Glorifying Teen Pregnancy?
We heard about Jamie Lynn Spears and gasped in shock, as we bid adieu to “Zoey 101.” We saw the headlines for the new NBC reality show “Baby Borrowers” and wondered who the heck would allow a snot nosed teenager to borrow their baby. We caught wind of some odd teen pregnancy pact and rolled our eyes in disgust. Then, we spotted a new show on ABC called “The Secret Life of the American Teenager” and asked ourselves, “Secret? What secret?”
Excuse my French but what the hell is going on here? I know that this topic is nothing new, but don’t you agree that all of this media coverage is just callousing our generation of teens to the the possibility of getting pregnant? Yes, some of the new shows are designed to teach teens of the dangers of unprotected sex, but isn’t all of the exposure to teen pregnancy just making it a commonplace societal norm? “Hey kids, we know you’re gonna screw, so here is what could happen. See Jamie Lynn? Doesn’t she look miserable?” Uh….no. She looks like any other thirty something, glowing mother of a newborn. Except that she’s a teenager. Doesn’t OK magazine realize what an effing disservice they are doing to the whole teen population by allowing this teenager’s “OOOOPSIE” to grace the cover of a magazine, painted as a normal, beautiful new mommy moment? Yes, motherhood is beautiful. Yes, the baby and Ms. Spears are beautiful. Too beautiful. Many teenaged, affection starved, disenchanted girls will look at that picturesque portrayal of premature motherhood and fantasize about it, themselves. No, I do not have statistics.
What ever happened to the days when getting pregnant, before marriage, was a big no no? I’ve heard tales of parents who shipped their pregnant daughter off to live with distant relatives, out of the sheer fear that she would be looked upon as a whore. My own mother was livid when she found out that I was pregnant out of wedlock. L-I-V-I-D. I was shamed by my traditional Baptist family. Did they encourage me to abort my baby? No way. The told me that “I am now responsible to raise my baby to be a God fearing child…oh, and when was the wedding?” Did the enable me to continue my life as a carefree teenager, by raising the baby? Heeeeeellllll no. Happy fun time ended when I conceived. I had to take responsibility for my actions. Maybe if more parents treated teen pregnancy and premarital sex as the huge mistake it is, there would be less of it. The media might even loosen its capitalistic grip on the issue and stop turning out shows that make it seem like a normal rite of passage and an event worthy of a magazine cover.
Image: OK Magazine
Tags: abstinance, marriage, motherhood, responsiblity, sex, teen pregnancyRelated Stories
POSTED IN: News
15 opinions for Glorifying Teen Pregnancy?
Christina
Jul 10, 2008 at 6:27 am
I agree with you on the OK cover. No doubt Jamie Lyn still has stylists and makeup artists and a nanny to help her do her mothering job.
But I highly recommend the Baby Borrowers show. They are not glorifying pregnancy at all! In fact, quite a few of the girls who thought it would be easy and longed to be a young mother have already had 2nd thoughts. It’s a wakeup call to many as to the trials of having a baby and also having to work. I watch it with my 11 yr old and we talk about it and discuss how immature some of the kids /caregivers seem to be.
That show is also not just about babies. The girls had to wear a pregnancy belly and the couples cared for babies for 3 days while one of them worked. Next the toddlers move in, then the preteens, then the teens, then the elderly.
It’s an amazing experiment and eye opening experience for them.
that girl
Jul 10, 2008 at 7:36 am
I couldn’t agree more.
AnonymousTeen
Jul 10, 2008 at 9:09 am
I totally agree with you Kadi. I think that the media is glorifying teen/unwed pregnancies. I know that my family and I would be ashamed if I got pregnant out of wedlock. My mom told me she was done raising babies.
I have been reading feminist blogs along with this one and was apalled at how they view teen pregnancy. One blogger said that the alleged pregnancy pact sounded cool and another said that shaming pregnant teens is wrong. Then again, they say that you should let your teens explore their sexuality and frequently poke fun at absitinence before marriage. *sigh* Oh well.
Dulce
Jul 10, 2008 at 11:11 am
I agree with you on everything, I saw that commercial last night “the secret life of an american teenager” , I dont know what the world is coming to when America is okay with this, thats how virus’es spread, these little kids have no idea, but i believe alot of shows on Tv like the disney channel ,and nick jr (the naked brothers band) are what is the big problem. I also dont like the fact that these people who make up the name of the shows have to throw “American” in the title, I dont know about you but all the shows they have with American in the title show how stupid, spoiled , and really low class Americans can be, why do we do this?
uughh
that girl
Jul 10, 2008 at 1:08 pm
Over at SoSiouxMe, Tracee did a post about banning Hannah Montana..she brought up a really good point about the way Disney seems to kill off the mothers of these characters. Also, how the parents left (usually the dad) are kind of goofy and don’t seem to have much authority. I think this sets our kids up to fantasize about this independant lifestyle that they can’t have and that (in the real world) is pretty unhealthy.
CanadianMom
Jul 11, 2008 at 9:53 pm
I do not know if the US does this, but in Canada, in HIGH SCHOOL, there’s a planned parenting class. 14 and 15 yr-old children are given these electronic ‘babies’, which look and weigh about the same as a 8-10 month old. They keep the ‘baby’ with them for 2 week intervals, home, school, weekends, the works.
But here’s the kicker. The baby comes with a set of keys. When the baby begins to cry, you, the ‘parent’ has to figure out which key the baby requires. There’s a hungry key, diaperchange key, snuggle key, etc. So the ‘parent’ inserts a key into the baby. If baby continues to cry, change the key.
Now I ask ya, how is this PRACTICAL? Inserting a key takes 8 milliseconds. It takes 8 milliseconds to change your baby. 8 milliseconds to feed your baby. You get the picture. These electronic babies do not come with diaper rash, colic, teething, fever. And since the feeding and diaper changes are done with KEYS, they also do not cost a cent. They will not crawl to the top of the stairs and fall down, they will not spill a hot coffee on themselves, etc etc.
When I was in high school they did not exist, and I am thankful. Cause I woulda been freaking out all over the school board.
Sorry for the rant, this teenage pregnancy thing really irks me. If I had come home pregnant in high school, my mother would have told me drop out of school, get a job, and when the baby came out she’d KICK MY ASS.
AnonymousTeen
Jul 12, 2008 at 12:42 pm
Canadian Mom: The electronic babies are here in the US too. I remember the kids who signed up for Child Development having to take care of them.
PS: I found out that the pregnancy pact may be fake, which is good (I guess).
Ellsy
Jul 12, 2008 at 8:28 pm
Yup, we have the electronic babies here. . .
found your blog thru the J & K + 8 thread Kadi. . .
looks good but please, for the love of Writers everywhere, clean up your tags, spelling and grammar. You’re (your) giving writer mommies a bad name.
kadi
Jul 13, 2008 at 9:43 am
Oh my…I appologize for my imperfections. Between raising seven kids and trying to put together charity events to help people, sometimes my grammar and spelling come second.
I really find it offensive that you would say that I’m giving mommy writers a bad name, though. I have seen great writers flub up on spelling and grammar. It happens.
teenagemom
Jul 14, 2008 at 7:41 am
Some of us teen moms can do a great job ya know. My teenage pregnancy was not a BIG mistake, it was just a joyous even that came a bit early in my life!
Reallythough
Jul 21, 2008 at 2:27 pm
I agree 100%, you’ve hit it right on the head. Teen Pregnancy is not a learning experince nor is it a mistake. It really annoy’s me when teen parents say it happened oh well, it was a simple mistake and it could have happened to any teen girl. NOT!! And guess what having sex unprotected is not a mistake it’s premediated, you know what you’re doing when you having uprotected sex…. Give me a break!!! With all this contraceptive options, there should be no reason why teen girls keep getting pregnant.
D.A.
Jul 28, 2008 at 10:34 am
A lot of people are shocked that girls are getting pregnant when there is ample sex and birth control. Birth control is not the problem, it is that girls often are emotional about sex and hope getting preggo leads to marriage at best, or at the least, a permanent connection to a sex partner that has rejected them. The problem is not so much Spears, it is a society that no longer stigmatizes teen pregnancy. I worked in public schools, and I was disgusted that there were girls 15 yrs old on their second pregnancy. These were welfare girls whose social workers took them to get birth control. It is a lack of morals, not lack of free condoms and pills. I see teens in teh mall spending hundreds of bucks in cash on designer clothing. They can certainly afford to spend a few bucks on rubbers. If tehy are too embarassed, then as a society we have to stop pretending that just cuz the homromones are there, that teen sex is “natural.” The urge is natural, but even teens are not rabbits. We accept teen sex, we think single parenting is cool and trendy, and back in the day, a girl whould have been shamed by bearing an out of wedlock kid. Trust me, multimillionaire Spears had no “accident.” She knew about birthc control and had the funds to get it. She is pregnant cuz like other teens, she wants a baby. blame SPears and this magazine all you want. We keep kids in a constant state of sexual exciteation, the schools encourage this crap, and we let teens have way too much independene, privacy and freedom. Parents are to blame as much as the media, if not more. Parsents let their kids buy what they want with no supervision, they let kids have tons of time alone cuz mom and dad want their own nights on the town. Spears did not cause this, and I do wish her luck, though I agree she should have refused to do the article. We can blame the media, but parents no longer raise kids and allow them to be raised by the TV and computer. Supply and demand.
had my first as a teen
Sep 21, 2008 at 10:45 am
Wow you guys are pathetic. You ever hear of birth control not being 100% effective? I got pregnant my senior year in high school ON the pill. So don’t tell us that we had a baby b/c we needed a baby. Everyone can make an error in judgement and errors from the birth control themselves. I guess the only ones your allowed to pick on are the teens. How about instead of bashing these moms and being negative think of something positive you can do about it.
had my first as a teen
Sep 21, 2008 at 10:46 am
Oh! And how about giving these moms the credit of having these babies and stepping up to the plate and doing what was needed to be done!
Opinionated.
Oct 1, 2008 at 7:15 pm
I totally agree with “had my first as a teen”s post. Sometimes people make mistakes; not everybody is perfect. Yes, the media is glorifying teen pregnancy, that’s for sure. Jamie Lynn Spears is a 17-year-old celebrity mother who is obviously following a pregnancy trend in Hollywood and does NOT DESERVE to be on the cover of OK magazine.
But what I am personally NOT okay with is people going around and saying that EVERY SINGLE teen mother is going to do a horrible job raising their child. It’s what we’re willing to give up for our children. Personally, I’m not about to go and have sex and get myself pregnant any time in the next ten years. No guy I know is worth going through that with, and I would personally not be able to suck up the responsibility to handle it. I’m okay to admit that; but some people? Some people are able to, and by all means, take your head out of their front doors and tell yourself how you’re glad that you’re not in that situation.
Or perhaps you are, and you don’t regret your decisions. Good for you. At least some people in this world can hold their heads up and receive criticism, despite how awful they may feel.
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