Get Over It?

In response to Brian Alexander's coverage of the Palin daughter's pregnancy, I have a few thoughts to share. While I can understand the author's exasperation at how much of a story this has become, I have to disagree with his conclusion.

I will concede him this much--the scandal reveals how much we are stuck in a state of arrested development when it comes to sex. The doctored images I've seen on so many blogs that reduce Palin to either a beauty pageant princess or a vacuous celebrity aren't nearly as amusing to me as they must be to some. They're juvenile and pander to directly the lowest common denominator and our worst impulses. Our unwillingness to be honest with the role sexuality plays in our daily lives is responsible for the kind of coy games we play with each other when it becomes an issue with a public figure.

However, thanks to the judicious work of the New York Post, we have learned that the father of the child apparently has a MySpace page. It doesn't reveal the baby daddy to be a particularly stellar character. Never before in the history of Western Civilization has there ever been such an effective way of reminding the world of the kind of asininity only a teenager can espouse. The king of culture or profundity he is NOT. He's a real catch. *sigh*

The real lesson to be learned from this is that birth control is the only effective way of managing teen pregnancy. My father and I are opposite in many respects, particularly in political allegiance, but he differs from conservative ideology in his unceasing support for birth control. When I was a child, he spent two years on the local Board of Directors for Planned Parenthood. This speaks volumes to me.