Are Bristol Palin, Miss California role models?

They seem to come out of nowhere. They have a lot to say. They seek those who will listen.

They are role models. Or are they?

Recently, Bristol Palin, the 18-year-old daughter of Alaska governor and former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, set out on a campaign to urge young people to practice abstinence. “If girls realized the consequences of sex, nobody would be having sex,” she told People Magazine. “Trust me. Nobody.” She became pregnant by former boyfriend Levi Johnston and gave birth to a son in late December.

Carrie Prejean, the reigning Miss California and Miss USA contestant, answered a question about gay marriage by saying she was against it, which then created a flap that brought about a raft of other news stories about her.

The actual issues in these cases, and in many others involving those who find sudden fame and then translate that into a platform for their views, raise an interesting debate:

Do these individuals really have an influence on young people? Are they indeed role models?

“They certainly have the potential,” said Kristin Anderson, associate professor of psychology at the University of Houston-Downtown. “Kids tend to find role models that have something in common with them, or potentially in common, such as gender, or ethnicity, or even social class.”

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In 2002, Anderson and another researcher did a study of children’s role models. Kids, as it turns out, are smarter than most grownups give them credit for.

“One of the interesting things in kids 9- to 12-years-old is that they’re pretty sensitive to hypocrisy,” Anderson said. “I don’t know if I knew much about hypocrisy at that age.

“A definite theme from their comments is that so many pop stars get into trouble that they’ve become sensitive to those who fall from grace. What we did is ask them who their main role models were. We thought most kids would pick pop stars or athletes, but most picked their parents or relatives.”

An attitude of mockery, not awe
Robert J. Thompson, a professor at Syracuse University who specializes in pop culture, agrees that young people are savvier than ever. Although the ones he tends to deal with are college aged, he said there is a heightened awareness when it comes to honesty from the suddenly famous.

“Many young people today — certainly most of those that I encounter as a college teacher — are more likely to follow celebrities with an attitude of mockery and superiority rather than an attitude of awe and imitation,” he said. “This is also true of younger kids as well.”

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Thompson said that people like Bristol Palin, Prejean and others have the potential to have an impact, but that comes with restrictions.

“Spurred on YouTube clips of ‘The Daily Show’ and ‘Saturday Night Live,’ many youngsters see Bristol Palin as a punchline, the abstinence business being just the latest variation on the theme,” he explained. “That isn’t to say that some kids don’t use celebrities as temporary role models, but only if they represent something they already believe. A kid who doesn’t like gay marriage might embrace Miss California. It’s unlikely, however, that she changed a single kid’s mind.”

Now put yourself in the place of someone who is newly famous and is sincerely trying to be a good role model.

That is the place that the reigning Miss America finds herself in.

While Prejean triggered discussions about gay marriage, Donald Trump, racy photos and fake breasts, the Miss America folks quietly set out on a campaign to make sure the public knows the difference between their pageant and the one in which Prejean competed.

Miss USA is a for-profit venture owned by Trump. Miss America is a non-profit dedicated to raising money for scholarships and community service. Needless to say, the making of that distinction was a challenging new duty for Katie Stam, the 2009 Miss America.

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