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? Heck 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.
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