Thursday, March 12, 2009

Erbe Myths   [Kathryn Jean Lopez]

Bonnie Erbe writes of Bristol Palin and the father of her child:

The youthful pair never looked like a loving couple. They looked like what they were: two sexually active teens who happened to “hook up” but had nothing beyond that in common. 

And about the Palin family:

From where I sit, Bristol should have been using birth control, and never should have gotten pregnant in the first place. If she weren’t the progeny of abstinence-only education supporters, she might have been on the pill or using a diaphragm, or might even have been able to use Plan B, the so-called morning after pill. It’s a shame for poor Bristol who has some wisdom and spunk to her. She said in interviews she’s not ready to be a mother and it’s not a glamorous endeavor.

It’s a shame for the baby, to be born to unwed teen parents who are ill-equipped to parent at that young age. It’s a shame all around, as is abstinence-only education.

How about: From where I sit, it’s a bloody shame that we don’t expect more of teenagers? Just happening to hook up is not cool. It suggests a lack of respect for oneself and one’s . . . hookee. Being a single mother isn’t a glamorous endeavor, but neither is randomly hooking up and hoping you remembered to take your pill at the same time today as every other day, or to have Plan B handy in case the condom breaks or otherwise fails. So glamorous.

I know that Heart (of Barracuda fame) wants nothing to do with Sarah Palin, but . . . what about love? (The next line works too: Don’t you want someone to care about you?) What about waiting? It’s only unrealistic if we keep saying it is and don’t offer alternatives to hooking up (and that doesn’t mean just talking about abstinence, by the way). Teenagers can actually do fun, fulfilling things that don’t involve possible pregnancy. (They can have creative, full, generous lives!) But they won’t bother with actual happiness as long as we tell them it’s unrealistic to do that.

03/12 05:11 PMShare