Chapter 12 discusses teen pregnancy and how it can occur. The reasons include ingnorance, guilt related to sexual activity, minimal communication about birth control, alcohol use and mass media norms of unprotected sex. Many teens simply do not know about ways to protect themselves from pregnancy or do not think they will become pregnant so they do not take precautions. If you think about it, it is seen as socially acceptable to have children on TV without being married or without a romantic relationship.
It seems crazy to me that girls would not try to protect themselves, if they knew that they might be at risk for becoming pregnant, but I was surprised to find how many people are not aware of ways to protect themselves in the first place.
The show 16 and pregnant came to mind right when I read this part of the chapter because it shows the lives of teen moms throughout their pregnancies and for the first few months of their child's lives. From this show it is easy to see that these girls have difficult lives. They have hardships because of school, their parents and their boyfriends. However, do you think that by putting this show on TV people will be lead to learn from this and stop getting pregnant? Do you think that these TV shows have any influence on people positively or negatively? And, is it possible to make people more aware that they need to use protection or are people just going to continue to get pregnant?
It seems to me that people need to be more educated, so maybe this show, or other shows that try to communicate ways to approach sex and teen pregnancy could possibly have an affect on those who would not learn about it any other way.
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Aviva,
ReplyDeleteI completely agree. I always thought that our school should have a class about this. I feel like people just assume that everyone knows all the details, but in reality they don't. It is not only the responsibility of the school but also a parents responsibility. With more and more of these shows such as "16 and pregnant" do you think it helps teens realize to 'be smart' about this or do you think it motivates them to do the same thing?
I am with you on this.
ReplyDeleteSo many people dont really know all the detailed facts about sex at all. Instead of asking questions, they are afraid of being mocked so they pretend like they know everything or theyre just too embarrassed to ask questions. Its important to be well rounded and not be ignorant. I think that parents often want to keep their children in the dark in order to "protect" them from the "corruption" of sex; and schools often dont want to get involved because they might feel that it is the parents' job to educate their children in that area. The show 16 and pregnant absolutely appalls me!It makes it seem like its acceptable to just get pregnant at such a young age by giving these genius girls their own show and fame. I sincerely hope that it will motivate people to abstain from such behavior since these girls have such difficulties due to the fact that they didnt protect themselves and were ignorant