Why We Need Bristol (and Levi)
This week, appearing in a Town Hall-styled press event, Bristol Palin debuted as a teen "ambassador" for the Candies Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the Candies shoe brand that raises awareness of the teen pregnancy crisis. It was an unsteady first step, which pleased those cynical about former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin's politically expedient version of her daughter's pregnancy: Remember? Bristol and boyfriend Levi are in love and will marry soon after the election. Bristol and Levi are now broken up and seem to be doing much of their communicating, even seem to subtly be negotiating custody/visitation arrangements for their son Tripp, on prime time TV. Now that no one any longer has to pretend that the pre-election fictions are true, there is a valuable lesson to learn. And, oddly, the quiet girl thrust into the public spotlight as a result of a most private mishap might just help teach it. That is if Levi is invited along.
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On the morning of the Town Hall appearance, Bristol also appeared on ABC and NBC, broadcasting maddeningly mixed messages about teen pregnancy prevention on the nation's most widely watched news shows. She seemed to emphasize the abstinence-only approach to pregnancy prevention on Good Morning America ("It's important for me to get involved just to advocate and promote abstinence and send my message out...abstinence is a hard choice but it's the safest choice and the best choice") only to appear on the Today Show minutes later to admit that abstinence can be unrealistic for some teens and they should use contraception ("If you're going to have sex I think you should have safe sex.")
I recognize I'm trained to listen for nuances in the sex ed debate. I'm also twice Bristol's age. And so it's easy for me to slip into the Simon Cowell role. No, she's not polished. Hers is a kind of witness-cross-examined-style speech -- short statements which leave you wondering what she isn't saying. I'm not even sure Bristol realizes that she's been contradicting herself.
So at first listen, her message sounds way off-key. On a second closer listen though, I started to hear something else. It sounded more like a new, albeit unrehearsed and out-of-the-studio, style. In truth, if her televised appearances this week are cobbled together, there is definitely a message worth listening to. Even comprehensive sex ed proponents should be fine with what she's actually saying. People who favor comprehensive sex ed have reflexively shunned her. She has seemed at times brainwashed by the group which still believes abstinence is the only direction a teenager needs to get. But in her roundabout way, Bristol is in fact voicing the core message of comprehensive sex ed which is: there's no better protection against pregnancy and disease than abstinence, teens should postpone becoming sexually active, but those that are having sex need to use to protection.
But prevention is not Bristol's area of expertise (for sure). Bristol is much more interested in warning teens about premature parenthood than putting herself forth as an expert on teen pregnancy prevention. That, I think, is part of the reason why she sounds confused when discussing what teens should or should not be doing. Being a teen mom is her new expertise. This is where she becomes clear: she wants to use her experience to help other teens avoid the same fate. She explains, "If I can prevent even one girl from getting pregnant, I will feel a sense of accomplishment." It's on this point where Bristol and the Candies Foundation (which supports both abstinence and safe sex approaches) have a truly shared perspective, one that gets overlooked by the traditional teen pregnancy prevention messengers. Bristol's and Candies' shared message to teens is: you don't want to become a teen parent.
The traditional pregnancy prevention messages have often missed this. They have assumed teens don't need convincing on that issue. They assumed teens just need to know how not to get pregnant. But statistics provided by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy indicate that about one in five pregnant teens was trying to conceive. For this demographic, messages about abstinence and/or contraception are useless.
And so Bristol may be reaching an emerging demographic. Candies may have found a powerful messenger in her. And let's give her credit, hers is possibly the most difficult of messages to impart. She loves her baby, Tripp is a blessing in her life, though if she could have done it over she would definitely have waited to become a parent -- it would have been better for her and her son. There are difficult emotional acrobatics here, seeming contradictions that, to her credit, she manages to present in a way that feels honest and understandable.
But there is one thing very important missing from the Candies campaign. Lucky for them, the opportunity to fix that is standing right before their eyes. What their campaign needs is Levi Johnston. And Levi has something to say. Few have noticed that Levi has been trying to get in on this important conversation. It may seem like he is just trying to spoil Bristol's day now that he is persona non grata in the Palin household. Whenever Bristol is backed into pushing abstinence, Levi pops up with a wry smile and a disclaimer: "It's unrealistic." Levi has been taking to the airwaves himself. In fact, on the morning of the Town Hall he got himself on the Early Show, in an unofficial capacity, to discuss their unplanned pregnancy. He quite diplomatically praised Bristol for encouraging teens to abstain but, based on his first-hand experience, he encouraged consistent condom use.
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What this national conversation desperately needs is for teen boys, like Levi, to be involved. How can we expect them to take responsible steps to prevent teen pregnancy if we act as if they play no part? Levi brings with him a great chance to make boys the stakeholders they inevitably are. He also offers a unique perspective on the difficulties of being a teen father, one that will resonate with boys in a way Bristol's point of view will not. It's also worth noting that Levi is as sought-out by the media as Bristol. He has the same humble, and winning, way of delivering a simple message. He can balance out Bristol's warnings about Saturday nights changing diapers with a pragmatic strategy for avoiding that fate. And, let's not forget, he needs a job. He's also handsome enough (New York Magazine calls Levi, a hockey player, "sex on skates") to get girls to pay attention to his pro-protection message.
These two are never gonna be slick, media trained, celebri-teens with talking points and agents (Bristol's entourage in New York was her aunt, baby and Dad.) No doubt, Candies is taking a risk with Bristol and would extend that risk even further by giving Levi an equal voice in the discussion. But with great risk comes the possibility for great gains too. The United States is suffering from a teen pregnancy scourge -- we have the highest teen birth rate of any other developed country, and by a long shot. Teen parents are less likely to complete the education necessary to qualify for a well-paying job -- in fact, parenthood is the leading cause of school drop out among teen girls. College then becomes the remotest of possibilities. Less than two percent of mothers who have children before age 18 complete college by the age of 30.
Too often heartbreaking sacrifices are also foisted on the children of teen parents. These children are more likely to be born prematurely at low birthweight compared to children of older mothers, which raises the probability of infant death and disease, mental retardation, and mental illness. Children of teens are 50 percent more likely to repeat a grade and are less likely to complete high school. The children of teens also suffer higher rates of abuse and neglect (two times higher).
Teen parents and their children are not the only ones paying dearly. Premature parenting in the United States costs taxpayers (federal, state, and local) approximately $9.1 billion each year. Most of the costs are associated with services to address the negative consequences detailed above.
Bristol and Levi are bravely offering their intensely personal misstep up for others to learn from. They may be at odds with each other (another statistical likelihood they realized) but they are united in their message about the not-so-glamorous life of teen parents.
For breaking news on threats to birth control access and information visit birthcontrolwatch.org
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As someone who became pregnant at 16, suffered a miscarriage, but still felt obligated (grew up in a nice Mormon family) to get married two weeks after my 17th birthday I have ALWAYS said that abstinance only "education" DOESN'T WORK. Abstinance is an important message, but it has to be coupled with detailed information on preventing pregnancy and STDs through the various contraceptive methods. Kids have always been sexually aware and sexually active, we are genetically programmed to do so. As with most issues where the right gets involved (guns, gays, sex) we bury our heads in the sand and just pretend the problems don't exist. Obviously that doesn't work, it never has and never will. Parents can and should talk about abstinance, but we as a country must openly discuss contraception and disease prevention.
Gimme a break. Ms. Bristol the spokesman for teaching abstinence? Is the baby a visual aid now? With so many role model teens that they could have picked from...why her? This is too much.
What an involuted analysis! Bristol Palin's views on the celibacy vs sex education debate are irrelevant. She is the hapless pawn of all who come into contact with her. She was exploited for political purposes by her mother and the Republican Party, for commercial purposes, currently, by Candies, and for ratings purposes, always, by the media.
Using an unwed teen-age mother as the standard-bearer for the abstinence only advocates is very much like making Bernie Madoff the standard-bearer for the honesty is the best policy advocates.
Actually, the claim that abstinence is the only sure way to avoid unwanted pregnancy is not true. Homosexual sex and anal sex are just as effective as abstinence in that regard. I don't think that Candies is interested in backing those horses.
First of all, although Candies do mention safe sex practices, they definitely seem to be pushing abstinence far harder than birth control.
Secondly, Bristol is definitely giving out mixed messages: she holds Trig, looks at him lovingly and says "he's not a mistake, he's a blessing" and then tells girls to abstain from sex.
Lastly, Bristol certainly sounded more spontaneous and genuine when she described abstinence as unrealistic. Now she's a spokesperson for Candies, she seems far more rehearsed and a lot less natural.
Overall, I find Levi talking about safe sex a lot more convincing.
"Bristol is in fact voicing the core message of comprehensive sex ed which is: there's no better protection against pregnancy and disease than abstinence, teens should postpone becoming sexually active, but those that are having sex need to use to protection."
This is 100% pure common sense. Why act like Bristol is a genius for pointing at the moon?
Not that I believe it would happen, because President Obama and First Lady Michelle are raising wonderful daughters, but can you just imagine what the Right would do to that family if either one of their daughters ended up in the same situation as Bristol? They would be savaged by the Right.
Indeed.
Mercilessly. They, the President and his wife would all be trashed.
"I started to hear something else. It sounded more like a new, albeit unrehearsed and out-of-the-studio, style".
No, that is called, "Palin Speak". But, nice try at trying to spin it. And, I see you wrote a book on Pro-Choice too. Teens having sex is not some new novelty, but the Righties are sure trying to make it sound that way because they don't believe in contraception. Bristol isn't the first and she won't be the last unwed mother. I just wish the Righties would have had as much understanding when they were forcing their "family values" agenda on us.
So the idea that a 17 year teenage mother goes public and says to other teen like her, refrain from having sex so you don't end up like me is wrong? Great!
The sooner the Palins - all of them - return to private life, the better for everyone else.
AMEN!
she has to promote abstinence only or she will cause problems with her mothers base.
There were times when there was peer pressure for teens to always use condoms but that was long ago, before the pill. Teens of both sexes always carried condoms. Boys got the word that keeping 1 wrapped condom in a billfold was asking for an unplanned & unwanted pregnancy. A hard key case was a safe condom carrier. So every boy got a key case. Condom, aka key, cases with a crucifix, for catholics, Christ's face, for protestants, magen David for jews & the favorite for the unchurched was the school's mascot or the logo of a car.
Those were the days.
Enough already of the pathetic, publicity-hungry Palin pack. The only message Bristol's media presence is reinforcing in the minds of hormonally-high teens is that having a notorious parent yourself can help you to cash in on tons of national publicity. What would be interesting to know is how much she, the baby , and their entourage were paid by the panderers - Candies and the networks - for appearing. Or was all this being charged to the taxpayers of Alaska . .. . or the GOP?
No, like mother like daughter. Bristol will be paid in clothes, etc. from Candies.
I thought it was hard being a teenager in the 80s, but it's probably nothing compared to now. It seems like there is so much more pressure to be sexually active, and sexual-in the Britney Spears/porn star fantasy, kind of way, that it's just a catch-22 for teenage girls. But, teenage boys have to be schooled as well-how far advanced are we as a society if we lay all the "blame" on the girls. Bristol and Levi are perfect spokesmen for this topic, because they are real people - not celebrities. They are honest about the realities of teenage parenthood, and that is what teenagers across the country have to see-the actual consequences, articulated by real people experiencing those consequences.
This is is the most thoughtful, informative, and intuitive article that I have ever read about this topic.
So seldom do I read one of these blogs and actually agree 100% with the author.
Wow, Ms. Page. Thank you.
Why are we keeping Sarah Palin in the news?
The irony here is that if you have seen the fashions Candies offers for the preteen, size 7 to 16 set is pretty trashy looking. And the juniors fashions look like hookers-in-training clothing. Now Candies is not the only clothing company that offer clothing that is way to sexy for young girls to wear. But when you design clothing to make young girls look older and sexual, you can't expect to have any credibility when trying to push this phony agenda of teenage pregnancy prevention.
Business will sell what mothers will buy. Sad sate of affairs when a mother will dress her daughter to look like hooker and then send her out into the world. But then again, h same system idolizes Brittany Spears and Lindsay Lohan. Let Hollywood tell us how to educate our children, they seem to know so much and al their lives are so great.
Yeah, and some Rightie folks wonder why there is such an uproar regarding Ms. California posing half-naked when she was underage.
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