So Sarah Palins 17 year old daughter is pregnant.
So what?
Maybe I've been blind all these years, but I have never seen such a shrill marriage of Puritanism and Sexism in the media like I have in the last few days.
There are some who question whether she can properly divide her time between her family's needs and her Veep duties. I wonder how many men running for VP or President would be questioned that way?
Worse. I think, is the hand-wringing and scandalous gossip and telling and retelling the story of the "unmarried and pregnant." And the meda are using words like "scandal," and "revelations."
Well, I got news for you folks.
First, human beings have sex, and reproduce. Thats why there's several billion of us on the planet.
Second, at the age of 17, hormones and plumbing work well. In every human, everywhere around the world.
Third, No-Sex-Befre-Marriage is a nice, puritanical ideal. I challenge every individual reading this to guess just how many people (a) wait until marriage before having sex and (b) have sex with one person, for life. Everything we know about humanity tells us that a very, very, very tiny percentage of people can claim that. Why do we require some mythical, super-human standard of perfection from others that we don't requre (or desire) in ourselves?
Furthermore, what family in America can claim NOT to have a relative who has been in this situation?
Give it up, folks...all this proves is that Sarah Palin is just like the rest of us.
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3 comments:
I think the worry is that she has been teaching her daughter abstinence instead of contraception. In other words, she let her faith override her sense. If she can do something like that with her own daughter, people rather worry that she might do the same as president. Which she has a fair chance of ending up as, if McCain get elected.
ok - I am up the the challenge. I waited until I was married, at age 22 to have sex with my husband on our wedding night. And, he is the only person I have ever had sex with. I think this scenario may be way more common than you think. And no so puritanical. Just morally right.
I applaud you for having a belief system and sticking to it. You are pleased with your decision, I suspect, and tired of feeling 'put down' because of it.
However, by claiming your approach is the 'morally right' aprroach, you betray the condescending an dimpossible standards of puritanism. Here's the reality:
The AVERAGE age of first intercourse is now 16 for men, 17 for women.
Males 30-44 report an average of 6-8 female sexual partners in their lifetime (Mosher, Chandra, & Jones, 2005).
Females 30-44 report an average of 4 male sexual partners in their lifetime (Mosher, Chandra, & Jones, 2005).
3% of men have had zero sexual partners since the age of 18, 20% have had 1 partner, 21% have had 2-4 partners, 23% have had 5-10 partners, 16% have had 11-20 partners, and 17% have had 21 or more partners (Laumann, Gagnon, Michael, Michaels, 1994).
3% of women have had zero sexual partners since the age of 18, 31% have had 1 partner, 36% have had 2-4 partners, 20% have had 5-10 partners, 6% have had 11-20 partners, and 3% have had 21 or more partners (Laumann, Gagnon, Michael, Michaels, 1994).
20% of American men and 31% of American women have had one sex partner in their lifetime (Laumann, Gagnon, Michael, Michaels, 1994).
56% of American men and 30% of American women have had 5 or more sex partners in their lifetime (Laumann, Gagnon, Michael, Michaels, 1994).
Having said all that, the most *conservative* estimates suggest that 80% of the American population do not fall into your definition of 'morally right.'
I would suggest that any system of belieef that assumes what 4 out of 5 people do naturally is 'bad' or morally 'wrong' is an impossible standard that is spiritually and emotionally abusive.
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