There are lines that are simply not supposed to be crossed, and in Bristol Palin's new memoir due out this Friday, she crosses one. Apparently she accuses Levi Johnston not just of taking her virginity, but of doing so when she was so drunk that she was unable to remember the encounter the next morning. In layman's terms: She accuses him -- almost -- of date rape.

She doesn't out and call it that, but her take on the evening's events certainly dance around it. In her biography, which was ghost-written by Nancy French and called Not Afraid of Life: My Journey So Far, she explains that she lost her virginity on a camping trip and, after drinking far too many wine coolers, she woke up alone in her tent the next morning not remembering anything and hearing Johnston talking with his friends just outside the tent.

It may be true. Sadly, it seems 70 percent of the women I know lost their virginity in similar ways, but it still is a very passive way of accusing him of date rape and removing the blame from herself.

There is a very fine line between drunken sex and date rape, and not remembering anything of the encounter crosses it. If she is telling the truth, then why now? If she isn't, then she has made a very serious accusation that will have lasting repercussions.

I am no fan of Levi Johnston, but I am fairly certain he wouldn't like to be branded a rapist his whole life -- without saying it, certainly she is saying it. If she is completely innocent, a woman too drunk to resist and too hungover to remember, what does that make him? At the very least he took advantage of her, and at worst, she is accusing him of raping her without saying it.

It's wrong. It's wrong because she knows people will have this discussion and she also knows it was her fault, too. Drunk or sober, she was in a tent, alone with her teenage, hormonal boyfriend, and clearly didn't say no (or at least she doesn't say she did). That isn't date rape. But it walks a line. And it isn't fair.

It isn't fair to the girls who really have been date raped and are told they were asking for it. It isn't fair to the man she is accusing who has no way to defend himself against her near-allegations. And most of all it isn't fair to herself. Own up to what you did, sister, please. For the love of G-d. You are no innocent flower.

Let us recall that this horrible man who took advantage of Bristol, stole her virginity, and ruined her life was also the man we were introduced to as her "fiance." He was paraded around like an Eagle Scout, and I'm sorry, but I'm not buying it. Which is it?

To accuse him of something this serious is unconscionable. The Palin women may like to play innocent, but they actually play very, very dirty, indeed.

Do you find this to be wrong?

 

Image via bpende/Flickr