Teenage Pregnancy
Teenage pregnancy in the media influences young girls that it is okay to have children at a young age. The media glamorizes teen pregnancy and makes ordinary pregnant girls famous for the problem they have created. The different programs on television may show you that the teens struggle, but it also shows you how the girls get attention from everyone. They are being glamorized for something that isn’t good. Also, some young girls don’t always get the attention they want, so they do something dramatic for everyone to notice them or talk about them. Television programs like The Secret Life of the American Teenager, Teen Mom, 16 and Pregnant, and movies like The Pregnancy Pact, and Juno are all programs that glamorize
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Television shows and movies are showing sex as if it was just another activity to participate in. The shows and movies show no value or the consequences of what can happen. What about sexually transmitted diseases? This gives teens the wrong idea about sex and also encourages them to participate and have unprotected sex, because the shows and movies don’t show them using contraceptives. Most teens don’t think that it can happen to them. They don’t think that they will end up getting pregnant or get a sexually transmitted disease but it can, and what they see on television influences them. Teens are not capable or realizing what is right and what is wrong. They perceive things the wrong way. In the article called “Thug Culture is a Cancer Destroying Black America,” by Cynthia Tucker, it explains that rap music about sex, drugs, and alcohol influence teens to do the same things that they listen to in their songs. They are influenced to do bad things and this is a perfect example of how seeing teenage pregnancy in the media can give them the wrong perception. In society today, there are more shows about sex and teen pregnancy than there has been ever before. It shows teens and young adolescents that “everyone’s doing it” and that they should do it too. They show young girls getting pregnant by their boyfriends and how the teens weren’t informed about using birth control contraceptives. There are many controversies over sex
Reality shows that are based on teen pregnancy like 16 and Pregnant and Teen Mom sheds light about the troubles on becoming a teen parent, finishing high school and struggling to buy the baby’s need and wants. Lately, these shows are stirring a debate if they are trying to support or avoid teen pregnancy. And this topic is important to the public, because it relates to the young community’s future. Young girls and boys can watch these shows and have different outlooks about having a child. Sometimes, glamorizing teen pregnancy on television might confuse the young community, because they can be fickle at times. They might think it is acceptable to be pregnant so young and others will consider waiting until marriage. Reality shows can either encourage or discourage teen pregnancy based on the individual’s mentality.
What would make a group of girls decide that their future holds nothing greater than barely finishing high school and becoming a teen mom? There are multiple factors that can play into teen pregnancy. The first and probably the most obvious is the media. Young girls today are surrounded by pregnant starlets and glamorized comedies about getting pregnant as a teenager. The young Jamie-Lynn Spears stated “Being a mom is the best feeling in the world.” and “I had a perfect pregnancy and a perfect delivery. I was very blessed.”
Across America, many teen pregnancy are becoming popular. Many students have been educated on this topic, while other have not. When teens make the faulty decision, they do not know about the consequences that come with it. Consequences end up in having a child, and having a child is a lot of responsibility. Teens tend not to have much responsibility as important as taking care of a child.
Teenage Pregnancies have become more prevalent in modern times due to the changing attitudes of society. Alcohol, drugs, media exposure, and peer pressure are but a few of the contributing factors that result in teenage pregnancy. Many teens find themselves pregnant due to a lack of knowledge and parental guidance. Programmes like ’16 and Pregnant’ and ‘Teen Mom’ show and may influence the impressionable audience watching these shows that by having experienced numerous sexual partners, you can be accepted amongst friends, be cool, show that you’re an adult and not a child along with many more attributes, therefore showing acceptance and encouraging the youthful viewing
Many believe the children are solely responsible for their carelessness that results in early pregnancy. Looking at this problem more broadly, one can see all of the social changes that influence teen pregnancy. For example, the media promotes sex and relationships. According to the RAND Health researcher, Jeffrey Wasserman, children ages 12-18 who saw the most sex on television were twice as likely to initiate intercourse within the next year as to those who saw the least amount of sex in the media (2017). Many television shows and movies contain sexual scenes, but most of them don’t explain the risks of sexual activity. Moreover, teen pregnancy has become more widely accepted. While many still believe it’s wrong, this problem has become unfortunate but acceptable. With shows like 16 and Pregnant and Teen Mom, the mass media even rewards these teenages for their early pregnancies. The acceptance of early pregnancy has increased, but people are still embarrassed to talk about sex to children and teenagers. Teen pregnancy can be prevented, and it starts with a change in
According to the National Center for Health Statistics, 86 percent of mothers who give birth out-of-wedlock are teenagers. MTV’s show “16 & Pregnant,” which has only been on air since June 2009, is already reflecting the rapid boom in teenage pregnancy across various cities in America. Since the early eighties MTV has been considered somewhat of a cultural phenomenon for American adolescents and its depiction of gender has a strong impact that continues to this day (Holtzman 2000). Created by Morgan J. Freeman (director of teen shows Dawson’s Creek and Laguna Beach), the show “16 & Pregnant” has been said to be guilty of exacerbating, normalizing and even glorifying teen pregnancy. Perhaps, it’s just reflecting a current social dilemma
Teen pregnancy is a growing epidemic in the United States. Teen girls are becoming pregnant at an alarming rate, with a lot of the pregnancies planned. With television shows broadcasting shows such as “16 and Pregnant” and “Teen Mom”, it is giving teenage girls the idea that it is alright to have premarital sex and become pregnant. It is in a way condoning teen pregnancy.
Popular media submits many teens to sexual content and influences their views on subjects such as teenage pregnancy. The article Evaluating the Impact of MTV’s 16 and Pregnant on Teen Viewers’ Attitudes About Teen Pregnancy takes a closer look at the relationship between the viewers of the show and their attitudes towards teen pregnancy. Three major weaknesses found after the review of the study are listed as follows; The study has several confounding variables, the sample group is rather small and taken from a single state within the US, and lastly, it makes claims without having sufficient evidence from its own findings as well as other studies. However, the way the study was conducted is relatively very
More teens are learning sex from the media or from their friends instead of from their parents or a sexual education class taught in schools. “Nearly three fourths of television shows contains talk about sex or show sexual behavior,” (King and Regan 2). When we drive down the road we see several stores promoting sex such as Condoms to Go, Condom Sense, Sarahs Secret, and New Fine Arts. Children who have no clue to what these stores are, automatically want to know everything about it and why it
All over the globe young girls are becoming mothers without the proper understanding of what it may do with their bodies and future. There is no question that there’s a stereotype connected to teen moms, especially in the United States. Think back to junior high while taking your sexual education course. You may remember a brief lesson about the dangers of having sex such as hormonal changes throughout teen years, sexually transmitted diseases and even the risks of teen pregnancy. Yes, this is enough to scare many juveniles to avoid intercourse, but there is still a minority of teens that think outside of the box. With an education system that only impacts a small range of students
The media glamorizes sex and unknowingly encourages teen pregnancy. I come from a school with the majority are minority and generally we listen to Rap, Hip hop and other sexually explicit music. I feel that this is sending a misleading message to the upcoming generation. Almost 750,000 U.S. teens aged 15–19 become pregnant. At my school in the year of 2012 six high school females became pregnant. Then 2013 school year eleven female students got pregnant. Last year 2014 a staggering twenty-four girl got pregnant six had a miscarriage. This number is alarming. And even though this school has just started
Many researchers have found that this behavior is due to the media glorification that promotes teenage pregnancy (Vianna 2).
A topic in American society that has proved to be an ongoing, and growing issue is that none other than teen pregnancy. In recent years, teen pregnancy rates have been increasing, which ultimately led to the topics increase of public and media attention. In American society teen pregnancy is often associated with negligence, as well as being irresponsible. In American society sex education for children is underdeveloped and instead society tends to use fear and shame to highlight/combat the dangers of unsafe or underage sex. American society uses fear to instill the idea that if you become pregnant as a teenager you are a burden to society. Along with fear society loves to shame its young women who have unfortunately stumbled upon the
According to a poll of 10 to 16 year olds done by the advocacy group Children Now, "77 percent say that there is too much premarital sex on T.V., while 62 percent say sex on T.V. and in movies influences kids to have sex when they are too young" (Clark, "Sex, Violence"). The influences of the media is felt everywhere and especially in terms of human sexuality. Everything from TV commercials to the newspaper has some form of sex in it, usually to keep the audience interested. In modern society, the changing times as well as media executives wanting more ratings(and therefore money) have lead to teenagers more willing to try sexual acts at a younger age and the country being more openminded about sexual issues.
At the non-profit organization known as RAND Corporation researchers performed three surveys on about 2,000 teens between the ages of 12 to 17 from 2001 to 2004. The results were published in the November edition of the journal Paediatrics, in the publication they focused on 700 participants nationwide who had engaged in sexual intercourse by the third survey. (Landau E, 2008, November 03) The researchers determined that even with the other related factors such as demographics and risk-taking behaviours put into play the connection between television sexual content and teen pregnancy still remained. (Landau E, 2008, November 03) In another survey published in Paediatrics more than 1,000 public middle school students in North Carolina were surveyed at the ages of 12-14 years old and were surveyed again two years later at the ages of 14-16 years old. They measured the students exposure to sexual content in television, movies, music and magazines and were divided into five equal-sized groups ranging from the lowest exposure to the highest exposure. The research showed that white teenagers even after taking into account other factors known to reduce the likelihood of teen sex, like parental disapproval of sex at that age and getting good grades, still increased. In fact each increase in grouping of sexual media exposure increased the likelihood of them being involved in teen sex by