Is the Media Promoting Teen Pregnancy?
Earlier this month, Time magazine put out a story about 17 girls in Gloucester, Massachusetts, none older than 16, who had made a pregnancy pact stating that they would get pregnant at the same time so they could raise their children together. The number of teen pregnancies in this school alone has risen more than 4% in just one year and the number of teen pregnancies across the country this past year are astonishing. One must ask, given the statistics, why are so many young girls getting pregnant?
In almost every blog post I have seen on this topic, most of which were “mommy bloggers,” mothers of mostly small children, one of the first things brought up is the media. Most people are claiming that movies like Juno and Knocked Up are glamorizing pregnancy and young, unwed mothers. They are also pointing the finger at television shows such as the upcoming The Secret Life of the American Teenager, from the same people who brought you all thirty years (well it sure felt like it!) of 7th Heaven. While mass media is definitely pushing its boundaries and has caused young girls as well as grown women to take up extremist behavior, I think that while it’s definitely okay and right to point fingers, people are only pointing fingers at mass media and don’t believe that anything else can cause such an extreme outcome.
The last time I saw Juno, it was about a teenage girl who was most likely told by her parents not to have sex, hence her being so apprehensive to speak with her father and step mother about being pregnant. However, this teenage girl had sex anyway and it wasn’t a case of her boyfriend wanting to have sex and pushing her to agree to it nor was it something she felt she had to do to fit in with her friends or live up to social expectations; it was simply a curious girl who was in love with a boy and wanted to have sex. Sorry to break it to you, folks, but this is the way real life works–Teenagers are curious about sex, they wonder what it is like and yes, they’re going to have sex and it’s most likely going to be after you told them not to. The movie also showed a teenage girl who had a good enough head on her shoulders to know that she wasn’t ready for a baby and opted to find a couple who wanted a baby, yet couldn’t have one and it resulted in a closed adoption per Juno’s request. I highly doubt that Juno glamorized teenage pregnancy, nor did it show Juno’s best friend wanting to have a baby with Juno so they could raise their babies together.
The only thing I have to say about Knocked Up “glamorizing” young, unwed mothers is that one of the last scenes of the movie shows a closeup of a woman’s vagina while giving birth. Glamorous? Making teenage girls want to go out and get pregnant so they can experience what they just saw? I doubt it. On second thought, I have more. In Knocked Up, the main character asked if the man she was sleeping with after a very drunken night had a condom and being drunk, well, it didn’t work out so well. If anything, I’d think that Knocked Up is a public service announcement for “This is what happens if you get drunk…and have sex” not “This is what happens if you have sex, but it’s a good thing because it all worked out in the end!”
I find it rather odd how there is story after story coming out about a substantial rise in not just teen pregnancy, but the amount of teen cases of sexually transmitted diseases and infections and instead of pointing my finger at television shows and movies, I thought a little deeper and it dawned on me–Oh yeah! It wasn’t too long ago where we found out the amount of money that has been poured into abstinence-only sex education and what some teens think you can do to prevent pregnancy and STDs.
In the case of Gloucester High School, sex ed ends freshman year and apparently they aren’t able to tell you what you need to know up until then. No matter which way you look at it, teenagers are going to make up their own minds and if they choose not to have sex, consider yourself lucky. Teenagers are curious and they often feel as if they are in love or may actually be in love several times during their teenage years and through their lives, they have most often been told that when you love someone you have sex and that is what they do.
Education is the most powerful resource anyone can have and it’s the only thing no one can take away from you. The same applies for the subject of sex, especially when you’re talking about teenagers. Every person deserves the education they need to go out in the world and make something of themselves and of their lives.
Making a commitment to yourself to remain a virgin until your wedding day is one thing that I could completely understand. A woman making an informed and personal decision for herself is completely fine, especially if that woman is of the mature age to know what she is talking about and making that decision for herself and no one else. However, these balls are not only being targeted towards teenage girls and their creepy fathers, but also to girls that look so young that they were more than likely told “Honey, look at the big, fancy dress you get to wear and there is going to be a lot of cake there!” Hell, if I were 5 years old, I’d be all about going too! And at that young of an age, the aforementioned creepy fathers only seem even creepier. I mean, it isn’t every day you look at your daughter, who is still dreaming about growing up so she can eat 3 bowls of ice cream for dinner and can’t even tie her shoes yet and immediately think and her virginity. Not only that, but to the point where you’re buying a matching cummerbund and taking her to a dance where you then imitate something that also looks like it came right out of a standard, traditional wedding. Right?
