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.
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I got pregnant at 17, a few months before I got pregnant my parents found a condom wrapper caught in the linen after my boyfriend stayed the night and they told me that they didn't believe that I was ready for sex and that they never wanted to see another condom wrapper, so what did we do? We stopped using condoms of course! When I found out I was pregnant, I thought "Awwww baby!!!" and refused all advice to have an abortion. I'd like to think that I'm pretty intelligent as far as people go, but I was a 17 year old kid who had this novel idea of sweet tiny babies who are ever so cute. When my son was born the reality sunk in, within 6 months I'd lost all of my friends and my life revolved around what went in one end of my son and what came out the other and not much else.
I love my son to death and I'd never give him up, but if I could do it over I think I'd want to grow up first before I started worrying about helping a new little person grow up. I advise every teenager I meet who even shows signs of being clucky to do the same. You only get one chance to be a young adult do you really want to surrender that to another person, even if they are your baby?
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As for those girls in Gloucester, their situation has nothing whatsoever to do with the lack of or availability of contraceptives. Those girls are missing something essential in their lives that they think can be fulfilled by the "unconditional" love of a baby. And this isn't a new thing, despite the Time magazine article. I remember seeing girls like this on talk shows when I was in high school (back in the dark ages). Sadly, these girls are about to find out that it's hard to feel unconditional love when you're waking up every two hours, wiping poop off someone else's butt or listening to them scream when they (and you) should be sleeping.
The first commenter has wise words - I hope at least some of the teens out there take them to heart.
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There is some serious double standards about celebrities who get pregnant.
I'm talking about the focus on how bad a mother certain celebrities are (fill in the blank with whichever newest "bad mom celeb" you'd like), while simultaneously holding up to the light the idea that motherhood can save you (I recently heard something about that and Nicole Ricci [no idea how to spell her name]). I'm also talking about the constant "look for the bump!" attitude of magazines that talk about how pregnancy is making certain celebrities "glow". As if pregnancy gave Jennifer Lopez magic fairy dust or something.
The magazines are probably both a symptom and a cause. But what's always pissed me off about them is when people who are "disgusted" about what's in them (but not the magazine itself, just the "scandalous" things inside), buy them, and then perpetuate this cycle.
An additional caveat. I'm interested in the lack of "what were the children thinking!?!" that occured when Jamie Lynn Spears (yes?) announced she was pregnant and keeping the child. Maybe I'm imaginging it, but I seem to remember talk show hosts congratulating her. Certainly now they are reporting on her giving birth as though it were any other celeb baby. Yeah there was certainly a little: "what example will this set for the kids?" but definitely none of this: "what is the world coming today?" attitude that we see now. Is it that only rich people are allowed to get pregnant as teens?
I do think that sex ed needs to be better. For example, when I was in high school, I definitely didn't have the necessary skills to communicate about sex (which put me in at least one really unfun situation). However, I think some blame should be placed squarely at the feet of consumers. Consumers of the media that they then despair over. Who'd have thought, that after shelling out money to read magazines all about (sometimes young) celebrities getting pregnant, those magazines would do positive stories about people getting pregnant? And then, who'd have thought that young people reading those magazines would hear the tropes about how "my baby saved my life" and "doesn't she glow?" and decide that they applied to real life!?! Bizarre isn't it.
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I've very grateful for the sex ed I recieved in school, but not everyone paid attention and some kids were not allowed to go to sex ed class because their parents refused. In the fifth grade when I first has sex ed, one of the kids who's parents refused came up to the teacher and asked her is AIDS was bad. She couldn't answer him!
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I think when people say that the media is promoting sex or other horrors, it is just people trying to shift the blame on someone else.
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Parents in US expect their children to grow up by themselves. Or wait for someone else to do their job - teachers and relatives. But more then often those who teach them are most unsuitable. Parent has to TALK with his kid.
In China and Vietnam parents raise their kids. Sex is not a taboo there. There are no teen mothers there. I was stunned at first. But after while I realized why is that. They dedicate time to their kids and are treating them the proper way - mature way. Talk with them openly, they are your kids. If you can't talk with then and show them what life is about, who should? Someone who will make a great mistake or will even abuse that right.
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Parent's guidance is very important too in avoiding this worldwide problem.
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Of course no one should believe movies or magazines. They are all about money, not what is morally right! They're going to make the biggest story they can out of something to make the big bucks. I just feel bad that young girls are having babies at the drop of a hat, starving themselves to look thin, wasting money trying to keep up with the latest fashions...Its just sad.
And to reply to Katie's comment above, my grandma had my dad when she turned 17. I can't regret that she did or I wouldn't be here. At least you've learned a lot and your little boy will have more of an understanding.
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We must explain this to the Kids. Singers and actors want money they dont care. at least most of them. The truth must be spoken.
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