The Media’s Treatment of Mary Cheney vs. Bristol Palin
September 4, 2008 by Laura | Trackback URI
Thanks to Gustav, I’ve been unable to really partake of Palinmania! but we returned home on Tuesday thanks to my husband’s advanced entry permit, and when we got power and internet back, I have at least been reading up on blogosphere reaction. I’ll watch Palin’s apparently phenomenal speech later, but the reaction roundup provided by The Anchoress has been entertaining.
While we were evacuating I took breaks from weather news and learned that - quelle suprise - a seventeen year old had sex with an eighteen year old and became pregnant. Unfortunately (for the left) the right is not forcing Miss Palin to wear a scarlet letter for it. Although I’m amused that they - supporters of Planned Parenthood which teaches teens that “Some straight couples use anal sex as a way to preserve the woman’s virginity.” - are suddenly so upset about the morals of a family where a seventeen year old has intercourse.
The media made a pro forma attack on the Cheney family when Mary Cheney - an unmarried woman - was pregnant. But wait - there’s more! She’s a lesbian. (A fact which was supposed to shock us all, incidentally.) The attack was brief, directed at her parents, and there was no press frenzy to get photos of her pregnant belly or her partner. It wasn’t personal, because as a lesbian, Mary Cheney is a member of a press-approved demographic. So in spite of the fact that she was a grown woman, and even part of a political campaign, after a brief flurry when John Kerry tried to make an issue of her pregnancy she was permitted to enjoy her privacy.
Had Bristol Palin come out and proudly said, “I had intercourse, I got pregnant, and because I feel too young to be a parent, I’m going to have an abortion,” the press would be trumpeting her wisdom, freedom of choice, and right to privacy. But because she’s choosing life for her baby, and because the path for Obamessiah must be made straight, Bristol must be destroyed.
You are totally on the money here. Interestingly enough, I’ve gotten Palinmania and really, I haven’t seen anyone drawing this comparison (yet). Sadly, your last paragraph is true.
I just found through a google search. Interesting. Thanks for posting.