The Secret Life of the American Teenager

[mothwing]

Lessons learned from the show:

1. If you have unprotected sex, you WILL get pregnant.

2. If you have protected sex, you WILL get pregnant.
3. If you use condoms, they WILL break.
4. If you are on the pill AND use a condom AND have lots of sex, you WILL get pregnant.
5. Girls don't know what masturbation is until they're fifteen.
6. Having an abortion at fifteen is a HORRIBLE HORRIBLE THING.
7. Having a baby at fifteen will make you SO HAPPY. 
8. Being a teenage mother will totally unite your fighting parents AND attract lots of cute guys! 
9. Women belong into the kitchen because they're just GOOD at it.
10. Having a baby at fifteen means your friends will be dying to spend more time with you.   
11. Divorce is WRONG and you WILL get back together. And the best thing about this: you'll have another child! 
12. You cannot keep a secret in High School, EVERYBODY KNOWS EVERYTHING.
13. Teenage dudes will fight tooth and nail to keep their children and get custody, so don't worry, you won't end up raising the kid alone. 
14. It is less likely for people to have a baby if they are married adults taking the same steps to avoid pregancy as teenagers. 
15. If you sleep around a lot before you have a child, your child will be a stillborn preemie. 

Who is funding this show?

I suppose it's good that there is a show that focuses on how having a baby at fifteen is NOT the end of the world and that there are teenage boys who really enjoy fatherhood, but seriously? Having an abortion at fifteen is fine, too, if you don't feel you can handle the responsibility of raising a child just yet and want to focus on, you know, not being a child yourself. 

In the real worlds, babies are not magical plot devices who can fix everything that's wrong in your life story. 

Comments

[mothwing.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, there is. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Secret_Life_of_the_American_Teenager)

[dstroyrofworlds.livejournal.com]

Oh well. Hopefully most people who watched that only watched it but did not 'learn' anything from it.

[dstroyrofworlds.livejournal.com]

Additionally: I find the points 7, 8, 10 and 13 very dangerous.
The other points are dangerous and bullshit too but, well, quite obviously so and are a matter of values and morals and such. Even if you believe in them, you usually have already heard that there are other points of view.
However, as I have noticed amongst friends who have kids, hardly anybody thinks about what happens to friendships or their own relationship beforehand, no matter if the child was planed or not. And suddenly the young parents wonder what might have happened that could have changed their world so dramaticly that they hardly see their friends anymore or hardly ever go out or that they never hear from the father/mother of the child or, if they are together, why the other person is not so keen on looking after the little one as one expected them to be. And, some find out, that being happy with a child does not rule out that it's also quite boring, straining and frustrating.

These are issues that have to be taken as seriously as questions of abortion etc. because they concern everyday matters, no matter what values one's got.
A TV show that tells you that a child is the grand solution to (excuse my being so gruff) problems originally 'caused' by it's birth AND maybe even problems that already existed before is not only nutters, it is dangerous.

[mothwing.livejournal.com]

I agree, it is VERY dangerous, especially for the very young target audience. IDGI, either, do they WANT teenaged parents? The syrupy harmony of the scenarios in spite of all the conflicts makes drives me crazy. They gloss over every problem, too. Sure, we HEAR that the teenage father has to get a job and work after school, but do we ever see him struggle with the stress? No. He quite happily gets a job, works with a pal, has a wacky and likeable boss, no stress. We HEAR the teenage mother complaining about never getting to do anything with her friends, which, at the time in the series, is perplexing, because she hangs out with her friends every day and doesn't seem to have any such problems.

However, as I have noticed amongst friends who have kids, hardly anybody thinks about what happens to friendships or their own relationship beforehand, no matter if the child was planed or not.
I noticed the same trend. Also, people tend to arrange things in such a way that you wind up with two mentally and physically exhausted, tired parents because both sleep where they can hear the baby. I read about couples taking turns co-sleeping in a separate room, and that works, too, why not do that?

In the series? We rarely ever see the very real and the very annoying parts of parenting. It's all carrying a perfectly well-behaved, cute baby around for short trips to the car or to a stroller while everybody lights up at his or her sight.

Babies fix everything.