Juno, Jamie Lynn Spears and Pregnancy of 16 Year Olds
Written by admin on January 21, 2008 – 7:40 pm
All The King’s Horses And All The King’s Men, Cannot Put Jamie together Again.
Way to go, Jamie Lynn Spears! What a great message to send to teenage girls! I haven’t seen a celebrity endorsement quite so alarming since Julia Roberts promoted prostitution as a viable career choice in Pretty Woman!
The highly popular movie, Juno was recently released to rave reviews. Although I do believe in free speech, I question the wisdom of releasing movies that make light of life’s most grueling experiences. I wonder about the motivation behind producing “fairy tale” movies aimed at teens. Teenaged girls don’t have the life experience to look at a movie like Juno and think, “This does not mirror real life?”. This is especially true when the movie’s star comes out with an announcement that she is about to carry out her screen character’s story in real life by having a baby at the age of 16. This is not the message that most mothers want their girls to get. Certainly, it is physically possible for 16 year olds to reproduce. But as a society we have evolved to the point that we value women enough to educate them in their teen years. Then we encourage them to protect themselves against unwanted pregnancy and STDs when they become sexually active.
Many girls have a palpable longing to reproduce in their teen years. They struggle against this overpowering urge because they can follow the logic that parents, teachers and society in general keep repeating. “Get an education under your belt and finish growing into adulthood before taking the irreversible step of procreation. Discover your self and make informed choices. Single parenthood is the hardest job you’ll ever have.” These messages are quickly disregarded as boring and stuffy when a girl’s favorite entertainer seems to be endorsing the opposite view. The message they get from movies like Juno is, “It’s fun to be pregnant. Go ahead and have a baby. It’s an opportunity to fulfill your biological imperative and all your friends will be green with envy, under their shocked facade. If you can’t keep the baby, you don’t have to! Don’t worry about how this whole physical and emotional experience will affect the rest of your life. Just DO it. Woo hoo!” But, in fairness most of the blame should not go to Jamie Lynn. She’s just a kid!
Nickelodeon is to blame for trying to bankroll the acceptability of Jamie Lynn’s pregnancy. They saw that the movie got a good reaction from the general public. Then, knowing that the time was ripe, they allowed an article revealing Jamie’s pregnancy to OK magazine to be printed. How many girls will take the film’s none too subtle message to heart? Will we see a big bulge of little “Jamies” (of either sex) be registered for Kindergarten in the year 2013? Will Kindergarten teachers be tearing their hair out because, when they say ‘Jamie,” half of the class will respond, “Me?”
I remember trying to explain to a pregnant 15 year old girl that her life was about to change completely. She looked at me with bored, dismissive eyes and said: “Oh, I know all about it. The change will be nothing short of catastrophic! I’ve heard all about it from my friends.” Her reaction did nothing to reassure me that she really knew what she was getting into. Can anyone who has never experienced pregnancy and childbirth really know how it will affect them? Parenthood, once accomplished, will be a fact of life for you until they plant you. With all its joys it is a huge challenge, and not one to be taken with the starry eyed notion that you can expect to live happily ever after.
Jamie Lynn is rich enough that she will be able to delegate much of the child rearing to nannies and tutors. She is hardly representative of the average teenaged girl.
I think this movie should be mandatory viewing for high school girls. Also mandatory should be a no holds barred discussion following the viewing. I’d then like to see some less famous teenaged mothers from the local area tell their stories. This strategy wouldn’t undo all the damage done by Juno. But it would reveal the plain, unvarnished truth to the girls who prefer to wear rose colored glasses rather than deal with the harsh reality of pregnancy and young motherhood in today’s star-struck world.
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