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a beautiful, suffering Madonna.
I managed to catch the first half hour of Oprah's show today where she interviewed Sarah and Bristol Palin. I know, watching Oprah. But, I am trying to slowly uncover what she is all about, behind that now benign-looking mother goddess figure that she is propagating. And each time I watch her, a little more of her is revealed.
The young Bristol looked like a beautiful suffering Madonna, whereas Sarah fidgeted like an excited schoolgirl, with freshly done curls (a new and strange style - often when people's style goes awry, there's something psychological that isn't going too well). Mother and daughter looked tense, with the more honest Bristol sitting aloof and cautious, paying close attention to her mother’s words.
Oprah cut straight to the chase, and asked Bristol about her decision to remain abstinent until marriage.
Oprah asks: I saw in InTouch Magazine, and I kind of bristled when I saw this, where you say "I’m not going to have sex until I’m married, I can guarantee it." The reason I bristled is why set yourself up that way? It may be ten years from now before you choose to get married...The rest is astounding. You can watch it here at the 56 second point. Oprah resorts to fist pounding to get the calm and confident Bristol to repeal this horrible thing, and go and have all the premarital sex she needs.
Bristol answers: Yes, I just think it is a goal to have and other women should have that goal.
Sarah, on the other hand, goes full-out feminist. She hopes Bristol doesn’t get married too early (in order to break her abstinence), since she has a career and an interesting life to lead. And she comes out with "Bristol can do anything she wants without a man." Yes, the fish and the bicycle thing, alive and well in an ex-Republican Vice Presidential nominee’s rostrum of thoughts, in the 21st century.
So, here is a young girl, suffering and trying to correct her misguided life through a principled decision, and two adult females (one her own mother) who berate her and tell her to take the crooked route.
I wonder if Bristol will manage to keep to her pact, despite her determined look. Such decisions require a whole society to really work, and a value system that isn’t simply based on personal rectitude. Sarah’s true colors showed today. She is not interested in her family’s well-being. She isn’t the Christian that she proclaims so earnestly to be (although less so these days). The only thing she’s interested in is keeping Sarah Palin in the limelight. She found exactly the right place under Oprah’s glaring cameras.
