The Juno Effect in Juneau for Bristol Palin Pregnancy Blog

From: Skye Communication, LLC
Published: Fri Sep 12 2008


"What does the movie Juno have in common with Juneau, the capital of Alaska?" asks Dr. Dorree Lynn in her most popular blog to date. "Governor Sarah Palin and her pregnant teen daughter."

Dr. Lynn's website, www.FiftyAndFurthermore.com, released a blog about Bristol Palin's pregnancy last week, yielding the highest number of daily visitors that the lifestyle website has ever seen. Web surfers across the nation are searching for information and glamorous pictures of Governor Sarah Palin, and media outlets like TIME Magazine are reporting on the soaring numbers of internet searches. Clearly, the veep nomination is big news.

Dr. Dorree Lynn is a Washington, DC psychologist, two-time author, featured sexpert for AARP TV, and Editor-in-Chief of www.FiftyAndFurthermore.com. She is a media specialist for the Baby Boomer demographic and is committed to writing about the hot topics that affect this target audience, the largest growing segment of the US population today. Her company, AndFurthermore Inc., has expanded and re-launched a new blog that features her commentary about current issues such as the 2008 presidential election with a unique twist – all of the stories are told from the perspective of those over the age of 50.

Below is Dr. Dorree Lynn's popular new blog on The Juno Effect in Juneau:
The media has been abuzz about the exciting newcomer to the 2008 presidential election, Governor of Alaska Sarah Palin who is now McCain's tough cookie, beautiful, blue collar running mate. Well now the news gets even juicier as journalists flock to the scene - Bristol Palin, her 17 year-old daughter, is five months pregnant. Governor Palin knew that her daughter was pregnant during her announcement last week that she was running for VP.

In fact, Bristol was photographed at the convention holding her little brother during her mother's speech, and newspapers around the country are now re-using the pictures of the pregnant Bristol cuddling her napping sibling. I don't know if the captured image was just a natural picture, a tender moment caught on film of the Palin family, or if the shots were set up by the McCain camp, but either way, it is pure PR genius for the conservative Republicans. Notice I am not being accusatory and implying that the pictures were necessarily "staged." I have no doubt that Bristol is a wonderful big sis, but one can't deny that the pictures have a great spin for the media

who will either be eating up the images of her as a loving mom-to-be, or exposing her baby bump pictures next week on YouTube.

Rumors are flying that perhaps Sarah Palin's infant son is in fact her daughter's child. This rumor has been denied and shot down of course, but the political mudslinging is ramping up as the Republicans accuse the Democrats of starting the lie. All the world's a stage. Last season, on ABC's hit TV show Desperate Housewives, Bree Hodge (played by Marcia Cross) faked a pregnancy to cover up for her teen daughter who was unwed and pregnant. Bree wore a pregnant body suit in front of her unknowing friends and sent her young daughter away to have the child and avoid social embarrassment. This plot reminds me of the issues that were so common in the '50s and '60s before women had much of a choice.

Whether it is a blockbuster movie like Juno, Wisteria Lane, or Pennsylvania Avenue, Bristol Palin's pregnancy is just one example of a growing trend among American families. Teen pregnancy is at an all-time high in the US right now, and abortions are at a 30 year low. An amazing number of grandparents are now becoming parents all over again – to their children's children. Many voters will able to relate to Sarah Palin's situation, but many others will question why the governor put her name in the hat to be nominated for VP, knowing that her daughter would be put under the microscope.

One has to wonder, if Bristol Palin wasn't using contraception, then why not? The contraception issue is quite contradictory among journalists. The Washington Post reports, "Except Sarah Palin opposes programs that teach teenagers anything about contraception. ‘The explicit sex-ed programs will not find my support,' she said in answering a questionnaire from the conservative Eagle Forum during her 2006 gubernatorial race." But research shows that abstinence programs are failing our teens because it's naive to think that we can prevent teens from having sex, it just
doesn't work.

In contradiction to this, TIME Magazine reports, "She is Christian and pro-life, but also a supporter of birth control: she's a member of Feminists For Life (FFL), an anti-abortion, procontraception organization. In 2002, she wrote a letter to FFL stating that she had ‘adamantly supported [their] cause since [she] first understood, as a child, the atrocity of abortion.'" Is Palin's daughter getting married for the sake of the child, and because she loves her partner? Or is it because Bristol feels pressured to "do the right thing" while standing in the center of America's glaring spotlight? Statistics indicate that teenage marriages have a tough time

surviving, especially if they start off with an extra bundle of joy. Bristol will certainly have many obstacles to face as a young mother, even with the unconditional support and love that that her parents have promised her. I would hope that my own daughters would want to talk to me about their sexual relationships and contraception. What would I tell them to do? It would depend on many factors, such as the length of the relationships, economics and family support. As a psychologist, the one thing I know for sure is that there is no easy answer.

About the Dr. Dorree Lynn
Dr. Dorree Lynn is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of the www.FiftyAndFurthermore.com website and ezine, a forum for age-mates in the second half of their lives. Besides being a saging advocate, Dr. Lynn can be seen as a featured sexpert on relationships & intimacy in her "On The Couch," segment of the new TV program "My Generation," produced by AARP. She is a practicing psychologist and life coach in Washington, D.C. & Florida with 40 years of experience. She is also the author of two books, When the Man You Love Is Ill; Doing Your Best for Your Partner without Losing Yourself (Marlowe & Co. /Avalon Publishing 2007) and Getting Sane Without Going Crazy (Xlibris 2000). Dr. Lynn is now writing a third book about ‘Baby Boomers between the sheets,’ coming out in 2009. Dr. Dorree Lynn travels extensively as a consultant and lecturer, and can be found within top national newspapers and magazines, as well as TV networks like ABC, CNN, MSNBC, PBS, and VH1.
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http://www.FiftyAndFurthermore.com
Company: Skye Communication, LLC
Contact Name: Skye MacBroom
Contact Email: sm@skyeline.com
Contact Phone: (203) 879-2258

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