Is it just me or is teenage pregnancy in the news a lot these days? Not just the actual ones that happen in real life, but also the TV and film versions of it as well.
When I was in high school, the topic wasn’t broached that often except in teen books and movie-of-the-week on Lifetime.
But now we have a whole mess of shows, movies and books, in addition to the real life occurrences. To recap, in case you are living under a rock, we have “Juno” a movie that takes a light-hearted look at a teen giving a child up for adoption.
Then earlier this summer various news agencies revealed rumors of a pregnancy pact that two teens had planned. It was later revealed the pact was that they were just going to stick together.
Next, this summers latest addiction: “The Secret Life of the American Teenager,” which centers around a pregnant teenager.
Then there is Jamie Lynn Spears, younger sister of Brittney Spears and pregnant at age 17. Calling her a celebrity is a bit of a stretch, but it did put the topic out there and more people began discussing teen pregnancy.
And the latest in the slew of pregnant teens in the forefront of the media is Bristol Palin, the daughter of Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin.
Bristol hasn’t spoken for herself on the matter, however since Sara Palin is now a national figure and could be our next vice president, how does it look that she didn’t know her daughter was having sex before she got pregnant?
I’m not going to get into the I’m not going to get into the politics of all of it, but it is interesting to note that Palin is against birth control of any kind, as well as teaching abstinence only education, which after all of this I’m wondering if she is regretting?
So why are there so many instances of teenage pregnancy in the media these days? It seems a little over done.
Couldn’t the writers of these programs think of a different theme or topic that they could look at for their shows?
According to a recent article in the Chicago Tribune, teen births have risen three percent since 2005. Three percent isn’t a great deal, but when you think about all the teens out there, it could add up.
But still I ask, why do we have to have this topic in TV and movies all the time these days? Have market studies really shown that people are that interested in this topic?
According to another article I found, teen pregnancy is the “in” thing to do for generation Y, defined as being born between 1982 and the mid 1990’s. I will not go into the characteristics, but many students at UNI right now fall into that category. In the article, the authors made the argument that teen pregnancy is Generation Y’s “topic du jour.”
This seems a bit odd to me, I would the topic most on this generation’s mind would be terrorism or 9/11 or the Iraq war, or something like that.
We have now lived with the Row v. Wade decision for a good amount of time and have grown up being taught all the options of safe sex.
So the issue has been engrained into our culture in a taboo-like fashion. Even with all the cultural and human advances we have made, teen moms are still to some degree looked down upon in our society and their family is considered to have failed their child in some aspect.
So the shows, movies and real life public occurrences have gotten us talking – when Jamie Lynn Spears announced she was pregnant people were shocked and it remained the talk of the tabloids for weeks. Even more so when Sara Palin announced her 17-year-old daughter was pregnant.
Maybe getting people talking is what we need to do, to open up the discussion on all levels and raise awareness about an issue that many obviously feel strongly about, but that isn’t mentioned until after it’s too late to correct the problem.
I’m going to leave you with one last thought: If we were living in the early 1900’s, probably every female college student on this campus would be married, pregnant or have kids of their own. (Actually, they probably wouldn’t be in college, at all.)
If our history teaches us one important lesson, it is that at one point, the idea of teen pregnancy wasn’t such a taboo subject, it was a way of life.
So while it may not be a way of life now, let’s try not to look to down on these girls. It is their life, not ours to rule or judge, and if a few TV shows and movies get made about the topic, that’s fine with me.
How can we consciously judge these people when nothing is being done to prevent teen pregnancy other than the occasional health course in high school?
Perhaps Sarah Palin is the best example of someone who wants to deny young people sex education, and then has to deal with the consequences in her personal life.
For the people that have such a problem with teen pregnancy, the exposure through television and movies is at least bringing the issue to the forefront and making people think about it.
Maybe talking about it might remove the taboo and make people realize that if we take teen pregnancy out of the tabloids, something will get done so it won’t be such a problem.
Teen pregnancy trend
Published: Monday, September 8, 2008
Updated: Monday, September 8, 2008
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