"Apparently, she's going to have the child, and I think that is the right decision, a good decision, and I respect that and appreciate it. I hope it is not an encouragement to other 16-year-olds who think that is the best course of action. But at the same time I'm not going to condemn her. It's a tragedy when a 16-year-old who is not really prepared for all the responsibilities of adult life is going to be now faced with all the responsibilities of honest-to-goodness adult life."
"People see a Natalie Portman who boasts, 'We're not married but we're having these children and they're doing just fine.' I think it gives a distorted image. It's unfortunate that we glorify and glamorize the idea of out-of- wedlock children. Most single moms are very poor, uneducated, can't get a job, and if it weren't for government assistance, their kids would be starving to death and never have health care," he said. "And that's the story that we're not seeing."
-Mike Huckabee on Jamie Lynn Spears in 2007, and then on Natalie Portman in 2011
Does everyone else see what I see here?
When you are sixteen and make the mistake of getting pregnant, you are praised for keeping the baby, but only because you can be held up as a cautionary tale, and are thus, exempt from condemnation. When you are successful and can support a baby without the help of a man, you are an immoral whore that glamorizes having children out of wedlock and should be condemned for keeping the baby.
Let's make something very clear. Jamie Lynn Spears has money. She is just as capable of supporting a child on her own as Natalie Portman is. However, as a teenage mother, she embodies the fears of every parent and sexually active sixteen year old. Few people in their right minds actually plan to have a child when they are sixteen. Because Spears chose to have the child under these circumstances, he is happy to ignore the fact that she is well off, has access to nannies, can be properly educated if she chooses to be, and probably isn't facing the full extent of the adult responsibilities most teenage mothers must face. Instead, he focuses on the fact that this "tragic" little girl is bravely choosing not to have an abortion. But he only does this because she is sixteen and can call her out on her mistake, even if he is sugar coating that criticism by not condemning her.
Natalie Portman gets a different treatment because she is an adult and has chosen to have a child without first getting married. Suddenly, she is glamorizing single motherhood with her personal decisions - decisions she has the means (and right, like anyone else) to make, and because of her, Huckabee implies that she will inspire women to have children out of wedlock whether they can afford to do so or not. In other words, women are so stupid that they would emulate Portman just because, without giving a thought to their personal situations. Portman's only real sin here is not adhering to Huckabee's vision of how things should be, having a child on her own terms, and condemning her for being independent and successful.
What a fucking woman hating hypocrite.
For one thing, it's no one's business what Spears or Portman choose to do with their lives and bodies. If one is going to criticize, then Spears is the one who until recently was a popular face on children's television, however, and more influential among the very people that need to learn from her mistake and not do the same. But it's okay for Spears because she is paying for playing. Portman probably planned this child, which in the eyes of normal people, is the right thing, but it's not okay for Huckabee because women should not be allowed to make such decisions for themselves, especially when they go against his version of morality. He is condemning her success and ability to make these choices for herself without having to deal with negative consequences because her success is a direct threat to his backward views.
Hey, Huckabee, go make me a sandwich and get under that asshole spotlight when you are done, baby-cakes.
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