The Juno Effect

As an older sister to a thirteen year old, I worry about what the younger generation of girls is watching, and the impact that these shows may have on their perception of reality. With a statistic of 42 births per 1,000 women ages 15-19 (USA Today) , I question the value of certain programs like The Secret Life of the American Teenager and Teen Mom, who both have large audiences.
I must confess that I have watched a few Teen Mom episodes in my day, and I think that it actually does frankly portray and humanize many of the struggles these young moms face. The show is like a documentary and focuses on four young women Maci, Farrah, Amber, and Catelynn( who gave her baby up for adoption). These women come from different backgrounds and all have different circumstances with their families and birth partners.
Each young woman has issues with money, child care, relationships, and schooling. It shows how tiring and hard motherhood can be for a young person who still wants to go out with their peers and still needs a high school or college degree. Each mother is constantly in a state of stress and can not juggle the demands of baby time, work, school, and a potential social life. I feel like this program does not glorify teen pregnancy but rather is a pretty good visual birth control method for young people.
Each of the young women on the program is very likeable and as a viewer you begin to sympathize with their situations. The program balances entertaining along with giving a fairly accurate depiction of how hard early motherhood can be.
Yet, the program The Secret Life of the American Teenager, although it does not necessarily glorify pregnancy, presents it in a way that seems harmful to young girls. The main character Amy becomes pregnant from a one night stand. She regrets her choice and is definitely emotional throughout the series. Yet, for the most part her life is relatively normal. The father spends time with the baby and gets a job to support his child. During her pregnancy she begins to date a new boyfriend who is very supportive and she is able to stay in school fulltime. She has the help of her family for money and child care.
I am sure many teen moms do have a lot of family support, but in my opinion what message does this send to girls like my sister? If you get pregnant at band camp, don’t worry because you will still be able to get a boyfriend, go to school, and have several loyal friends?
According to USA Today, in 2006 teen birth rates in the United States were up 26%, a staggering increase. So are television programs contributing to these statistics? “By age 16, teens who watched a lot of sexually charged TV were more than twice as likely to be pregnant or father an out-of-wedlock baby as teens who watched very little,” a study from USA Today found.
With the popularity of the Juno’s , Jamie Lynn’s, and Bristol’s, I feel that it is important to emphasize to young ladies to set long term goals for themselves, like obtaining college degrees, and to emphasize education about family planning and the importance of waiting on motherhood.
A clip from Teen Mom

Teen Mom - MTV Shows

A clip from Secret Life


Link to USA Today article
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2009-01-07-teenbirths_N.htm

Purity Balls-A Fairytale Night Out with Dad or a Ball Commemorating Unrealistic Expectations?

As a female, sex is always on the radar. Yes, it may not be thought of in the animalistic way that many men fantasize about, but it is always lurking in the media inspired distance. It’s on the cover of magazines with young women who choose to get a second breast augmentation because the D-cup was too small, or the television shows that center their plots around hookups and pregnancy scares. Yet, through all of this sexual clout there seems to be a movement toward a “New Virginity.”

This can be evidenced through the lot of Disney Channel royalty that sport their silver rings, and the fact that many schools still focus their “sexual education,” solely on one concept: Abstinence. I do not argue that waiting to have sex or keeping the ring shiny can be positive, but how far is too far? Purity balls have begun to gain national recognition since their founding in 1998. These balls have spread across the country and are currently held in forty eight states. This begs the question of how should “purity” and virginity be taught?

So what exactly is a purity ball and how did they originate? Randy Wilson and his wife are co-founders of Generations of Light (http://www.generationsoflight.com), and held the first purity ball in their hometown of Colorado Springs. Wilson has five daughters, and wanted to be involved in their lives by guiding and protecting them.

Hence, the idea of the purity ball was created. The ceremony is reminiscent of a father-daughter prom; dad’s sporting their tuxes and daughters delicately adorned in their evening best. The evening commences with a performance of a worship dance by The Regal Daughters Ballet Company .The fathers then take an oral pledge that they sign. The pledge goes as follows:

I, (DAUGHTER'S NAME)'S FATHER, CHOOSE BEFORE GOD TO COVER MY DAUGHTER AS HER AUTHORITY AND PROTECTION IN THE AREA OF PURITY. I WILL BE PURE IN MY OWN LIFE AS A MAN, HUSBAND AND FATHER. I WILL BE A MAN OF INTEGRITY AND ACCOUNTABILITY AS I LEAD, GUIDE AND PRAY OVER MY DAUGHTER AND MY FAMILY AS THE HIGH PRIEST IN MY HOME. THIS COVERING WILL BE USED BY GOD TO INFLUENCE GENERATIONS TO COME.

The daughters will step under a sword arch held by fathers and proceed up to a cross that is ornamented in white cloth. The girls then lay down a white rose, silently pledging that they will remain virgins under their father’s guidance, until their wedding night. The ball also involves father-daughter prayer, and dancing. Tickets for the Colorado Springs ball cost $85 per person, which definitely brings up another issue all together of class disparities and who can afford/ is expected to pledge the V.

(The Regal Daughter Ballet Company)

The event itself is very beautiful and appears to be a good father- daughter bonding ritual. However, it begs the question of practicality and ownership. The girls who attend the event and take the silent pledge are typically around ages five to late teens. Do girls that young grasp what they are pledging? Probably not, considering one in six adolescents take a virginity pledge, yet only 12% actually save themselves for marriage.

However, the dominant issue is that those who have taken a pledge have generally only received abstinence education. They do not know how to use condoms or other forms of contraception. This clearly leads to issues with sexually transmitted infections and pregnancy. A sexually active teenage girl who has sex without contraception has a 90% chance of becoming pregnant within a year, according to the Institute. Just as disturbing is that in a single act of vaginal intercourse with an infected male partner, a female teenager has a 30% risk of contracting genital herpes, a 50% chance of contracting gonorrhea, and a 1 in 100 chance of acquiring HIV. (Web MD)

Personally, I think that in today’s hyper-sexual culture, it is great for a father to spend time with this daughter OR son (Generations of Light does have programs for males), and to frankly discuss sex. Yet, that conversation needs to also include practical information and can’t be all about a fairytale ending. It is hard to fight biology, especially when people are getting married at thirty years old.

I commend these fathers for taking an interest in their daughters relationships, yet abstinence and the signing away of their daughters sexuality first to them, then to her husband, seems to deprive a woman of making her own choices and does not encourage independent thought. It seems to reverse the progress that women have made in the ownership of our own bodies. It is important to teach young women on how to make their own educated and responsible decisions, and I think a father can aid in this process by just being present in his daughter’s life. Girls and young women need to be able to form their own independent views, because when they are faced with hard choices, daddy may not always be there.

Abstinence is definitely an option, yet the other options need to be presented without this feeling of shame and guilt. If a girl engages in responsible sexual behavior prior to marriage it does not mean she “failed” or is “ruined.” It is a nice idea that a father wants to keep his baby girl pure as snow until her wedding night, yet that choice should ultimately rest on the young woman and she needs to be given the proper tools to ensure her safety when that time and question inevitably come.

A video from Good Morning America




Until next post,
G.


For more information on Purity Balls visit:
http://www.generationsoflight.com/generationsoflight/html/News.html

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1823930,00.html

http://www.jezebel.com/5440014/purity-balls-protecting-girls-from-making-choices (Has great video clips)

Bienvenu

Welcome to The Renaissance Woman! The Renaissance Woman is a blog devoted to contemporary issues and human interest topics most pertinent to women. As a new blogger, I have high hopes to generate posts that will be thought provoking, insightful, and will begin a conversation with readers. I am looking forward to raising awarness on important issues and bringing them to the forefront of an educated dialogue. Please feel free, as a reader, to leave candid commentary and too add relevant information/questions to the topics discussed.

Until next post,
G.