The social taboo spectacle that is teen pregnancy today has become more of a pop culture fad and social norm than a devastating life choice. This is best evidenced by the media’s representation of teen pregnancy in film and television like “16 and Pregnant” and “Teen Mom.” To quote an article written in The Cornell Daily Sun, “Perhaps for myself, and anyone else at Cornell guilty of feeding into the media’s obsession with teen pregnancy, we just want a glimpse into a life path the majority of us never chose or would have wanted to choose. So in mid-February when those ten new episodes of 16 & Pregnant premiere on MTV, I will sit in rapture as I watch the stories of these girls who have decided to share with us, but at the same time I’ll be thinking how happy I am that I was never one of them.” As entertaining as these images might be, they represent the idea to young impressionable girls that if you do not have plans to go to college, then you should probably have a baby to teach you some responsibility. Though this may seem to be a glib remark, it is actually the tragic message behind most of these glamorized images of pregnancy. MTV’s representation of teenage pregnancy is irresponsible and unrealistic — most important, it portrays the wrong message to young girls.
The problem with 16 and pregnant is that it features attractive, popular girls who have found themselves in the conundrum that is teenage pregnancy. The truly disturbing part is how MTV had managed to find six girls with supportive parents that aided them financially and emotionally with every step of their pregnancies. One girl even had her grandma bend over to tie her shoe. Not to mention five out of the six had supportive boyfriends, some of whom even had their own apartments. It almost makes one wonder if it is a requirement to have a supportive father figure for their baby in order to be featured on the show. All of them raved about how much they loved their babies and how the experience taught them responsibility, even though none of them had to deal with the full effects of pregnancy because their parents were one hundred percent behind them. Farrah Abrahams mother even bought her daughter a car.
The show also communicates that having a baby will strengthen your relationship, so if you find yourself a teenager with a failing relationship, a baby will fix all your troubles. The moment the first episode aired, Maci, the pregnant teen, and her boyfriend fought so much that at one point he tells her, “if we didn’t have a baby we wouldn’t be together,” thereby solidifying the concept that babies save relationships. If your boyfriend is immature, as most on the show are, a baby will teach him the error in his ways and force him to mature to your standards. Almost all the girls took on the full responsibility of their pregnancies while the fathers of their babies felt it necessary to enjoy their teenage years.
Thankfully, it seems as though MTV realized how glamorized their depiction of teen pregnancy was and responded by releasing the second season of 16 and Pregnant, Teen Mom. Teen Mom is by far a grittier and more realistic depiction of life as a teen mom. Teen Mom depicts more of a “gloves off” scenario, where most of the moms were single by the end of filming. However, the predominantly single mother Farrah Abraham still sticks to her unrealistic spoiled ways, which her mother continues to tolerate. Her mother is currently awaiting trial for “physically abusing her daughter.” If anyone watched the show, they would realize how seemingly ludicrous these claims are, with Farrah “farming out motherhood” to her mother, and then insisting on calling her mother stupid afterward.
Now that Teen Mom is over, it will be interesting to see where MTV decides to take the next season of 16 and Pregnant. Will they continue to glamorize pregnancy or will they give us a more accurate picture of what it is like to be 16 and Pregnant? The answer may say as much about our society as it does about MTV’s programming decisions.
Elizabeth Ford’s columns run on Wednesdays. She can be reached at e.ford@cavalierdaily.com.
What is the “devastating life choice” is that you describe. Is it having sex as a teenager? Or is it not having an abortion as a teenager? Science tells us that these are the two major decisions that have resulted in these teens being on these shows. MTV won’t ever air a show featuring post abortive mothers.
I’m guessing that as a teenager yourself (or someone who recently was), you will not be writing a follow up article telling your fellow UVA students that they should never have sex, or never have an abortion. Attempts to prevent conception in the midst of lots of sex fail quite often. As you get older, will will become more and more aware of that.
Additionally, you seem to be looking down your nose at all these teens who have made such horrible decisions in their lives. I agree with your premise that teen pregnancy should not be encouraged, but even MTV enjoys their freedom of speech and right to air mostly what they want. It’s because people like you watch it. Newsflash: People who are not ready for a child get pregnant after college also, but it has never once been the child’s fault no matter the parent’s age!
It seems that you got angry when you saw families pulling themselves together to face a big surprise announcement from a teenage loved one who thought she knew everything – but ended up needing a lot of help. I live in one such family. If you would like to meet my wonderful 5 year old niece – conceived by a 17 year old 6 years ago – I’d be happy to show you the results of what you clearly think is such a horrible, stupid decision. If you want to see the results of that other choice – the one hundreds of your fellow students at UVA make every year – then I doubt you have to go very far in your social circles to find a young woman (or man)just beginning to deal with the abortion experience. I stress the term “just beginning.”
It seems that you are somehow routing for these girls to be unattractive, unpopular, unsupported, and miserable – as that would fit nicely into your belief that nobody should ever get pregnant until they are 25 – and that everyone who gets pregnant should be good looking and popular. But as we both know, in reality this translates to the belief that nobody should STAY pregnant until they are 25 – no? Hundreds of pregnancies are happening all around you every year here at UVA, but none of those are just never making it onto MTV. Indeed, have you ever seen a VISIBLY pregnant student at UVA? Even once?
Maybe some other TV channel will have the gumption to air a program specifically about people looking back in horror at their abortion experiences. I’ve been told by 17 people and counting so far. Believe me, it would be like lifting a huge, dead log off the facade of UVA society and see what crawls beneath.
You end your piece by bemoaning the state of what has become of our society. I agree. But my point is that teen pregnancies abound all around you – not just in families far away on MTV amongst what I presume you consider lower social and/or economic classes of people. Here, they are just dealt with in a very different way thanks to the culture of death here at this university.
I’ll make you a deal, OK? You collect as many women as you can find who will tell you or anyone that their born child ruined their life. And I’ll put together some women who will be very eager to talk about the mistake they made in college (amongst the millions who feel the same way and will not speak out) – and we’ll see who has more women show up. Deal?
Teen pregnancy is the result of at least one bad decision. Agreed. But pretending that it is only going on elsewhere or amongst people who aren’t as bright as you and your fellow students here and now is ridiculous – and totally untrue. In either case, there is a second bad decision far worse than the first that is all around you. And it doesn’t fix or heal anyone.
Wouldn’t a good way to graduate from being a teenager also be to stop watching MTV? Just a thought..
[removed personal insults against writer -ed]
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First of all. Is that a comment or another article? Your response was quite lengthy and difficult to follow at times. But the truly sad part is that it does not seem as though you even read the article you commented on.
Second, I think you have completely missed the point of this opinion piece. The column is meant to bring awareness to how MTV has provided an extremely glamorized portrayal of teen pregnancy. Furthermore, it tries to communicate the fact that MTV has provided this portrayal to a very young and impressionable audience. This is the standpoint from which the columnist seems to be tackling the subject. She in no way demonizes or looks down upon teen mothers. Rather, her article is meant to shed some light on the fact that no fifteen year-old becomes sexually active with the intention of becoming pregnant and giving birth to a child. Furthermore, very rarely do they then have the opportunity to leave home and move into apartments with their significant others.
Also, I find it absolutely fascinating that you are able to sit on your high horse a speak to us lowly peons below about an issue that is so easily relatable to your life as a MAN in America. Teen pregnancy is not a decision that people make, but, speaking as a woman, I realize that it is life-changing. That being said, “life-changing” does not imply that it is “destructive” to the mothers’ lives. It seems that you have taken your aggressively defensive stance on the subject of teen motherhood and applied it to your comment in a way that is not relevant to the columnist’s opinions.
Many of us out here know young women who have had babies at less than opportune moments in their lives. MTV has documented the stories of these young women in a thorough way, but the diversity of the situations leaves much to be desired. There are countless young girls who have babies and do not have the support systems that these young girls have and MTV does a poor job of showing this side of teen pregnancy. This seems to be one of the major themes of this article.
It seems to me that you have greatly missed the point that the columnist aimed to convey, and I would recommend re-reading the article. Should you choose to do this you may see that she is not degrading teen mothers, but rather the portrayal of them as having relatively unchanged lives after their babies are born.
Finally, I would suggest that you be careful of how you judge people. You really have no way of knowing the background of this columnist or her past experiences and therefore should not so readily offer your advice on how she ought to better/mature herself. Watching MTV may be a past time of hers but it is one that has allowed her to observe an incredibly intriguing glimpse of the world as documented by MTV and spoon-fed to the young masses who spend their days plastered before the TV. If you want to worry about the maturation of anyone it should be the “tweens” who watch shows like Teen Mom and 16 and Pregnant and become so accustomed to the idea of teen pregnancy that they are desensitized to the difficulties that accompany such an experience and not the musings of a young adult who may or may not choose to relish, on occasion, in the ridiculousness of MTV.
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Wow. I was totally waiting for someone to speak out against the debacle of MTV and their misguided half-told stories that inhibit ideas, thought, and wishes to not only youth but to pompous elitist and those who are so high in the class system they could spell poor if it was to describe the condition of their failing liver – like many at UVA.
However, after reading the article and preparing to reply I noticed the response above. And it didn’t make since to me. Next to the constant grammatical errors like “What is the “devastating life choice” is that you describe.” “” that probably helped in the reasons as to why it made absolutely no since. So I decided to use a breakdown of this guys response to show why I support this article.
1) What is the “devastating life choice” is that you describe. Is it having sex as a teenager? Or is it not having an abortion as a teenager?
Now starting here is where I fell in love with the article. Elizabeth was clearly pointing out that the show is one-sided and not completely whole in showing the life and experiences of teenage mothers.
From which, you my “non-spelling & non-grammar checking” friend, was only agreeing with her to point out that, “Science tells us that these are the two major decisions that have resulted in these teens being on these shows. MTV won’t ever air a show featuring post abortive mothers.” However, your constant ploy to destroy her argument with the push of abortion being the loose-leafed story being held back by the powers that be of MTV, only further agrees with her argument.
2) You stated, “I agree with your premise that teen pregnancy should not be encouraged, but even MTV enjoys their freedom of speech and right to air mostly what they want.” It would seem that you would have stopped there, or rather should have, for your offhand comments that would make it seem that she was completely bashing attractive, popular, happy, non-college graduated, & “under the age of 25” pregnancies, as well as, you challenges to her finding these “disenfranchised women” of UVA doesn’t really support your argument nor destroy hers.
Once again, by constantly focusing on abortion and by pretending that she was “pretending that [pregnancy] is only going on elsewhere or amongst people who aren’t as bright as [her] and your fellow students here and now” IS absolutely ridiculous and only means that you should have applied to CD and wrote your own article to talk about “Abortion on College Campuses & Their Closed Eye In the Media,” instead of taking out your heavily related but poor stance of an argument against hers.
It is stated clearly that the representation of the Teenage Pregnancy story is not complete, and by leaving out stories such as Teenage Abortion we lose the greater understanding of the full circumference of pregnancy as a whole. By telling the stories of moms who have been well supported without acknowledging the stories of those have not had that luxury, has the strong potential of disillusioning future mothers [unaware or planning to become so or even small children] of the lives they could or may take on.
In closing, the article points out the irresponsible choices of not speaking to all aspect of teenage pregnancy. I thank you her for speaking out on it, showing us all that we should be aware of the entire story of life choices, especially those that are often perceived or stereotyped as deplorable. And I also thank you my young man, for supporting her and speaking out about abortion, not too many men do, but by speaking about this missing portion of the story of pregnancy, we lose even more valuable lessons to teach ourselves, and our children. Though in the end of the day, we should not have to rely on TV, and especially not MTV to educate us on such things – but unfortunately, there are some that do in our so called great nation.
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Bonnie,
May I suggest that you may want to back off your critiques of other people’s spelling and grammar? Please read your post again. Your sentence structure is horrible, and you clearly don’t know how to spell the word “sense.” Indeed, Microsoft Word doesn’t catch everything! I don’t check my posts for errors, I just write them and submit them. And if I made a few little mistakes here and there, I’ll get over it. But for your own sake, please try and avoid telling people they are so bad at something that you are clearly so bad at yourself.
I’ve had a lot of trouble trying to discern what your argument is with my post. Perhaps I could clarify a bit. I wasn’t trying to insult the author. I was merely pointing out a VERY large gap in the story she told. Indeed, it is not one that people like to talk or even think about. But that changes nothing.
My overall point was that there are hundreds of pregnancies all around her at UVA every semester. They are just terminated before anyone begins “showing.” Elizabeth just fell into the usual trap of thinking that teen pregnancy is the problem of some other demographic, somewhere else. In reality, it is at least as common here at UVA than anywhere else. That these pregnancies all end in abortion does not mean that they never happened. Four UVA students (3 women, 1 man) have told me their abortion stories. Another told me of her sister’s abortion while she was at UVA. It is everywhere. And of we include the morning after pills that UVA now gives away like candy to teens – then I would even suggest that the numbers resemble more that of an epidemic.
I shine a light on these unpleasant facts not to insult anyone, or make them feel worse about a decision they cannot take back. I do it as a way of shaking the tradition of hushed silence surrounding these things, so as to warn people that they are still subject to the laws of chance, and those of biology as well. It is an all too accepted notion around here that you can have as much sex as you want – and won’t ever end up with an “unplanned pregnancy,” which I think is akin to an unplanned hangover.
Furthermore, people have the right to be fully informed about the medical science surrounding these issues. the science that their own university hides from them on behalf of their politics. Too many have already been harmed a great deal by being kept in the dark. For some, it’s too late. For others, it isn’t.
http://breastcancer.about.com/b/2010/01/08/abortion-birth-control-pills.htm
http://uvalies.org/
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