Teen Pregnancy: Glorified?

A project for my Cultural Anthropology class. My study was on the effect that media may or may not have on teen pregnancy. I took into consideration the popular MTV shows 16 and Pregnant and Teen Mom, as well as other media blow ups such as the Bristol Palin pregnancy, Jamie Lynn Spears pregnancy, the Oscar winning movie Juno, and the family drama The Secret Life of the American Teenager. Are these glorifying teen pregnancies, or are they encouraging teenagers to be abstinent?

In an effort to answer this question, I decided to make a mini-documentary modeled after MTV's most notorious shows, except without the drama. Since I felt the dramatization of these shows is what really glorified teenage mothers, I wanted my documentary to be entirely interview based. Although, as I interviewed my 19-year-old subject, I discovered that she really was no different than the mothers on the aforementioned television shows. If I had the time, money and equipment that MTV has, I could've easily captured all the drama that ensued from my subject's pregnancy. And none of that would've been scripted... it would've been real.

I found that without the drama I ended up glorifying teen pregnancy anyways. Even though situations like these should not be condoned, it was difficult to remain unbiased while filming this. There was that presence of new, innocent life tucked away in my subject's belly that served as a constant reminder of something to celebrate as she shared with me some not-so-celebratory aspects of her situation.

In conclusion, whether shows like these are encouraging abstinence or just entertaining viewers, the danger is that they may be leaving an impact on a very impressionable audience, especially when their subjects shoot to stardom for no good reason. If anything, that's what is glorifying teen pregnancy.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• 16 and Pregnant
• Teen Mom
• MTV
• cultural anthropology