10 thoughts on “Bristol’s Baby”

  1. I have no problem with private groups using private donations to promote abstinence if what they are saying is truthful — so I have no problem with the ad.
    Actually, you could pretty easily replace the silly tag-line at the end (“Pause before you play”?) with a Pro-Choice tag. Abstinence can be a good thing, but why does Bristol Palin want women who Play Before They Pause to be consigned to an unfurnished room with only a white t-shirt and jeans?

    Like

  3. Why does Andrew Sullivan say that the press should leave the Palin kids alone? Isn’t Bristol participating in this precisely because she appreciates ‘opportunities’ and being in the limelight? To me, ‘pause before you play’ sounds like something you do to a DVD player rather than an abstinence slogan. It’s hard to imagine this having any impact whatsoever on teen behavior.

    Like

  4. I think the flaw here is that it says “do what I say and not what I did.” We know that’s a flawed message everywhere. Wendy Mogel (Jewish parenting motivational speaker) has a cute phrase where she reports a purported Rabbi’s saying: That if you if you live the Torah (and, she extends it to read, eat well, treat your fellow man with respect) your children will grow up to live the Torah, while if you tell your children to live the Torah, they will grow up to tell their children to live the Torah.
    Bristol Palin is telling her peers to do something differently than she did (oh, and they should do something different because they’re just not as priveleged as she is, so the consequences will be less pleasant for them). I cannot imagine it to be an effective message — but I think which might be to be a pretty difficult question. I think it’s hard to *tell* people *not* to do things that get you 15 minutes of fame (and a television spot, is, in itself, 15 minutes of fame).

    Like

  5. I actually think this campaign probably works — although not just as an abstinence campaign. What Bristol is very overtly saying is, I regret having this baby. Don’t do it. You can walk away from it making up your own mind about how you will avoid ending up with a baby.
    Nothing promotes birth control quite as well as watching a friend or classmate go thru the blender of teen pregnancy. Bristol is filling that role on a national stage.

    Like

  6. I don’t think I does serve the role of saying she regrets her choice — it only says you’ll regret your choice, if you’re not rch and famous.
    But of course, I’m a 40+ year old mom and the message is not for me. I’d actually want to see the data on whether seeing someone go through teen pregnancy is a effects girls’ decision. We think it should. But that’s cause we see what we filled those extra non-mom years with. I remember watching a teen pregnancy show years ago, on oprah, and was struck by how non-tragic the girls found it. They weren’t looking at a future of possibilities. Their lives were constrained anyway. And babies bring joy, in addition to the responsibilities.
    And in the days post-roe, having them is indeed a choice, for many, not something that happens to you against your will.
    But I do regard these messages as something that deserves study — not ideological decision making ( from any ideology)
    And, in the days

    Like

  7. I don’t have the figures at my fingertips and my memory is fuzzy, but as I recall, actual teenage pregnancy is in decline. What’s been on the rise is unwed childbearing by young women in their 20s. If I recall correctly, young working class women continue to have the kids that they always did at that age, it’s just that they don’t have the husband that they would have had in previous eras.
    I’m on one of my periodic re-readings of Howard Glasser’s Transforming the Difficult Child. Anyway, early on in the book, Glasser talks about the importance of structure in a child’s life. “There are numerous forms of positively structured experiences available in most towns and cities–like team sports, scouting and various interests. Unfortunately, children with high needs for structure and tendencies to get attention in negative ways more often seek out the menu of negative types of structure that seeem to be found everywhere. What drugs, alcohol, gangs, involvement with the juvenile justice system and getting pregnant as a teen have in common is that they are all highly structured experiences. They take over one’s life and dictate the course of the day. They all distinctly limit one’s freedom.”
    As to the ad itself, I can’t get past my reaction that Bristol’s really cute and the baby’s really cute, too.

    Like

  8. As to the ad itself, I can’t get past my reaction that Bristol’s really cute and the baby’s really cute, too.
    Positives, right?
    I’m sympathetic towards the “structure” hypothesis, though all those things could also be cast as thrill seeking (including pregnancy). But I do think we have to remember that even teen moms, especially 17 year old ones, might well experience the thrills of motherhood, as well as the pains.

    Like

  9. As I see it, Bristol is saying that it’s hard, even for her, in privileged circumstances – wealth, fame, helpful family. And, though she doesn’t add it, a family that can protect her from the baby’s father completely messing up her and the baby’s lives. (Levi Johnston, I may surmise, is trolling for even fresher, hotter, modelicious meat right now. Heh.)
    Compared to most teen moms, Bristol has it easy. I get that’s what she’s trying to say in the ad.
    By the way, I wonder about Willow and Piper. Between helping out with baby brother Trig and baby nephew Tripp, how long until one or both joins their local “No Kidding!” chapter?

    Like

  10. learner, Sullivan was being sarcastic. The Palin camp keeps saying the media needs to leave the family alone at the same time the family continues to pursue media opportunities like this one.

    Like

Comments are closed.