Girl power? Not so much

The 19th Amendment, ratified in 1920, gave women the right to vote in a presidential election. Since then, it’s taken 88 years for a woman to actually be a serious contender for presidency. The year 2008 could go down in history as a great year to be a woman, though Bristol Palin might disagree. 

When I heard McCain’s running mate would be a female, I figured many women (including some feminists) across the country would be thrilled. Five days later, in the wake of revelations regarding the pregnancy of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s daughter, many feminists felt as if they were witnessing a setback for women. In fact, the Los Angeles Times recently ran a column by feminist Gloria Steinem that denounced Palin, her inexperience and her anti-abortion, conservative politics. 

As young women today, regardless of our political beliefs, we can’t help but find reasons for reflection on the story of Bristol and Sarah Palin. A recent study by the National Center for Health Statistics determined that 50 percent of 17-year-old females are sexually active and many are having sex irresponsibly. Though most girls’ sexual endeavors (and the problems that can occur as a result) won’t be as widely publicized as Bristol’s, her story should still enlighten American girls.

As college-age Americans, we live in a society where a considerable portion of the “love-making” is after hours, drunken and sometimes with partners who were one greeting away from being strangers. We’d like to think of sex as just one more facet of society that’s equal opportunity, but who are we kidding? In the era of booty calls and the disregard for the dead, great concept of chivalry, when it comes to sex, girls let boys run the show. 

It’s unfortunate, but Bristol Palin is doing a pretty accurate job of depicting the culture of adolescent America. While the year 2008 could have been remembered as the year the first female was chosen to run on the Republican ticket, it will also be identified for events such as Miley Cyrus’s questionable photo shoot and the illegitimate pregnancies of Jamie Lynn Spears and now Bristol Palin. So much for advancing the women’s suffrage movement. These influential figures make young American women look more like promiscuous exhibitionists than potential leaders – and let’s face it, for some unknown reason, society is more forgiving of males participating in all the same activities.

Bloggers across the Web are ranting about Bristol’s judgment and her mother’s questionable parenting skills. Few sites dwell on the fact that the baby’s father, 18-year-old Levi Johnston, was the other participant in the conception of the baby. It wasn’t until the discovery of his trashy MySpace page that he even became a publicized key element of the scandal. (Now Johnston is going to be following McCain on the campaign trail and, hopefully, avoiding the use of terms like “f***ing redneck” during interviews.)

As young women at IU, we don’t have our lives on display for public consumption. We’re luckier than Bristol Palin in that regard. But for those who see parts of themselves in her story, perhaps they will find reasons to do some soul-searching. We have about four months left to rescue the year 2008 from a fate that is slightly frightening. Four months left to help move women’s suffrage along rather than turning it into a joke. Four months left to demand respect as women and as people. In the next four months we must re-evaluate what it means to be a woman.