Bristol Palin, professional teen mother, is going to appear on the souped-up after-school special known as The Secret Life of the American Teenager. In the Washington Post , Lisa de Moraes argues that this move by Bristol is bad for Sarah Palin, because it ruins Sarah’s anti-Hollywood cred . I agree that it reflects poorly on both Sarah and Bristol, but for a slightly different reason. As I argued in a piece on Slate last month , it doesn’t look good for Bristol if she’s making a lot of money off her abstinence promotion. It makes her-and by extension, her mother-look mercenary, and it negates their message about teen pregnancy, which is that it is not glamorous. I’m guessing that Bristol is not doing this television appearance for free, and I doubt she’s going to be doing it without full make-up, wardrobe, and press. There’s certainly nothing wrong with Bristol making money off of her curious place in the culture, but she can’t take the moral high road while raking in the dough.
Photograph of Bristol Palin by Bryan Bedder/Getty Images.
