BRISTOL PALIN entered a new phase of celebrity last week when it was announced that she has signed a contract with a high-end promoter as a public speaker. She will earn as much as $30,000 per engagement to share her insights into single motherhood and sexual abstinence. Only 19, Bristol is almost assured of success in this new endeavor. Even if her speaking ability is modest, she is likely to grow in celebrity and touch a chord in many.  That’s because Bristol represents a new kind of woman who is looking for recognition and reassurance. 

Though the Palins are now wealthy and famous, this new kind of woman is neither. She is likely to have a high school education, perhaps a community college degree, maybe a couple of years of college. An interesting and lucrative career is not in her future. She will work for most of her life in jobs that are just jobs. Her love life, her friends and children are the center of things. She is enough of a traditionalist to reject abortion, but not enough of a traditionalist to reject sex before marriage.  That’s why she finds herself where she is. She is a mother but not a wife.

She is a heroine because she has rejected abortion. She is a loser because she has had premarital sex in a post-marital age. Influenced by the idea that no marriage is better than an imperfect marriage, certainly better than a marriage inspired by pregnancy rather than love, she may not perceive herself as a loser, at least not right away. But she has very little power to bargain for marriage with the father of her child or with any other man now that she is a mother, by what seems to be her own choice. She is caught between the past and modernity, between right and wrong. She may someday settle into marriage, but it won’t be easy and it may never happen. Fifty years ago, she would have gotten a hasty wedding or given her child up for adoption and then married a few years later. Perhaps adoption is so seldom chosen by these women today because of the nobility of the decision to resist abortion. This may make the mother feel especially protective. Also, adoption seems to have retained some shame despite sexual permissiveness. And, a pregnant woman in her situation may be secretly uncertain that marriage and children will come soon enough. As a result, she chooses to raise the baby herself. She thus has a good chance of always raising her children alone, with boyfriends for company.

Her situation probably would be much different if she were higher on the social ladder, perhaps a recent graduate of a top liberal arts college. Then she might have been induced by the rewards of career, the shame attached to single motherhood (shame related not to sexual permissiveness but to the lower class status of single motherhood), and heavy indoctrination into feminism, to have an abortion. The moral consequences would still be a heavy burden, something she may carry the rest of her life, but they would be hidden.

Bristol is seeking $1,700 a month in child support from Levi Johnston, the father of her son. Levi is the other side of the equation. Would it have been worse if he had been forced to marry Bristol or if he had agreed to adoption? As it is, he will be induced to pay child support, but never have the full freedoms or responsibility of fatherhood. The Levis of the world are not led toward fatherhood, but they are forced to pay.

The Levis won’t want to go and hear Bristol speak, the Bristols will. It will be the Bristols who will want to hear Bristol Palin talk about her new life. They will be reassured by her example. She is wealthy, pretty, smiling and confident. As much as she may say that single motherhood is hard, that’s not what these women will hear. She represents the fairy tale possibilities. Matriarchy spreads both from the top downward, with power for women in politics and business disseminating to those below, and from the bottom up, in a burgeoning network of single mothers. Bristol will inspire other women to recall the heroic act of rejecting abortion, and to forget all the confusing disappointments. Marriage is for those who are more calculating and cold-hearted than they are.

                             — Comments —

MarkyMark writes:

Why is Bristol Palin seeking child support from Levi Johnston? She’s still living at home, right? She’s going to be getting up to $30K a pop to speak, correct? Seems to me that there is no compelling need for her to seek CS. Seems to me that she’s being vindictive, nothing more.

Laura writes:

A judge awarded her interim child support in February until a full trial on the case in September. At the age of 19, Johnston was ordered to pay her $1,700 a month even though she is living with her parents. The Palins are enlarging their home to include a suite for Bristol, apparently with the proceeds from Sarah Palin’s recent book and media successes. Palin has earned about $12 million since last July, according to widely reported estimates. Economic need does not seem to be the issue. Stay tuned. This reality show will be playing for many years. Bristol and Levi have both behaved poorly. So have their parents. This is a reality show that’s too real.

Jean Paul writes:

A very nice essay. Thank you.

Randy B. writes:

Okay, I admit, the only reason I voted for McCain and Palin, was because of Palin. I falsely believed she was conservative, but in my defense she was compared and contrasted with McCain (Manchurian 1). I was recently pointed to a YouTube video where Lord Oprah and Palin were railing on Bristol for her recent decision to choose celibacy over promiscuity. They were telling her how she had the rest of her life in front of her, and how choosing celibacy would limit her options. What a crock. 

Bristol is not a champion of leadership, but she is a qualified speaker on the negative effects of her decisions, the additional stress it puts on a young life, and the challenges of raising a child in a single parent household of contested guardianship. For this mistake and bowing to her sexual desire she is about to be rewarded at the tune of $30,000 per speaking engagement, so I don’t expect her message to be the one she would hope to covey, especially when she shows up late following her rushed shopping trip down Rodeo Drive in LA. 

It is now my opinion that Mrs. Palin is slightly more than qualified to be a double-wide trailer model and salesperson in tornado-ravaged Kansas. Being the sexist that I am, I will admit, if I were in the market and it was a choice between a trailer from Palin or a sweaty 380 pound Bubba in a jumpsuit, Mrs. Palin would be my salesperson of choice. Unlike many out there, I started off liking Mrs. Palin, but in the last several months I have passed the curve of the hockey stick, and am now moving strait up toward disdain. 

Sarah Palin earns $12 million in 11 months? Now that redefines dumb luck.

Michael S. writes:

“Palin has earned about $12 million since last July…”

“Earned” is a strong word, dontcha think?

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