Well I do. Like the creative title?
Roomie's preggers. Welcome to the adult world.
Now I liked the movie Juno (not my favorite but it was mildly entertaining) but I think it's showing pre-marital pregnancy as a bit too positive in my mind. When I was thinking about it this past weekend when my roomie told me she was pregnant, I realized that quite a good bit of movies released recently show the great, positive sides to pre-marital pregnancy.
Movie #1: Juno
16 year old girl in high school gets pregnant by friend. Solution, oh adoption. (Yes I'm pro-life and like how this movie was pro-life but it's not my point in this blog). She was able to apparently complete high school without any morning sickness, attend classes, have a social life. While there was some trouble with the couples adopting, in the end she pops out the baby and everything goes back to normal. Now MOST people know that movies are not realistic, but what about 11, 12 or 13 year old girls? Could this be conveying a positive image of teenage pregnancy? Not saying that all girls are following this movie but if girls want to grow up to be exactly like Paris Hilton, what's to stop them from saying I want to grow up to be exactly like Juno. She was able to complete high school and have her life relatively uninterrupted by the pregnancy, why can't I? I'm not saying that this is exactly what the movie is conveying, I just want to hear opinions about something that has been brewing in my head lately.
Movie #2: Knocked Up
I've only caught the beginning of this movie on our university movie channel, but I'm guessing the general synopsis is a one night stand ends up in a pregnancy and they live happily ever after. Again, happy with the pro-life message, but is this also showing too much of a positive aspect of pre-marital pregnancy? I don't feel like I can critique this movie as much since I have not seen it, I just want to hear your opinions.
Backing of my argument? Statement out of my incredibly smart, 18 year old roommate's mouth after finding out she was pregnant, "Well if Juno did it, I guess I can do it too." Granted this was slightly a joke meant to break the tension... but are other teenage girls getting the same idea? According to teenpregnancy.org, even though the teenage pregnancy rate has been steadily dropping since 1990, we still have the highest rate of teenage pregnancy in any industrialized country. Do you think more recent movies such as these two can cause the rate to go back up, or do you believe there is enough education out there about contraceptives and the consequences of sex to prevent that from happening?
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Juno was huggge here. everyone loved it and itthought it was the best movie ever.
I think the pregnancy rate has nothing to do with the media, it has to do with the way American culture handles sex in general. I was never given any kind of a sex talk until High School, and at that point it was from an abstinence-only point of view. In order for our highly fertile unwed ways to change, society as a whole must move towards total education- something along the lines of "Don't have premarital sex, but if you do, wrap it up!" I think one example of a similar issue is drinking and driving- instead of preaching no alcohol, the "don't drink and drive" message helps people to accept that drinking is not completely bad, but drinking and driving is. There is such a total unacceptance of sex that approaching adults for help is difficult for many teens because confidence is not honored, negative stigmas are involved, and teens are looked down upon in general for having sex.