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The Education of Bristol Palin

  • Posted on October 17, 2010 at 12:42 am

Bristol Palin could surely be the girl next door.

I haven’t been watching “Dancing with the Starts”.  However, I have seen enough of it this season through small clips to wonder what’s going on with Bristol Palin.  We all know the story about Bristol and who her famous mom is and all the problems that may go with being a child of politics.  The show has used Bristol for the obvious reasons of obtaining ratings.  What is sad to see is the way this child is being put into some fairly risqué dance routines that don’t seem to fit her personality at all.  She is being used and abused by a system for a monetary gain.  It makes me wonder what this young woman would do for money?  I think Bristol could easily have been on this show and not have been put into the sexy situations and the show could still have great ratings.  For some unknown reason the show executives have decided to portray Bristol in a fairly raunchy way which I think undermines all young women and surely portrays Bristol in the poorest light possible.

I feel she is being forced to do the opposite of what she is really about.  I saw the first dance where she was dressed like her mom and then her coat was ripped off to reveal a rather sultry, flashy, hooker type dress.

This dress is so un-Palin like and highly suggestive.

This may have been a statement that Bristol was trying to make, but I highly doubt it.  What troubles me is seeing mom in the audience whooping it up when Bristol looks to be rather uncomfortable in her own skin.

Some people probably have no sympathy for Bristol because she is getting paid to do this show.  However, I wonder if this young woman realizes how she appears to be some comic parody.  She is supposed to be representing “abstinence”.  In every aspect of the show that I have witnessed she has been portrayed more like a harlot than a confused teen.  She is fairly young and inexperienced.  She made a mistake as a youngster and she is living with the consequence of her mistake.  This new Bristol seems to have given up something precious from the old Bristol.  That would be the “self respect” thing.  I don’t believe for a minute that this young woman really wants to be portrayed as she is currently is or else she is just clueless to the image that she is playing.  In the most recent dance she wore seamed stockings and a shirt.  She actually pulled off the shirt of her dance partner as though she was so full of lust she had to have him right there and now.  This is a new level of trash TV and I’m appalled that Bristol has been put in this position and doesn’t seem to realize how she is being made fun of in many ways.

I think it’s a way to make fun of her and probably her mother’s stance on some issues.  However, mom has “bought” into this because money seems to trump anything else that really matters. The fact is it is tough to see Bristol as an abstinence proponent as it seems to be a case of “Do as I say, not as I did.”  However, she could be a great spokesperson to show young teens that there are consequences for having sex that you may have to live with in the future.  However, Bristol’s life seems to be better than ever.  She gets to be on a TV show.  She’s making a lot more money than any other kid her age would be making if they were in the same situation, young, unwed with a child.  It’s really about the education of Bristol and this education seems to be about making money while the press still thinks you have value.  There is a certain amount of sleaziness to all of this.  What won’t Bristol do for money?  She obviously gave up some of her virtuous clothing choices to appear on this show but more than that she seems to be willing to try to appear to look like some unrestrained sex kitten for ratings.

I am troubled by all of this.  I look at Bristol with the eyes of a mother and also with the eyes of a woman.  I see her as being betrayed by her female qualities for the sole purpose of selling a product and the product is sex.  It really is abusive to all young women to see her portrayed in this manner.   We are back to the Madonna/Whore phenomenon.   A woman must be portrayed as the good girl or the bad girl, the Madonna or the whore.  Bristol is a “fallen” woman as she had sex without marriage and she wasn’t able to cover it up like most young women because she got pregnant and chose to keep the baby.  I guess now that she is a “fallen” woman it’s okay for her to be portrayed as a slut.

This is how Bristol is being portrayed on the internet. This is fake for now.

Bristol’s mom is so busy campaigning and selling her own books that she doesn’t seem to mind the image that her “fallen” daughter is sending out to other young women and of course living with while she dances and prances on this show.  This is poor parenting from my point of view.  I know we have little control over what our children do in life but mom doesn’t have to sit there acting like everything is fine and dandy talking about “Bristol the Pistol” as though she’s just a sweet little girl from Wasilla, Alaska.  No, Bristol is getting an education but it’s not the kind of education most of us want for our daughters, nieces, friends, sisters or any young woman we really care about to get.  Bristol is discovering her worth is related to what her body can give her.  Right now her body is selling sexual fantasy.  It’s an image most of us wouldn’t want attached to our young ones.  Most of us want our children to get a real education by going away to college and learning about life under the bubble of the perfection and idealism that college can sometimes be.  Bristol seems to be attending some kind of college of hard knocks but the money is so good that she doesn’t see what she’s lost in the process.  Kids can be stubborn and sometimes they revolt from what their parents want but some how I don’t think Bristol’s mom seems to mind where her daughter is right now.  I just wish they could both see what I see.  Bristol may be having fun with all of this and maybe I’m an old stogie but truthfully there is more to being a woman than just trying to appear sexual.  This young woman saw two roads and she chose this one.  I wonder what the other one would have brought her.

What Motivates People?

  • Posted on April 8, 2010 at 11:53 am

I just watched this amazing video of a 96 year old man bungee jumping.  I found it strange but amazing.  First of all it is amazing when anyone does something that would really scare the hell out of most normal people.  However, when you’re 96 and doing these crazy, scary things one has to wonder what motivates you to do it?  This all got me thinking about what motivates people?

I know a lot of people are motivated by money either they have it and want to keep it or they don’t have it and want to obtain it.  Some people are motivated by jealousy.  They want something someone else has.  Others are motivated by thrills.  This would be the bungee jumper types and those people that want to climb every mountain they can find.  Some people are motivated by sex.  It defines their every real moment in life.  Some people are motivated by religion.  It is their center for all they do.  As I’m writing this I’m thinking this reminds me of the seven deadly sins:  wrath, greed, sloth, pride, lust, envy and gluttony.  Maybe these are all of the things that really motivate us.  If you think about it and plug in the word each and every one of these probably motivates many of us.

Some people are motivated by anger.  Anger gets them to do things they might not otherwise do both good and bad.  Anger can be a great motivator when you want to show someone else that you are better than they are at something.  However, then you have to worry about that old “pride” thing.  I’ve never really understood why pride is a sin unless you are holding something over someone else’s head.  You know like “I’m better than you are stuff.”  Jealousy can fall under the old greed and envy sins.  They are all tied together.  We all know people that always think the grass is greener on the other side or those that feel like life has some how been harder for them, and maybe it has.  I don’t know if people are motivated by sloth.  I do know some people that don’t want to put much effort into anything.  We all know people that want to just “get by”.  They aren’t really motivated to push themselves for anything extra.  They aren’t motivated by money or much of the other things that motivate people.  They’re happy when they’re not challenged.  They aren’t motivated to clean up their own environment as that might take too much effort.  Many of us are motivated by food or alcohol or some other vice.  We’re motivated because it tastes or feels good.  It’s a quick fix for anything that might be ailing us.

Obviously, as I’m thinking about it many things can at any one time motivate us.  I have always been motivated by my own moral code and sense of honor and duty.  There is no escaping this thing inside me probably developed from Catholicism.  It’s that little thing that constantly tells me what is right and wrong and heaven forbid that I choose what is wrong.  It’s hard to live with a moral conscious but I’ve grown accustom to it all these years.  It doesn’t mean that I sit in judgment of other people, it just means there is always something in my head weighing most important decisions that I make.

Some people are motivated by other people.  I suppose Barack Obama motivated a lot of people with his “Yes, I can!” mantra.  We know that Hitler was highly motivating as he got many people to follow him.  Other people can be motivating to us whether we realize it or not.  Sometimes when I’m teaching I see my students get motivated by the artwork of other students.  They watch and learn and sometimes it will get them working and feeling like they too can create something wonderful.

I’ve never understood what motivates a lot of people.  I don’t think I’m very good at figuring people out at all.  I am just an observer of this crazy world we live in.  I will quietly think and write about all of the things that I think about.  What motivated me to write today was a crazy 96 year old bungee jumper.  My words cannot express the exhilaration he must have felt flying through the air but I can try to understand what might have motivated him.  Humans are a complicated species that are made up of risk takers and quiet writers that can only dream of the excitement and exhilaration of the oldest bungee jumper!