2 September, 2008 | Leave a Comment

Two questions: How many children does John McCain have?  How many children does Joe Biden have?

I ask because I don’t have a clue.  I know John McCain has a daughter named Meghan, but I’m guessing there are more McCains out there.  If so, I wonder why we don’t see photos of them or read about their lives.  Is John McCain a grandfather?  I imagine that he is.  Funny that no one ever writes about this.  Same goes for Biden.

Contrast this with Sarah Palin.  In just four days since she’s been nominated for VP, I know how many children she has.  I know all their names and ages.  I know what they look like.  And now with the front-page news of her daughter’s pregnancy, the sex life of a 17-year-old girl is a topic of national conversation. In just four days.

I wonder: Does Barack Obama feel torn about campaigning non-stop, which means less time spent with his two young daughters?

I haven’t a clue.  No one out there in the media seems to worry that the two young Obama girls don’t see their dad very much.  This question doesn’t keep people up at night.  Funny, then, that the question of whether Sarah Palin can campaign with a baby in tow has become a campaign issue in just four days.  She is portrayed as a baby-making machine and reduced to her ovaries, rather than a politician like the other candidates.

The story of Sarah Palin is just more evidence that Americans have a difficult time dealing with women in positions of power.  Coming off the primaries, where Hillary Clinton was the target of a shockingly misogynistic campaign that has torn the Democratic party in two, we are now in the general election and another woman is being treated differently from the men, only now a teenage girl has been dragged into it as well.  It’s clear that when it comes to women, the media and the public can only think of us as wives, mothers, sluts, sex objects, crime victims, pop stars, actresses and models.  Beyond that, there is no template.  We are in uncharted territory and many people have shown they cannot rise to the challenge.

I was already irritated by the Palin double standard before the revelation that her daughter Bristol is pregnant.  This story has now consumed the news media, not surprisingly.  It’s on the front page of several British newspapers today, including photos of Bristol herself.  Tell me — how is this story even remotely relevant to the lives of British people?  Do y’all really care that the VP choice of the Republican nominee for the American presidency has a seventeen-year-old daughter who is knocked up?  Excuse my language, but give me an effing break.

As for the American media, they love gossip more than anything else, even the news.  They could not have made up a better story than this and their glee is showing.  Bristol Palin’s pregnancy is now more important to them than the economy and the Iraq War.  Sure, you can look at this in terms of pure politics.  Some people in the media are wondering if this pregnancy news shows that McCain did not vet Sarah Palin properly and thus this illustrates a lack of judgment on his part in choosing an unknown with baggage.  From this NYT article this morning, it seems she was not vetted very thoroughly.  Still, McCain says he knew about the daughter’s pregnancy before he offered her the job.  While McCain could be lying about this, it’s almost impossible for me to believe that Palin would have kept this secret from McCain, since this is just not something than can be hidden for very long.  I think it’s clear that this story is not being driven by legitimate political concerns, but rather gossip, sexism and schadenfreude.

What seems to be lost in all of this is that Bristol Palin is 17-years-old.  She is not a public figure.  She is not running for political office.  I find it disgusting that the private life of this girl has now become front page news around the world.  I can’t even imagine what it would be like to be 17 and pregnant, knowing you’ve just screwed up your life big time.  Now on top of that the whole world is weighing in on your sex life and your morals.  How humiliating.  Honestly, I wouldn’t doubt the girl may try to kill herself.

Beyond the effect on Bristol herself, this is an example of the way women’s bodies become public property, dissected by the media, owned by society.  We’ve already heard plenty about the physical appearance of Sarah Palin herself, now everyone is free to discuss her daughter’s body as well.  How does the media justify this kind of intrusion into the life of someone who is not legally an adult?

Not only are women’s bodies public property, but so are their life choices.  With the media’s help, we can all debate the morality of this girl, point fingers at her and her parents (especially the mother).  It’s like she’s now been branded with a scarlet letter.  Too bad Jamie Lynn Spears, you’re no longer America’s most famous teen slut.  Teenage pregnancy is a huge problem in America, yet people are “shocked” that Palin’s daughter is expecting.  Perhaps they should wake up to reality.  Or are they only shocked because the girl is white and comes from a middle class family?

I’m not an idiot.  I know that in addition to the gossip factor (driven by sexism), the main reason this story is so delicious is that Sarah Palin is a religious conservative who portrays herself as Super Mom.  This news about the daughter is the ultimate gotcha! I won’t deny that when I first heard it, I thought ha ha ha.  I grew up in a state full of people like Sarah Palin — or at least, people that I assume are like her — holier-than-thou, judgmental and hypocritical.  I always felt judged by these sorts of people as not being good enough, religious enough, whatever, even though I knew most of them did not live up to the high moral ideals they preached.  Whenever this kind of person gets knocked down a few pegs, it’s understandably enjoyable.  It also makes me feel a bit vindicated.

But the thing is, Sarah Palin is not the busybody who lives next door.  This is a presidential race and should be approached with that level of seriousness.  The stakes are high, not only in terms of who becomes president (and vice president), but for the future of women in politics.  I can understand the impulse in wanting to make Bristol Palin the poster girl for the Republican’s failures on women’s reproductive issues, but a teenage girl should not be used in this way.  Furthermore, in order to use her as a symbol, one must assume that Bristol Palin and her baby’s father were uneducated about birth control and were brainwashed with abstinence-only policies.  From what I’ve read, Palin has not cut sex ed programs in Alaska and replaced them with abstinence only programs, so no one can really attack her on that front.  I’m guessing that at home, she and her husband were not very open about birth control and sex and presumably they did teach abstinence only.  Still, her daughter may have received information at school about safe sex and birth control and if so, then one cannot just blame this pregnancy on the Republican’s ridiculous abstinence programs.  The fact is, no one knows either way and it’s not right to project things onto this girl that may not be true.

So far, the Republicans have spun this as Bristol bravely choosing the “pro-life” option, which is ironic given that if her mother and McCain had their way, there would be no choice at all.  We don’t know if Bristol has chosen to marry the father on her own or if she has been coerced into it.  I can understand the campaign wanting to spin this in a positive way for themselves — that’s what politicians do.  But I hope that now that they’ve made this announcement, they take the high road and refuse to discuss it further, rather than turning Bristol into a “pro-life” symbol.  This would be just as shameful and repugnant as the gossip or anything people on the left might do with this story.  If people on the right do choose to make Bristol into this kind of symbol, it doesn’t mean people on the left must sink to that level.

What’s important is that Sarah Palin is part of a Republican ticket that preaches in favor of abstinence only, that wants to restrict women’s reproductive choices and access to birth control and family planning and to outlaw abortion, not just in America but around the world.  Palin herself is staunchly anti-choice and has said she thinks even rape victims should not be allowed access to abortion.  The policies she and her party support are deeply misogynistic and dangerous and immoral and offensive and anyone with a brain knows they don’t work.  While the Republicans deserve to be attacked on these issues and attacked hard, Palin’s daughter should not be used in the fight by either side.  Likewise, the media should think twice before attempting to ruin the life of a 17-year-old girl just because it can.

I didn’t think things could get any worse than they were during Hillary’s campaign.  Perhaps I was wrong.

1. Comments RSS | TrackBack URI

1. SpliceGirl Says:

   September 3rd, 2008 at 4:54 am

   I agree with everything you said but I think all the media coverage that “McCain didn’t research Palin enough” and didn’t know all these things about her are ludicrous.

   I believe they not only knew everything and anything about her but chose her BECAUSE of all the “scandal” in her life. You can’t tell me that the people in McCain’s campaign forgot to find out about Palin’s kids lives and “TrooperGate”. It’s all strategic to play into some group or other. These people are insidious and sneaky…they know exactly what they’re doing and they probably know more about Sarah Palin than Sarah Palin.

   I don’t really like Palin or her politics but I am more than happy to see a female in the running. I think the choice of her was out of pure genius…she’s a great way to not let us Hillary supporters forget what the Dems and Obama did to women in this campaign.

2. Paolo Says:

   September 4th, 2008 at 1:46 am

   Hear Hear! I agree 100%!! The liberal media is full of bias, sexism and racism. I give Governor Palin much credit for being a working mom and having a great support network. You go Palin! I am ashamed at how badly woman themselves have treated each other in this process from Clinton to Palin. Its a shame woman cant be as cohesive as the black community.

3. Greig Says:

   September 4th, 2008 at 5:50 pm

   It will either work or it will not work, in her own way she is cutting edge feminism,

   I’m (at one level) appalled by the idea of women knowing the difference between a .223 Remington and 7.62 jacketed NATO round.

   She’s a conservative, she’s the real deal, one doesn’t vet that, one knows it, it is McCain we have to ask questions about, is *he* one of friends?

   The US needs a President, who is aware that there is nothing in Central Asia or the Caucasus worth fighting over, not the oil, nor the Byzantine inheritance.

   And at the end of the day, Georgia is like Texas, why shouldn’t Russia do what they want with it? Is the USA going to give California back to Spain or Mexico?

   I think Sarah Palin is like out of ‘The Man from Uncle’, I think it could work out pretty cool for the USA, I can’t wit for the go go boots front page on the independent.

Name (required)

Mail (will not be published) (required)

Website