First, there’s the media. How does what we see, hear, and read affect our lives? Of course recently, as mentioned in class, the movie, Juno
, is based upon teenage pregnancy. Also pointed out in class, other forms of visual media are based on pregnancies such as Knocked Up, Secret Life of an American Teenager, and even Oprah’s interview with the pregnant man. With this said, couldn’t what we watch in our homes and in movie theaters also be an influence of this situation? We fall in love with Juno’s character and support what she's doing as we watch the movies. The movie ends up almost glorifying her as a strong, independent teenager.The contradiction here is teenagers are considered to be the youth of our culture and the youth is seen as being naïve and unfit to make logical and rational decisions for themselves. This is why the parents in the news clip seem disappointed in the decisions made by these teenagers. Juno contradicts our common conception of "youth," because it shows Juno as a teenager able to make rational and mature decisions given certain situations despite what older generations may think.
Biologically, 16-year-old females are physically ready to have children. Our history as humans is an everlasting example of this. In older cultures 16-year-old females were sometimes expected to have children with men who were much older. Kings would have multiple concubines kept for the purpose of having children. At 16, the female body has already developed all the necessary reproductive organs to have a child. Instead, our culture tells the female she cannot have a child even if her body is physically ready to have one because parents think, and may often be right, that teenagers cannot provide for themselves or the newborn child.
Again, how can we just blame sexual education systems for something like this when commercialism pushes and force-feeds us sex all the time? The common slogan “sex sells” is true and can be seen in advertisement with both female and male models
(not to mention the infamous Abercrombie and Fitch ads). Consumerism is driven by our personal, and sometimes perverted, interest in sex. So, why couldn’t we say that consumerism and advertisements are also part of the influences of the pregnancy pact?As I have stated before, I couldn’t give a correct answer, but it seems to me that the pregnancy pact raises a lot of questions about what our culture has become and what it portrays to teenagers. We promote sex in consumerism and provide entertainment based on pregnancies, but then turn around and say that teenage pregnancy is irresponsible because teenagers are presumably unfit to make rational decisions for themselves even though their bodies are physically ready to reproduce. I'm not saying that teenage pregnancy should be socially accepted, but I am questioning why we blame sexual eduation systems as the main reason. Parents and our culture tell us that teenagers are unfit to have children, but biology would say that teenagers are physically ready to have children. Sexual education tells teenagers to be careful or not have sex while our entertainment and advertisements push sex in our faces. It seems a teenager could get pretty confused about their sexual feelings leading them to make decisions such as becoming pregnant.
5 comments:
Why is any 'one' person (or entity) "to blame" here? Isn't your point precisely that there is not one 'cause' of "this situation," but rather that it is manifold and complicated? I don't think it takes 'over-analysis' to conclude this—it just takes some rational thought.
You close with this claim: "really the cause goes much deeper than that." Again, I'm suspicious about this drive for a "cause." I am equally wary of the idea of "deeper," as this suggests an inaccessibility that you seem to be showing is not the problem at all—in fact, you show instances and reflections of sexuality and pregnancy all over the 'surface' of our culture. Do you see what I mean? I don't think we need to look for 'deeper' things, but rather we need to learn how to talk intelligently about 'shallow' things. This is what you do very well. However, I am not sure about your position against 'sex in the media' when at the same time you seem to defend the idea of sex as a biological capacity—wouldn't such images as A&F ads simply be expressing this fact? This is a good response to Carol’s post, although I think you could problematize the issue further, and more confidently show your reader that we really don’t know what we are talking about when it comes to ‘youth’ and ‘sex’, instead of hiding the secret reasons of these issues under the vague veil of 'depth'.
Very interesting post.
I do, however, have a problem with the following statement:"16-year-old females were originally expected to have children with men who were much older."
I understand what you are saying, but the word "originally" is much too broad. To when are you referring? Adam and Eve? When we were primordial soup? Do you see what I'm saying? The tone of the post also makes me feel like you are looking at "females" as sexual objects. You do seem to almost break from this in your comments about Juno, as you recognize her as strong and independent. However, you fall right back when you apparently disavow the glorification of this strong girl. There is much more to sexuality and pregnancy than biology. Motherhood requires responsibility and a level of maturity that is (thankfully) not expected of 16 year girls or boys. Not to mention the financial aspect of becoming a parent. Like Chris I'm wary of looking for a "cause," but I think that simple reflection can be very enlightening and productive. Very thought provoking post.
"It seems a teenager could get pretty confused about their sexual feelings leading them to make decisions such as becoming pregnant."
I like this sentence and completely agree with this, but it seems a little reductive to settle on teen pregnancy being a result of 'confusion'. Isn't the point, rather, that teenagers (and children, and adults!) are probably confused about *a lot* of things due to the myriad and mixed messages of our informational glut? This is why I always am encouraging us to be confused—to be open about the totally confusing parts of our world.
I enjoyed reading this post because this topic is pretty hard to come to a conclusion about. I don't think that there is a correct answer because everyone is going to have their own opinions about teenage pregnancies and the media. I think that there are many causes of teenage pregnancies. Also, I think that it depends on the situation with every individual. It may be personal preference, religion/culture, etc. I like how you discussed about the King and concubines. Nice little asian history there. Overall good job explaining yourself and using multiple examples.
Very confusing post yet entertaining as well. I'm not saying that your points are confusing, it is the different views on this subject that makes it confusing. But I can agree with the points you have raised. For instance, that teenagers do get confused, but I also do agree with Christ that not only do teenagers get confused but also adults as well. There are many life decisions and obstacles that can cause confusion and sometimes lead us to make the wrong decision. Another point you mentioned is the biological readiness aspect of a woman's body to carry babies. It is true that during older times, it is common for young girls to marry early and have children. I think that this is still the case today among many different countries and cultures. Young girls having babies is probably not very acceptable in America because we aim for higher education . Whereas, in other parts of the world, this isn't the case and so it isn't such a big deal for young girls to have a family early. Maybe it is all base on the environment in which we grow up in, or maybe it is base on our individual thoughts and ideas. I really don't know. I guess this idea can always be challenge.
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