On January 22, 2010 Oprah Winfrey criticized 19 year-old Bristol Palin, daughter of former Alaska governor Sarah Palin, for pledging abstinence until marriage during an interview with In Touch Weekly. Bristol, who has admitted to previous poor choices, is a mother of one.
Oprah commented at the start of the interview with Bristol, “I kind of bristled when I saw this—where you said, ‘I’m not going to have sex until I’m married. I can guarantee it’ ... I’m just wondering if that is a realistic goal. I think teaching responsibility, teaching, ya know, a sense of judgment about it, but is that a realistic position?”
Keep in mind this is Oprah Winfrey, a woman who enjoys a reputation as something of a role model to many, a woman who weekly encourages millions to “Live Your Best Life”, a woman who has chosen that slogan as the message of her rather profitable brand. In a September 2002 issue of her own “O” magazine she is quoted as saying, “The key to realizing a dream is to focus not on success but significance - and then even the small steps and little victories along your path will take on greater meaning.”
Nice message, but where was it during her interview with teen Bristol?
Bristol responded to Oprah affirming that abstinence until marriage is a good goal for all young women to have.
Oprah, pressing on, “Why, if you’re going to have sex or not have sex, just, that’s you’re business, it’s not anybody’s business when you choose to have sex.” (Perhaps, Oprah doth protesteth too much.)
Bristol responded, "I just think it's a goal to have ... [a]nd I think that other young women should have that goal."
Isn’t part of Goal Setting 101 to set a goal and then share that goal with others? Nice job, Bristol, maybe Oprah missed that class.
Oprah’s response? Oprah the woman who says “The key to realizing a dream is to focus not on success but significance - and then even the small steps and little victories along your path will take on greater meaning”; the woman who prides herself on encouraging and empowering others to realize their dreams. Here are her words to Bristol - “It’s a goal, but when you make the statement that I’m absolutely, positively not going to have sex and I guarantee it, you don’t think you’re setting yourself up” [presumably for failure]?
Again, keep in mind Bristol is a mother and by now certainly knows something about the subject of which she speaks. Bristol’s response? “No, I don’t.”
A classy and sincere interviewer who had genuine respect for the dreams and goals of young women seeking virtue might have stepped back and applauded this teen girl for trying to set a good example, but unfortunately that wasn’t the Oprah that showed up for this interview on this topic with this teenager. Oprah could find nothing better to say than, “I was going to give you a chance to retract ... but if you want to hold to that, may the powers be with you.”
Imagine if Bristol Palin had vowed to not use illegal drugs, or to go to college, or to become president. Would Oprah have responded in the same manner? One must reasonably conjecture, probably not. Oprah has again revealed her true colors as a woman who believes women are left to nothing but the whims of their racing hormones. Perhaps, Oprah does share a little too much in this interview.
http://www.ncregister.com/blog/oprah_bristles_at_bristol_palins_abstinence_pledge
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/carolyn-plocher/2010/01/25/oprah-and-gma-bristle-bristol-s-pledge-abstinence
Excellent interview on EWTN's "World Over Live" weekend of 1/29/10.
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