How in the Palin Pregnancy Different than the Spears Pregnancy and the Movie Juno?

[amykhar]

I have seen some gripes that the Republicans who were cheesed at Nickelodeon for airing Zoey issues after the Spears girl turned up p.g. and who thought the Juno movie glorified pregnancy are not raging against the Palin teen pregnancy.

To me, it's an issue of entertainment vs reality. I don't like some television shows because they glorify brattiness. They depict smart-ass kids making their parents look like morons. They make being a smart-ass seem cool to kids. Give me the Cosby kids anyday. They made mistakes, but the show depicted kids who tried to be good and who genuinely respected their 'parents' on the show.

Likewise, I don't want television or movies making teen pregnancy look cool and trendy. I don't want television making it look easy either. I had no problems with Juno. A movie showing a girl struggling with the issue and truly facing how hard it would be to parent doesn't have to be dour and dark. It can have some humor. It doesn't glorify.

I'm not going to get bent out of shape about Zoey reruns. BUT, the reruns could send a confusing message. Girls learn that Jamie Lynn had a baby, but here she is on televsion dating and in school and carrying on like nothing ever happened. Kids don't deal well with time. What they see is happening 'right now'. They don't always get that the show was filmed before the baby.

But a real teen pregnancy is a different matter. I don't want television making up trendy teen pregnancies for my kids, but I can't deny that teen pregnancy exists. So, what should right wingers say about Palin's daughter? We can wonder if Palin was a good mother, just like we wondered if Jamie Lynn's mother was. You shrug and make the best of it. If the teen is putting the baby up for adoption, you congratulate her for making a selfless choice. If she's keeping the baby, you congratulate her for taking responsiblity for her actions ( and hope like hell somebody is going to be giving her a LOT of help and support)

So, I can understand why right wingers aren't flipping out. We Republicans are polite And when a kid screws up in the real world, the polite thing to do is stay the hell out of it as much as possible. It's one thing to talk about theories and ideaologies with fire and passion. It's another thing entirely when you're discussing one girl and one baby.

I'm conservative in that I don't want media teaching my kids that its cool to be bad. But, I think our culture also teaches us to try to be tolerant and understanding of people who make mistakes. We don't always succeed, but I think we do try - especially when it comes to kids who are genuinely trying to deal with a mistake they've made.

So yeah, I get the different reactions and don't see it being hypocritical at all.

[mjfrombuffalo[$]]

I'm sorry, I don't see "right wingers" as "polite" when they yell "baby killer!" and shove posters of fetuses in the faces of women trying to enter abortion clinics. If the polite thing to do is "stay the hell out of it", I wish they'd be polite.

[drmomentum[$]]

I don't see your point of view as one that I was criticizing.

I'm actually glad that people's attitude has changed. In one sense it is hypocritical, but in another I think maybe people are becoming more liberal about the subject.

-JP

[brian_igo]

Shorter Amy - When it happens to you, it's a lot more understandable than when it happens to someone who plays a teenager on TV.

[mjfrombuffalo[$]]

I too don't want tv/movies to make teen pregnancy look easy, and I agree it's important to provide a lot of support to teen mothers. But I don't know if tv/movies making teen parenting look easy or difficult has much of an effect on the rate of teenage pregnancies. I know the support and attention provided to teenagers who give birth (and the current social prohibitions against giving the child up for adoption) are affecting the number of teens parenting now.

[amykhar]

Not quite the right summary, Brian. Shorter Amy is that Hollywood likes to make bad behavior cute and fun looking, and as a parent I hate that. But, when a real kid gets in trouble, I can understand it and be sympathetic. (And probably, cluck under my breath like many do about how rotten that kid's parents are )

[theworm[$]]

The two pregnancy's are the same in that they're both none of our business, and in that they both are getting a lot of press and discussion.
Palin's daughter is a kid that got pregnant, and thats none of my business. I wish her a lot of luck. What makes it tasty for the news folks is that Palin is anti-abortion, anti-birth control, anti -sex-ed, and thinks that abstinance is the answer. Teens have hormones, and while we might hope that our kids choose abstinance, they're not always going to make that choice. It doesn't make the kid good or bad. It has no bearing on good parenting. I really don't want to discuss the daughters pregnancy, but I think it is one out of a really huge number of examples of how abstinance only education doesn't really cut the number of teen pregnancies. It's only bearing to this election is an example against a policy.

[drmomentum[$]]

I guess it was none of my business before it became a press release.

It sure was a strange way to announce a daughter's engagement.

-JP

[magenta321]

The thing I find hypocritical is that when Ms. Spears was pregnant, there were jokes about Lynn Spear's parenting book, and what a great job she did raising her girls (with as much sarcasm as possible).

Now, Sarah Palin's daughter is pregnant. Sarah Palin has radical beliefs about sex education. I'm NOT supposed to comment on how effective her radical beliefs about sex education are? I'm NOT supposed to say "gee, what did you expect?"

I'd say that if Todd Palin holds those same beliefs about sex-ed and if he were the vp nominee for the Repubs.

The only thing hypocritical about this situation vs. Ms. Spear's situation is that no one asked people not to comment on Lynn Spear's parenting, and no one cried foul when it was reported that this youngster was pregnant. I don't remember the pleas to respect her privacy like I'm hearing for the Palin situation.

[Prepoia[$]]

Lynn Spear's daughters both have many more issues than a pregnancy problem and unlike Pralin, Lynn Spear's parenting style is way liberal which also opened up the door for bad jokes.

As for me, I worry a lot more about all the publicity around the trendy baby "bumps" in Hollywood influencing the young into thinking it's so cool than a vp candidate's unmarried and pregnant daughter. She's not so glamorous or famous to the teens but the Hollywood (including angelina and crew) are making kids think having babies is so cool and the babies not having an actual (only a biological) dad is way okay. What they don't know is that money does make a difference in situations like this....the stars can afford their cute little bumps; real life teens can't usually.

[amykhar]

Of course you're supposed to comment It's human nature.

But I do remember people defending Spears' mother when it happened. People saying that you can't supervise a kid all the time and that stuff like this happens to the best of parents and we shouldn't throw stones.

On the one hand, I do think Palin might have done a better job of educating her kid about birth control. On the other hand, I was pretty darn educated about birth control when I got pregnant with Katie before I got married. I was 30 years old though; so blaming Mom never occurred to me. Now that I think about it though...

[thinkerlady[$]]

amykhar said

Of course you're supposed to comment It's human nature.

But I do remember people defending Spears' mother when it happened. People saying that you can't supervise a kid all the time and that stuff like this happens to the best of parents and we shouldn't throw stones.

On the one hand, I do think Palin might have done a better job of educating her kid about birth control. On the other hand, I was pretty darn educated about birth control when I got pregnant with Katie before I got married. I was 30 years old though; so blaming Mom never occurred to me. Now that I think about it though...

Dunno, Amy, me thinks Mom had little to do with Katie!!

[JonSmith]

I saw this cartoon in today's paper and thought it portrays Palin's view on abstinence pretty good:

[theworm[$]]

Tee Hee! Like that one, John.

Margaret - I don't disagree with what you said, but there is another major difference.
The Spears girls put themselves in the public eye through their celebrity. Unless Mom forced them to become pop stars, they strove to be known, recognized, and talked about. Palin's daughter didn't. It's her mother's decision to accept the nomination that threw her into the spotlight. Her mom is fair game in the discussions and mud-slinging. She's not.

[mjfrombuffalo[$]]

Jon -

[drmomentum[$]]

I've been on a few beaches like that. The teens can't go in the water, so they just have sex in the dunes.

[mjfrombuffalo[$]]

[JonSmith]

@ MJ

[lynnzop[$]]

at Jon AND mj

[conradd]

Well, we don't know that Palin didn't educate her daughter on birth control Just because she doesn't want graphic sex education taught in public schools doesn't mean she is against it in the home too. Could be that she thinks it is up to parents to educate their own kids.

I stressed abstinence to my son too, but I made sure he know how to protect himself and his partner should he choose otherwise. Most of my friends did the same for their kids. Since Palin hasn't issued a statement on what she told her daughter and when she told it (nor should she), this is all conjecture.