Yesterday, Neil Cole, the head of Iconix, the company responsible for the Candie's line of teen fashions, announced that Bristol Palin, daughter of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin and the mother of four-month-old baby Tripp, is the new teen ambassador for the Candie's Foundation, a wing of the organization created "to educate America's youth about the devastating consequences of teenage pregnancy."
If you're asking 'What gives?' — thinking that through its choices Iconix is sending mixed messages to teen girls and that new mother Bristol Palin shouldn't be the poster child (yes, child) for abstinence — you're not alone. New York Times columnist Gail Collins agrees with you: Can I say upfront that this is a terrible, terrible idea? Not the sexy clothes. Perhaps in the best of all possible worlds we would not have 12-year-olds dressing as if they were auditioning for a leading role in “Girls Gone Wild,” but history suggests that resistance is futile. ...
But surely, when it comes to combating teen pregnancy, the Palin family has done enough damage already. What worse message could you send to teenage girls than the one they delivered at the Republican convention: If your handsome but somewhat thuglike boyfriend gets you with child, he will clean up nicely, propose marriage, and show up at an important family event wearing a suit and holding your hand. At which point you will get a standing ovation.
Yeah, that's hardly a "Don't do this at home!" warning. But as Britney and Bristol might one day chime together at a Kohl's Department Store near you, "Whatevs!"
“I just want to go out there and promote abstinence and say this is the safest choice,” Bristol told viewers of Good Morning America yesterday while discussing her new job.
Abstinence is the best way to prevent pregnancy and STDs; you'll get no argument from me. But is it realistic to think that young girls will abstain from sex completely, especially when Bristol's co-worker Britney practically has an ENTER HERE sign on her own penis garage?
“It’s not going to work,” said Tripp's father and Bristol's now ex-boyfriend Levi Johnston, in an almost simultaneous interview on a another channel.
He's right. But as Collins reminds her readers, "If you have ever watched Levi Johnston on TV for two minutes you will appreciate how terrifying it is when he has the most reasonable analysis of a social issue."
Scary, yes, in a Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde Dr. Jackass/Mr. Survive kind of way. Plus, let's not forget that just a few months ago Bristol agreed with him.
In an interview with Fox News' Great Van Susteren on Feb. 18, she said, " I think abstinence is, like -- like, the -- I don't know how to put it -- like, the main -- everyone should be abstinent or whatever, but it's not realistic at all."
Bristol is entitled to change her mind, natch. But other than her mind and Tripp's diapers, what's changed in a few months? Nothing. The Washington Post reported in December that, according to a study by Janet E. Rosenbaum of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, "teenagers who pledge to remain virgins until marriage are just as likely to have premarital sex as those who do not promise abstinence and are significantly less likely to use condoms and other forms of birth control when they do."
So, what does Bristol know that researchers in this area don't? What will her new abstinence message look and sound like? Given the way her mother feels about sex education, will she talk about birth control methods? Advise girls on the measures that she and Levi took — except, you know, when they didn't?
Collins wonders if Bristol is on more than just a mission to educate her peers. Could it be that the teen mother recognized a Get-Out-Of-Wasilla-Free card when she saw it, and grabbed it? She also wonders where the heck Sarah and Todd's heads are:
Where were her parents? Her mom ought to know by now that the only way to protect your family from becoming tabloid fodder is to make it clear to the media that the kids are absolutely, totally off limits. You can’t put them on network TV one day and then complain the next when a reporter asks whether the baby’s other grandmother is still facing drug charges.
“We contacted the governor’s office, and the next thing we knew Todd Palin was on the phone and said Bristol wanted to talk,” Cole said, explaining how his ambassador had been recruited. And indeed, there was Todd, beaming as his beautiful daughter stood in front of about 50 shrieking photographers, smiling a fixed smile.
We have seen so many bad plans about breaching the public-private divide lately. Elizabeth Edwards’s book tour [she's on Oprah today, by the way] Eliot Spitzer’s media blitz .... But when a teenager goes out on this kind of mission, you have to wonder where her parents’ heads were. What does this say about Sarah Palin’s judgment?
Good question. But a couple of broader and more important questions might be these: What does this say about our willingness to ignore the facts at the expense of young girls? How can we, as a society, expect our children to make intelligent life-changing decisions when we so often fail in that regard?
Thoughts?
