For Bristol Palin, a teen mother who has publicly endorsed a “pause before your play” kind of abstinence, maybe this wasn’t a great idea. Look, I understand the Rumba is supposed to be a sexy dance and all but ripping the dude’s shirt off? Kinda’ too far, don’t you think, especially for a young woman whose claim to fame is a single pregnancy?
I’m just telling you that as a father of daughters I wouldn’t be crazy about this. I’m telling you that as a father of girls I wouldn’t even let me kids watch it.
And I’ve got to wonder how the PSA she did about teen pregnancy jives with that as well. Kind of a mixed message, isn’t it?
October 14, 2010 at 5:51 am
Her PSA was not exactly part of an "abstinence" campaign. It was an anti-teen pregnancy campaign, which promotes both abstinence and birth control as a means of “avoiding pregnancy.” From the Candies website:
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The overarching message of our campaigns is ”…Pause Before You Play”: pause to think about your future; pause to think about consequences; pause to evaluate your relationship; pause to delay sex; pause to get a condom; pause to ask “why now?” (http://www.candiesfoundation.org/)
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CZ
October 14, 2010 at 1:19 pm
I felt the same way. As a former teenage mom, I wouldn't have dreamed of doing anything like this if given the opportunity. Strutting around like a strumpet on national TV would not be something I would want to be known for after the previous impropriety.
October 14, 2010 at 1:49 pm
Why is anyone surprised? Dancing with the Stars isn't exactly family friendly viewing. Honestly, it surprised me how many people watch that stuff.
October 14, 2010 at 1:56 pm
Strumpet? It was a dance, for pity's sake. In fact, by the standards of this show, her performance, while technically very graceful, was a bit stilted.
Usually the male has the role of bringing out the particular qualities in the female. In this example, it was more the other way around. Taking (and it wasn't ripping) the shirt off certainly didn't help that. Losing ten pounds or so would have helped her performance.
Bristol's performance — I used to be a regular viewer of DWTS, but this was my first time seeing her — was better than I expected. But her celebrity status isn't much to brag about. I still can't get over that she's even on the show.
And her parents had a chance to be proud of her, probably a welcome relief.
October 14, 2010 at 2:18 pm
I'm certain I would not have looked as happy as her mom did — I don't have a "game face." They could have done with lots less touching.
October 14, 2010 at 2:21 pm
Yeah, but it wouldn't have been the rhumba. Maybe a bit more, uh, discriminating in the touching. You do the rhumba like that at a club, and if you don't know the girl, and you put your hands on her … well, you ARE gonna get your face slapped.
Unless you look like that guy.
October 14, 2010 at 5:13 pm
You people are a bunch of prudes! The guy had to take his shirt off. You get really hot simulating sexual acts to bad pop music in front of millions of American families with young children.
October 14, 2010 at 5:15 pm
Like any mom of 4- all I can think is- WHERE DID YOU FIND THE TIME YO PRACTICE???
Maybe I am just not organized- I usually brush my hair in the car!
October 14, 2010 at 5:31 pm
I'm sure Sarah's taking care of the baby because it's really her baby anyway. Just ask Andrew Sullivan.
October 14, 2010 at 7:54 pm
Public figures should be sensitive that they are under scrunity 24/7 and their actions affect the causes that they support and the principles that they uphold. Even the mere appearance of inappropriate behavior can be manipulated by ethically challenged Democrats to subvert the character and activities of the Palins.
October 14, 2010 at 9:52 pm
It was a dance.
I thought she did a good job.
If I had a young daughter, I wouldn't let her watch this either. The rumba and many other dances are likely inappropriate for young children to watch.
But Bristol is a young woman, not a little girl.
And she was barely able to get two fingers on her dance partner's shirt before he already had it over his head….so to say Bristol ripped his shirt off might be sensationalizing the act a bit, eh?
October 15, 2010 at 1:49 am
Did anyone watch the results show? She admitted as much in a talk over to her "review" of the snippets that showed her dance. She admitted that she believed it to be contradictory that here she is a single mother, preaching abstinence and yet she did a dance like that. She was rather uncomfortable.
Every other comment aside, I think Bristol is stunningly pretty in a very natural way.
October 15, 2010 at 2:11 am
Baloney. I saw the clip. Bristol wasn't the least bit uncomfortable during the dance. She was uncomfortable watching it afterwords. Perhaps rightly so. Having a guy grab your … uh, where he did, presumes some familiarity, to say the least. A good performance of the rhumba does not require that.
October 15, 2010 at 2:48 am
I think she forgot her skirt in the dressing room.
October 15, 2010 at 3:04 pm
David, since I highly believe that the Palin's have a rather unique knack of telling the truth, I believe her. It doesn't matter if YOU think she wasn't uncomfortable during the dance because truthfully, YOU don't know what she was thinking/feeling. I do, however, know what she said during the results show and she admitted that she felt her movements in the dance where contradictory to the "image" (so to speak) she portrays with her abstinence program and she felt as if it sent the wrong message by dancing in such a manner.
And having watched the show, the results show AND this clip (three times now), I can NOT for the life of me find where he's grabbed her ANYWHERE. His hands glided around her hips in two spots but not once did he grab her anywhere.
October 15, 2010 at 3:48 pm
Dirtdartwife:
Ah, where to begin!
First of all, we're not talking about the former Governor of Alaska. We're talking about her daughter. An apple may not fall far from the tree, but it can still roll down the hill now and again. So let's leave the family out of it. Sarah wasn't on the dance floor; Bristol was. And whatever she said afterwords, I really don't care. I saw the clip. She did not appear at all uncomfortable.
In addition, I too watched the clip. I also watched it again, in the company of my faithful companion. "Sal" had four years of formal ballroom dance training in the Philippines, and is well versed on what the judges would have been looking for. (I'm no slouch myself, for that matter.)
This isn't a night on the town. This is a professional ballroom dance competition. The dance was a "rhumba," and the judges were scoring on the basis not only of gracefulness, but on technique. As in "technical." There are things that make a rhumba a rhumba, and things that are best left to that night on the town later. (Geez, buddy, at least buy the girl dinner first.)
He caressed her ass, okay? That's enough to get a smackdown anywhere else. What's more, it could not have enhanced their performance. In fact, they overlooked a fundamental tenet of ballroom dance. The male is supposed to enhance the experience of the female, to make her look attractive, sexy, to bring out the best in her. The failure here was with the alleged professional male dancer, who was too busy enhancing himself to properly lead his partner. Her own performance, while technically capable enough, was a bit wooden, tentative. Part of this was her own lack of experience, but a big part of it was with the male partner, whose "hands on" performance would have been better spent leading the female, rather than being in love with himself.
(At the end of the day, though, Bristol's performance was better than I expected. This is going to sound petty, but if she lost just ten pounds, her performance would improve noticeably. I'm afraid judges look for that too.)
October 15, 2010 at 5:46 pm
Entertainment value aside, the dance is/was immoral. Would any woman (or male) dance the rhumba if Christ was physically present? The rhumba is on the same level as pole dancing.
October 16, 2010 at 10:02 am
Bristol can't dance. So wooden and a bit overweight. I felt uncomfortable watching her. And her partner was creepy. Sorry.
October 16, 2010 at 7:44 pm
The weight would be a non-issue if she could actually move. She can't dance, don't ask her. Agree with Anon 5:02.
October 16, 2010 at 7:48 pm
A slight loss of weight would actually help her agility, and make it easier for the male to lead her. Not that that would have mattered to this guy. (See my earlier remarks.)