Yes, Bristol Palin is a Hypocrite. No, You Shouldn’t Slut-Shame Her.

Bristol Palin announced today that she’s pregnant with her second child, a month after canceling her wedding to Marine Dakota Meyer. Palin, who has earned a sizable sum of money as an “abstinence ambassador,” was thrust into the national spotlight in 2008 when her first pregnancy was announced during her mother’s campaign for the Vice Presidency.

In Palin’s announcement today she asked that people respect her privacy, stating, “I do not want any lectures and I do not want any sympathy.” Bristol, did it ever occur to you that nobody else wanted your lectures? You don’t want ours, and you don’t need them. You’re a grown-ass woman in a crappy situation, with even crappier expectations placed on you. But please keep this in mind next time you feel like lecturing others.

But this post isn’t really about Bristol. We all know that a lot of right-wing talking heads and politicians are hypocrites. That’s a boring talking point, even if it is a necessary one. Today, I want to preach to the progressive choir. Because already, I’ve seen “progressives” use this as a chance to score cheap political points and call her an idiot.

Can we please not do that?

Don’t get me wrong – we should all talk about hypocrisy! We should also talk about the ways that abstinence-only education harms young adults. But what we shouldn’t do in this particular case (or any) is slut-shame Palin for being a hypocrite. We shouldn’t call her an idiot, or stupid (both things I’ve seen on my seemingly-progressive Facebook feed). Palin is a byproduct of poor sexual education and a culture that puts unrealistic expectations of purity on women. And no, it doesn’t matter that she profits from that culture. That is irrelevant to whether or not she deserves to be shamed. In case you need to be reminded (and apparently you do), no one deserves to be slut-shamed. Hypocrisy is not an excuse for abuse.

Progressives, do better. If you’re concerned about the harm that abstinence-only culture does to women, then get involved in making sure young adults have access to well-rounded sex-ed programs. Donate to abortion funds. Support groups like MY SISTAHS that provide sexual education resources to young women of color (who, by the way, happen to be more adversely-affected by purity culture). But don’t use the mistreatment of women at the hands of purity culture as an excuse to mistreat women. Otherwise you’re no less of a hypocrite than Bristol Palin.