Bell-bottoms, side ponytails, boy bands, and tamagotchi are all fads that have come and gone in the last 40 years. The unfortunate fad that swept the nation in 2009 was teen pregnancy, whose rates are on the rise for the first time in the last 15 years. Just fewer than one million teenage girls in the last year became pregnant. Some people see this as shocking in a day and age where anyone, male or female, 15 or 56 can walk into a neighborhood CVS Pharmacy or Wal-Mart and stock up on condoms. However, no matter how easily available contraception is made, it does not change the abundance of teen pregnancy in popular culture and media, whether it be Bristol Palin, Jamie Lynn Spears or fictional characters. There is a double standard that television series and films about teen pregnancy create; it is bad to get pregnant as a teenager but the aftermath will be happily ever after. By creating this double standard, these television series and films are glorifying teen pregnancy and making it appealing to the youthful audience watching.
The first television broadcast of a pregnant woman took place in 1953 on the sitcom “I Love Lucy.” Onscreen pregnancy was controversial at the time because it was thought morally improper to discuss such a private matter publicly. Imagine how Lucy and Ricky would respond to ABC Family’s hit series “The Secret Life of an American Teenager.” The plotline of “The Secret Life” is constructed around the life of Amy Juergens after a boy she hardly knew impregnated her at 15. Throughout the pregnancy, Amy’s parents stumble over themselves to make sure she is given everything she desires. Granted she is treated differently at school, but this poor treatment only lasts a couple episodes and (what a surprise) she ends up with an adorable boyfriend who loves her and her unborn child. When the baby arrives at the end of the first season, Amy’s life pretty much returns to normal. But wait, now she has a whole new set of responsibilities. She now suffers through the pains of a part time job, which the audience hardly ever sees her at, and has to care for her fatherless child, who is a dream newborn; no crying, rare dirty diapers, and is hardly ever hungry. “The Secret Life” creates quite a nice picture for teenage girls of what motherhood is like at 15. It is a picture that is completely fabricated.
If life as a teen mother was truly that simple, ABC’s Primetime would have had no reason for it’s special in June of 2009 about teen pregnancy. Hannah McLaughlin was in the fall of her senior year at Eisenhower High School in Yakima, Washington when her life was rocked by the news that she would be delivering triplets days before graduation. Life for her was not like that portrayed on “The Secret Life.” In a tearful interview with ABC Hannah states, “Nothing has changed for him, but everything has changed for me.” In the real world Hannah and the father of her triplets (all of whom passed away) are estranged, and people still see her as “that girl”—the one who got pregnant—and in her words she continually has an “audience of over 2,000 people and everyone’s watching.” Unlike Amy, who enjoyed her sophomore year with little to no glares from her peers and fit right back in once she had the baby, Hannah feels as though she “missed out on [her] whole senior year” and is constantly judged. Hannah hoped that teenaged girls faced with the question of sexual activity would see her story on Primetime and rethink it. In other words, learn by example not experience.
It has been argued that shows glamorizing teenage pregnancy, like “The Secret Life” or the film “Juno,” do not have a big impact on the way impressionable teenage girls see pregnancy. The people who think this should have a nice chat with the 4.4 million 12-17 year old girls, the show’s target demographic, who tuned into the second premier of “The Secret Life” last January, or the teens who rushed to the theatres to see “Juno” and helped it become Fox Searchlights first film to gross over $100 million. Teenage girls are unbelievably susceptible to the pictures of happiness that these flicks portray. If asked to discuss pregnancies, these adolescents will ignore stories like Hannah’s, instead discussing pregnancies sans the holier-than-thou stares, financial issues, and tearful confrontations that realistic teenage childbearing holds.
One main exception to the portrayal of pregnant teens as happy-go-lucky, non-vulnerable, spoiled girls is the character of Quinn Fabray on the widely popular television series “Glee.” Quinn begins the first season as the head cheerleader and president of the abstinence club but is soon removed from both positions when her pregnancy becomes common knowledge. The only support Quinn receives is from her teammates in the glee club, leading to multiple tear-filled scenes. Although this aspect of Quinn’s life is closer to the reality of teen pregnancy, she still maintains the handsome and talented boyfriend and keeps her perfect figure with just a slight baby bump protruding from her middle section.
Popular culture and media bombards young girls with distorted accounts of teen pregnancy, but what message is it sending to the young boys? Although males do not make up large portions of these show’s followings, the image of ease that they portray is applied to the father characters, if any 16 year old boy can be called that, as well. Where these shows should be terrifying boys by the responsibility they will have to take on by fathering a child, they actually expose fully functional relationships involving little to no encumbrance.
Television and film is about fantasies and fabrication. In the case of teen pregnancy, the fantasy of no complication that television and films create is detrimental. It is an inveterate fabrication that prematurely sexualizes boys and girls, creating an unrealistic and unfortunately appealing view of teen pregnancy.
Audience: "The New York Times"
Nice work, Kami. Since I last read this, your argument developed nicely and I see you point more clearly. The closing paragraph hits hard and is a well placed point. I might break up some of the paragraphs for ease of reading, but other than that, I enjoyed reading it!
ReplyDelete-Elaine
I agree totally with Elaine. All the kinks we discussed while editing have really been smoothed out! You have great concrete and helpful examples to support your point. Good job!
ReplyDeleteGeorgia
This piece is particularly interesting to me because during my sophomore year of highschool I had a foster sister that was pregnant. Two months apart age-wise and living in the same room, we were very, very close. Although it may seem surprising, we didn't know that she was pregnant until she was 7 months in, so she had little option but to have her little girl.
ReplyDeleteLong story short she got married to the father in Alabama when she was 16 and got divorced not a year later when she found out that he had another child. About a year ago she had another child with another guy. They've broken up.
Now, at 18, she's no longer in the Foster Care system. Without a high school degree she can't find a job, and lives with whatever dude will take her in at the time because she no longer talks to her parents.
It's so scary that teen girls can't think ahead to what life would be like with a child.
I had another foster sister that told me that she liked a boy, and once she had his baby he would marry her.
It's happily-ever-after stories like the ones the media feeds us that give these young girls ideas like this.
But anyway, about your writing.
I thought that there's a lot of information about your topic that you really had to squeeze into these 1000 words. You did a great job of keeping your sentences concise.
While I was reading the beginning, "Juno" popped into my head, and I was really pleased when you mentioned it later on as a prime example of turning teen pregnancy into something witty and fun.
This is a really important subject and I'm glad that you took the time to research it. The main idea of our projects is the impacts each issue has on society and our culture, so it's great that you address that straight from the get-go.
A really interesting, thought out, well-written piece. Great job.
Oh, yikes, sorry that comment's so long.
ReplyDeleteThis is an interesting topic Kami, and im glad you brought it up. I agree with how the media is showing teen pregnancies as a bad thing, but then again also the "in" thing to do. Have you watched "The pregnancy Pack" on lifetime about a group of girls who made a promise to get pregnant because one of their friends got pregnant and they didn't want her to go through it alone. It's pretty messed up, and it doesn't focus that much on the males partly responsible for their pregnancies. But i think shows like 16 and pregnant or Teen Mom shows teens the consequences of not being safe. But i like where you're going with this Kam!
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