16 & Pregnant

I truly can’t stand this show. I’ve forced myself to sit through a few episodes, just to give the show a chance. Yet, I still find myself completely against it. I understand that it’s trying to show teens the life of a teen mom, and the difficulties a teen mom has to face. And it would succeed in that if it followed the format of a show that’s more informational like True Life. In True Life I’m aware of the gravity of the situation being focused on. I see it as a serious matter. That just doesn’t happen in 16 & Pregnant, I might as well be watching a Novela or Jersey Shore.

Aside from the tone the show gives off, what bothers me is the message the show is presenting. These got pregnant at the age of 16, and because of that they get to be on television, magazine covers, and enough money to go on shopping sprees and get boob jobs. I personally don’t find these things particularly appealing but I know JHS and high school girls that do. So what is a show like this telling them?

Why not have the show 18 and Going To College? Why are we glorying the fact that two kids got together and had unsafe sex?

If you’re going to have a show about teen moms let it be one that destroys the mentality that It can’t happen to me. A show that talks about, even briefly, why the pull out method doesn’t work, why you CAN’T just trust gravity, and how you can get help choosing the right birth control. There’s no need to assume that nothing works for you!

I’m fully aware that sometimes birth control messes up, and condoms break. I get that every teen mom isn’t completely ignorant and decided to use one of the previously mentioned methods, but for those that are there needs to be a better preventative strategy than 16 & Pregnant. They know having a child at their age is difficult, at least to a certain extent. What they don’t know is science, and probability…

Reality shows, at least those on MTV seem to feed off negative behavior, and I admit that’s often entertaining, but this one in particular seems to be taking it too far. The matter is just too serious to be presented as mere entertainment. The minutes these girls started getting plastic surgery and splurging on themselves the message of hardship got fuzzy, and now it just about disappeared.