unintended pregnancy rate among young women
FWIW.
According to something I read online, Bristol’s wedding was called off because Captain Meyer was…already married.
Not sure what was going on here. It looks like he got married years ago, then they split up, but no one bothered to….get a divorce.
Which isn’t a good sign. How hard is it to remember you are married? How hard is it to file for divorce from a long failed marriage? There are common sense and competency issues here.
PSS Line up the all purpose excuses…
Just for old times’ sake: SUBORNATION TO FALSE MUSTER!!!
I miss the good old days…
I know everyone is having fun with the insults and mockery, but my only thought goes out to the child-to-be. I know what it’s like to be an unwanted child, and I have all manner of empathy for that kid.
Caine, I do too. That poor kid being raised by a moronic, hypocritical, lying twit.
I’d like to bring to Bristol’s attention, along with everything that has been mentioned above, that it isn’t a good idea to announce to the world, where it will remain forever, that you don’t want a child that you are going to have.
That to you, the prospect of their birth is something that is dragging your chin down, an ordeal to be gotten through only with supernatural help, and a disappointment to you and all your family and fans. And, presumably something that you wish wouldn’t have happened.
Do put your future child’s welfare before yours, for once, and don’t announce your feelings of shame and regret to all, for this as well as for all the other good reasons that have been stated.
@brett #28:
That’s just not true. She’s never had the chance to be open about ending an unwanted pregnancy, but since she’s not a minor, she doesn’t need parental approval to terminate a pregnancy in any jurisdiction, which means that if she did want to abort a pregnancy, she wouldn’t actually have to ever tell anyone about it. Yeah, she’s been indoctrinated into a terrible worldview, but she’s also had sufficient real-life experience (for example, two unplanned pregnancies resulting from that sex she tells other people they shouldn’t be doing) to demonstrate how terrible it is, and she’s at least partly culpable for hanging onto that worldview now. Palin (Bristol in this instance, but also take your pick) is a hypocritical asshole who enjoys most of the advantages it’s possible for one to have in our society; I think she deserves no one’s sympathy.
I would be overjoyed if I were in her position, to be paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to make appearances now and then telling kids to keep it in their pants, enabling me to have as many kids as I wanted. No sympathy from me.
She knew about her fiance’s previous marriage when they were going to get hitched. That didn’t cause the break-up. It was just a rumour that surfaced after the wedding’s cancellation. According to her, she dumped him prior to the wedding, apparently, citing controlling behaviour and not wanting to move to Kentucky. All of Wasilla is saying the kid’s his. No reason to think the breakup had anything to do with paternity. It would be funny if it did though!
So nice to see everyone having so much fun. Next time some asshole brings up this thread when a discussion about abortion is underway, I’ll enjoy all the but she’s different even more.
/sarcasm
I know everyone would rather die than waste an opportunity to mock a hypocritical conservative, but when it seems like you can’t do it without one hell of a lot of splash damage, then maybe you could just keep all the brilliant one liners in your head.
Sorry, John Horstman, yours is just the last comment so.. :
Imagine this sentence, without the striked out part. Would this pass here if it were about any other woman?
And no, “but she’s a hypocrite ” is not sufficient context. I’m pretty sure the answer is there is no appropriate context.
And another reason why feeling schadenfreude is an asshole move is because successful pregnancies don’t end up with a turnip, but with a kid. So it’s really not cool that you feel happy about another unwanted kid probably coming into the world.
One thing some atheists and goddists can agree about :
Sometimes, unwanted pregnancy is a proper punishment for a woman.
Beatrice:
Oh my yes, makes me want to spit. There’s quite the dance of hypocrisy going on in this thread, along with a rather remarkable degree of viciousness from those who supposedly loathe such viciousness.
To hell with publicity seeking flawed humans. We are all flawed, but most of us are not publicity seekers. My ONLY concern is for the unwanted children. It is my fervent hope that after being born they are loved and wanted. I could rant a bit more, but what I’ve said is all I need to say.
I’m not feeling Schadenfreude.
I’m not feeling sympathy for Bristol either. Seriously, she’s not a child anymore, she knew what she was doing, she knew the consequences. Apart from the fact that all the consequences for her is public ridicule.
If it were any other common conservative failure to do as they preach, I’d feel Schadenfreude.
But there’s going to be another child where the first words uttered about them is that they’re a burden placed in fron of their mother by god, with lots of people seeing them as due punishment. A child. Being born with that burden already on their tiny back.
So she is making the CHOICE to keep the baby. Good for her.
CHOICE that she would like to shame other women from exercising.
I’m not sure where the idea this pregnancy is unwanted comes from or that she and her family will view the child it results in as a punishment. By all accounts this family dotes on children. Everything they expressed when it came out she was pregnant the first time is how hard she and Levi were working and how excited the family was to welcome a new child and how proud they were of their daughter and her choice.
The impression I get is she’s disappointed this child will be born out of wedlock seen as she didn’t go forward with the last engagement. If she had she’d have had a baby seven or eight months after marriage and would have been able to say “It came early”.
To me, it sounds like she’s disappointed that she’s outed herself as a liar and a hypocrite, not that she’s having another kid.
marinerachel,
Nope, I explicitly said that atheists (that is – people on this thread) act like this pregnancy was a good punishment for her.
I feel bad for Bristol, and the comments in this thread are really fucking horrible. It is entirely possible to use birth control and get pregnant anyway. I get that she is a hypocrite, but for people to judge her for choosing to have a baby and proclaiming that of course that child will be unwanted and unloved simply because it wasn’t planned?!
I am one of those women who cannot use the most dependable methods, and became pregnant quite regularly despite using birth control. Luckily I was a married person, so nobody took the occasion of me being unhappily pregnant to harangue me about my irresponsible behavior, or tell me my children were going to be unloved. Bristol is choosing to have a baby. She had nothing to do with inflicting her Mother on the US political scene, and it is ridiculous that people would demand that she ignore her upbringing and give up her family so as to earn a bit of grudging sympathy. I say, take the money and run Bristol, and please get yourself some NA based therapy and make better choices in significant others.
And others have said the child will grow up hearing its a burden imposed by God as a punishment to its mother. I don’t think that will happen in a million years.
I don’t see anyone saying she “deserves” pregnancy as punishment, just that it’s ironic that someone who tells other people to keep it in their pants until marriage doesn’t do it themselves.
If she’s distressed about this pregnancy or doesn’t want it, that’s awful and something I’d be very sorry to hear and sincerely hope whatever option she feels is appropriate is available to her. I think virtually everyone here would agree with that.
I don’t get the impression she’s unhappy about the pregnancy though. I get the impression she’s unhappy that she’s lied to the public, been caught ib the lie and is a hypocrite, which her family will be judged for.
I don’t see that as being remotely similar to “She got knocked up? GOOD. She should spend the rest of her life burdened by her decision to have sex!”
I don’t know why people are saying the pregnancy is unwanted or the resulting kid will be unloved either. It may well have been planned!
I don’t know why anyone would shame her for having sex and becoming pregnant and choosing to keep the pregnancy either but I’m not seeing that here. I’m seeing her being shamed for her treatment of others who choose to have sex outside of pregnancy and shaking their head at her hypocrisy.
If she wants to have a bunch more kids with a bunch more dudes or on her own or in a relationship I see no problem with that either. She’s got the resources and a big, involved family and by all means seems to love her kid as does the rest of the family. She can offer children a pretty great life.
Discouraging other people from behaving exactly as she does is the only thing I have a problem with.
Tethys,
I’m sorry, you’re right. Just because the child was unplanned doesn’t mean it will be unloved.
marinerachael
Really? I’m getting a very different impression from this comment
Combined with your birth control works if you use it right comment, and your entire comment at #53 I read you as pretty gleefully being a mean spirited gossip with overtones of righteous slut shaming.
Beatrice
Thank you, i appreciate that. I also want to state for the thread at large that hormonal birth control can be great for many women, but a large percentage of us hate it, and a small percentage can’t use it at all. Breastfeeding and planning to reproduce in the near future also preclude the use of hormonal birth control methods. Back in my babies and toddlers age, we actually joked about using all other forms of BC simultaneously to prevent the surprise pregnancies that went round our little circle after we had 9 children in six years between three married couples. I only planned one of my three pregnancies, but I love all my children regardless of the timing of their gestation or my marital status at the time. For all of the the couples I know, the only 100% effective method of birth control was sterilization via vasectomy or tubal litigation when we were done having babies..
@Beatrice, an amateur cynic looking for a happy thought
Okay, we get it. You think that it’s unforgivable to get satisfaction when hypocrites are shown up. So even though you (one presumes) don’t like the Palin family very much, you also don’t want anyone pointing out that they can’t live by the rules they want to force on others (and are well-paid for representing in the media). Because we all know what’s really important, don’t we?
The Vicar (via Freethoughtblogs) #68
Speak for yourself.
The Vicar
I am not Beatrice, but I think the point she was making is that it is unfair and unjust of atheists to gloat over the unplanned pregnancy as it is for the religious to shame her for being pregnant out of wedlock. She didn’t get pregnant by herself, yet she is the one who is going to be publicly castigated while going through a second pregnancy while single. It’s religious based slut-shaming all the way down, so no, I do not think atheists should take this opportunity to be unkind to Bristol Palin because she is a hypocrite. I guarantee that she is more than aware that she has become a living example of the failures of an abstinence only policy. Add in a dollop of religious guilt, and a heaping helping of family dysfunction, and I feel nothing but pity for her.
@Tethys, #70:
Of course she didn’t get pregnant by herself.
Yet she is the one who took tens of thousands of USD$ to slut-shame other people and publicly exploits fame culture to her benefit and then insists that she “had to tell” people about her pregnancy because of “trolls” and that others’ “lectures or sympathy” are inappropriate.
I’m not reacting to her pregnancy. I’m reacting to the content of her statements – and that content is contemptible. My modicum of sympathy for Palin’s situation in writing those statements doesn’t even come from her pregnancy (because why would it?) but rather from the fact that she grew up in the house of her mother, and Sarah Palin had to have communicated a whole bunch of crap about externalizing locus of control, entitlement to criticize while taking umbrage at being criticized, and more faults that are prevalent in her statements. In other words, she’s 24, but there’s some significant **unlearning** to do, and though the burden is on her to learn, the extra burden of unlearning isn’t her fault.
To the extent that others are gloating about the pregnancy, I agree with you that’s bad behavior. But I don’t think you’re being fair if you think that all the criticism here is mere gloating – and given that your comment doesn’t acknowledge the existence of other criticism, I think your comment as written is fairly interpreted as implying (though not stating) that all the criticism is mere gloating.
If you want to pull that back, I think we would be on exactly the same page.
CD
She does claim religious beliefs consistent with advocating abstinence until marriage. I wish there wasn’t an organization willing to pay thousands of dollars to misinform youth but it is hard to blame BP for taking the gig in the first place. That she is pregnant is rather predictable. Beyond pointing out that she couldn’t provide a better example of why abstinence only doesn’t work and also as an example of how religious sex negative beliefs harm people , what is there to be gained by ridiculing BP?
I read this as she did not want her pregnancy to be public info yet, but unknown person X is threatening to release this info, so she get out in front of the story.
I read that as “Yeah, I know I fucked up people. The constant nausea and puking are hard to ignore and I really don’t need to deal with any more crap right now.”
I singled out the gossipy “knocked up” and relationship /engagement comment, the unplanned = unloved child idea of multiple comments, and the multiple slut shaming comments as mean spirited gloating. Not acknowledging the other criticisms is due to them not indulging in those behaviors. Birth control fails are not something we should shame pregnant women about, even if that women happens to be BP. Seems cruel to laugh when she is doing her best to deal responsibly with what is very difficult life experience in accordance with her right to life beliefs.
@70, Tethys
And that is where you are wrong. We aren’t talking about some random woman who just happened to make the news, we’re talking about Bristol Palin.
Turnabout is always fair play. The Palins, including Bristol, are judgmental — famously and explicitly so, in fact. They make money being judgmental, it has become a multi-generational career path for them. It is, therefore, fair to be judgmental to them. Furthermore, it is fair to judge them by the standards they wish others to uphold. We are not saying “Bristol Palin failed to live up to the ethical standards we espouse”, we are saying “Bristol Palin failed to live up to the ethical standards she herself claims to espouse, accepted money to represent, and lectured others about“. She is a hypocrite with a capital H who has now been caught out, and she deserves not one little drop of sympathy for it. If she had kept herself to herself and mentally judged others without causing offense, you would have a point, but she didn’t do that. Not at all.
But furthermore: Bristol Palin isn’t going to suffer even one little bit over this, other than being called out as a hypocrite. She will, naturally, keep the baby. It will be trotted out as an exhibit of what a good little Right-Wing Republican Christian Role Model she is — no naughty birth control, no eeeeeeebil abortion; the fact that she was having sex while unmarried will be swept under the rug (along with the paternity, if the father wasn’t her fiancé) and she will be a paid right-wing talking head again in approximately as long as it takes for her to have the baby and lose enough weight to be acceptably thin for Fox News viewership — which is about as long as it will take for the kid to be old enough to be respectively left with a nanny, anyway. (And even if right-wingers were to suddenly gain enough memory and integrity to actually oust her, her mother is so rich by now that it wouldn’t actually matter in terms of covering her living expenses.)
She won’t be missing any meals, doing without new clothes or schooling or medical care or luxuries. Nobody will be threatening her or refusing her service. Even we, here, who are so inconsiderate as to openly mock her for her hypocrisy, which was entirely by her own choice, won’t be refusing to seat her in a restaurant or kicking her off the rolls of public services.
Meanwhile, the people she identifies with, takes money from, and whose cause she delights in furthering, will be doing all of that to a wide array of targets. Black people, gay people, trans people, women, middle easterners, asians, you name it. They will threaten them, refuse them service, belittle them for things they can’t choose, do their best to deny them public services, almost certainly kill a good number of them by the time the kid is born.
And, by and large, the reason that all these horrible people can manage to do that is that the people who aren’t explicitly horrible all-too-often choose to enable all this by letting them get away with it. If you aren’t even willing to pass a negative comment about Bristol Palin under this particular set of circumstances, then you are unquestionably in that latter group.
Vicar
Religious belief continues to decline yet discrimination and bias still exist. I hardly think that one pregnant misguided women deserves to be blamed for all the injustice in the world.
I am unwilling to let Bristol Palin be slut shamed for her pregnancy. Her speaking tour happened already, and I doubt she will be offered that particular gig again so I don’t think she represents a danger to society. Attacking a pregnant woman does not strike me as an effective method to make the world more just or fair. A little empathy for the fact that she also just had a second broken engagement besides being pregnant will not make the world a worse place. That all of that is due to some really messed up religious ideals of sexual purity for women is perfectly fine to attack, but BP is a victim of those beliefs who is getting a firsthand demonstration of all the negative consequences of those antiquated beliefs. especially the part where men somehow are never involved in bearing responsibility for preventing pregnancy.
@Tethys:
Then we’re on more-or-less the same page, save this section of your analysis:
I see the same things you see, but this is exactly **why** I believe a critique, even a condemnation, of her words is necessary.
I wouldn’t have to announce my pregnancy to the media because of unknown person X.
Why (aside from the fact that I’m infertile)? Because I don’t exploit the culture of fame for money and other rewards. She ***wants*** people to be sufficiently obsessed with learning the details of her life that she can make reality TV shows and give interviews for pay, but not so obsessed that anyone actually learns anything about her that she doesn’t want to share, and even those things she does want to share she insists be shared on her schedule.
The truth is that if she had a big blow up and asked the media to stop writing about her – and simultaneously stopped courting media opportunities – then even if a “troll” wanted to talk about her pregnancy, there would be condemnation of individuals for speculating on her possible pregnancy rather than rampant stories about its existence and timing and meaning.
I’m perfectly comfortable condemning the “troll” as well. What I was finding objectionable in Palin’s statement was her external locus of control “I had to release this information…”
No, Palin, you chose to. You chose to because that serves your purposes better than stepping back from the media spotlight. You don’t like the withdrawal method? Fine. Your choice. Just fucking own it.
As for (in your wording):
she happily piles slut shaming on other pregnant women who don’t need to deal with any more crap right now. She has argued that there should be social consequences, social stigma, for single women who become pregnant.
To assert in this moment that she should be exempt is the worst kind of special pleading. It is the virtue ethics of the apparatchik.
Yes, I see the motives you see, but they don’t absolve her of the criticism. They earn the criticism.
…at least in my mind. I understand you feel differently.
CD
Yes, she has made this argument and quite possibly even believed it at the time. It was wrong, and as an atheist I see it as a religious based, sex negative, sexist line of thought. It is not clear if Bristol still believes it as she deals with the real life consequences.
No, the idea that pregnancy out of wedlock should not carry a social stigma or is a sign of poor morals applies equally to those who support it as those who would support abstinence only and moral reproach for single mothers. I will not shame BP for being pregnant. I do hope she learns a lesson in acceptance of peoples foibles.
I want to also make the observation that despite the fact that I despise the right wing, christian, gun toting, oil drilling, anti-intellectualism mind-set of Sarah Palin, I have to admire her and Bristols talent for exploiting the US infotainment industry and do not begrudge them earning their living in that manner. I also look forward to the day when the Palins are no longer part of the infotainment, reality tv cycle.
Thanks Tethys, you covered all my thoughts about this and much more.
Regarding the contraception issue: As another person who is medically prohibited from using hormonal BC – one of the highly effective contraceptive methods is non-hormonal: copper IUD. It is good for 10-12 years, covered by the contraceptive mandate of Obamacare.
Regarding the Palins: By not watching TV I was able to avoid the information that any of them besides Sarah was still a ‘thing’ until I saw this thread. I think the more important question is what kind of impact does Bristol’s story have on her audience in their lives. Will more young women decide early pregnancy outside of a stable relationship might be glamorous?
I remember hearing one of her early abstinence talks which basically consisted of “Being a teen mom is great if you have lots of money but most of you don’t so keep your legs closed”.
I don’t do well on hormonal birth control either (who does?) and have had a copper IUD since I was….. twenty? It weirds me out that people seem to think it’s not an option and women for whom hormonal birth control sucks have to rely on condoms or diaphragms or sponges or spermicide of pulling out or luck. It’s the most commonly used reversible method worldwide and that was the case BEFORE the hormonal IUS. Is it not available to everyone (to a greater extent than hormonal options, beyond the usual matter of availability of healthcare) or something? Because it’s a lot harder to screw up on than hormonal methods and doesn’t have any more side effects than them, just different ones.
It’s not new. I literally have a collection of copper IUDs that I’ve retrieved from patients from all over the world, many of whom have had them in place for 20-40 years. Some of them are amazing. One was shaped like a Christmas tree! I had to slide one point of the Christmas tree on one side out through the cervix, then the point on the other side, back and forth, back and forth, until I got to the top of it. I don’t even want to think about the insertion.
For what it’s worth, in her blog post on Patheos, Bristol Palin says her pregnancy was “actually planned.” She further denies being “paid” to promote abstinence.
I’m not sure how to translate this, but I think she is she saying that even though she wasn’t trying to get pregnant right now, she wanted more kids eventually, so this pregnancy was technically planned — which is interesting logic, to say the least.
Anyway, Palin’s case 1) highlights Republican double-standards (based on race and income) for “out-of-wedlock” sex and pregnancy and 2) adds another data point on the many shortcomings of abstinence as a pregnancy prevention technique.