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High School Student Pretends to Be Preggers
Gaby Rodriguez could have chosen from a whole myriad of projects for her senior year. She could have trained a guide dog, started a recycling program or made a modern day adaptation of Wuthering Heights. But instead what did this 17-year-old A-student do? She pretended she was pregnant.
For six and half months, Rodriguez lied to just about everyone she knew. She told her friends and school mates that she was knocked up and wore a fake baby bump to complete the charade. There were only a handful of people in on the deception; her best friend, her boyfriend, the school principal, and her mother were among those in the know. The rest of her friends and all but one of her seven siblings all believed that she was pregnant. And her boyfriend’s parents? They thought they were going to be grandparents and were apparently hoping for a boy. So why would Gaby Rodriguez pretend to be preggers? Continue reading »
Teen pregnancy rates are down, but still high.
A new report by the Centers for Disease Control suggests that teen pregnancy rates in the US are at an all time low. That’s the good news. The bad news is, “teen birth rates in America are up to nine times higher than many other developed countries,” according to CBS News.
Only 50 percent of teen moms get a high school diploma by the age of 22, compared to 90 percent of teen girls that don’t give birth. We know that states that don’t require abstinence education have the lowest teen pregnancy rates, and that (accordingly) teen pregnancy rates are highest in the South. (The Northeast has the lowest rates of teen pregnancy in the US.) In Memphis, teen pregnancy had become such a problem, local schools adopted a “No Baby” program to educate girls about how to say no to unprotected sex.
The CDC writes, “TV, music, the Internet, and other popular youth media tend to glamorize teens having sexual intercourse and teen parenting, but the reality is starkly different.” Take it from one who knows. Teen mom Bristol Palin teamed up with Jersey Shore‘s The Situation to film a bizarre PSA discouraging teens from having sex and encouraging them to use protection if they do engage in intercourse. Despite the goofy combo of Palin and Sorrentino, the CDC would like to remind us teen pregnancy is no joke. Teen births still represent 10% of the 4 million births each year in the US, and Hispanic and black teen girls are about 2–3 times more likely to give birth than white teen girls.
Perhaps most importantly, though, girls born to teen parents are almost 33% more likely to become teen parents themselves, continuing the cycle of teen pregnancy. Continue reading »
Keep Walking, Romeo!
WMC-TV in Memphis reported last week that over 90 female students at Frayser High have had or will have babies this year, and 20% of the total female students at the school are teen mothers. In an interview, 16-year-old mother Terrika Sutton had this to say about the school’s pregnancy epidemic:
“It’s a shame that all these girls at Frayser are pregnant. But it ain’t nothin’ new…. They need a class where they can teach the girls before they get pregnant, use protection and stuff. Don’t try to get pregnant.”
That’s where the radical Memphis-area “No Baby” program comes in. Continue reading »
MTV will air "No Easy Decision" tonight at 11:30.
The television landscape will change tonight at 11:30 pm, when MTV will air No Easy Decision, a one-hour special following Markai and James from the second season of the reality show 16 and Pregnant “as they wrestle with how to handle Markai’s second pregnancy less than a year after giving birth to daughter Za’karia,” according to Entertainment Weekly.
Markai and James decide to end their pregnancy at the six week mark, and the show follows their journey from their “heartwrenching discussions” about the abortion through “a post-procedure argument” during which Markai snaps at James, saying, “You will never feel my pain.” Entertainment Weekly says, “while pro-life critics will likely find fault with the show just for existing, no one can accuse the documentarians of making abortion look easy or fun.”
A handful of television characters have had abortions since the 70′s, most notably Maude in the eponymous sitcom spinoff of All in the Family. This summer, Becky decided to have an abortion on Texan football drama Friday Night Lights. But this is the first time a televised special will focus solely on a real-life teen terminating a pregnancy. Continue reading »
Do some shows make teenage girls want to look like this?
Shows like MTV’s “16 and Pregnant” and “Teen Mom” make me sick. There. I said it. In fact reality shows, as a whole, make me sick. For the vast majority of them turn morons into icons, thus littering our pop-culture sky with dim-witted stars who are void of substance, not to mention discernible talent. I blame OJ Simpson and the Bronco ride that the (allegedly) murderous clown took in 1994.
You know, the one that compelled every single American to drop whatever it was he or she was doing at the time in order to watch? It was during that surreal, low-speed pursuit when, I suspect, the light went off in some aspiring TV exec’s head.
Hmmm. Real-life situations are capable of delivering huge ratings. Continue reading »
Bristol holding her brother, Trig, in 2008.
Recently, Bristol Palin and The Situation teamed up to deliver a PSA encouraging teens to “pause before you play.” (By the way, is it “The” Situation or “the” Situation?) The campaign was implemented by the Candie’s Foundation, a non-profit organization whose mission is to prevent teenage pregnancy. Palin and the Situation, both famous for being themselves—whether while dancing or chasing tail—take two different approaches in avoiding teen pregnancy. And MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann apparently has a problem with Bristol’s involvement in the campaign.
Yesterday, Bristol responded to the dry-witted TV personality. And, I must say, I was surprised by what I read.
My buddy Carolyn Castilla wrote about the Candie’s PSA when it first went down. Since then, several people have taken pop shots at poor Bristol and or her ab-baring counterpart. Most recently it was Olbermann.
The Washington Post rehashed the, um, situation earlier today. Olbermann contends that the last person who should advocate abstinence is a young lady, who, herself, is a teenage mom. “She’s the Candies spokesperson for abstinence?” he asks his viewers sarcastically. “She and her son? Because it’s got to work this time?” Continue reading »
Bristol Palin and The Situation
Danielle over at Being Pregnant uncovered this hilarious PSA produced by The Candie’s Foundation in which Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino of Jersey Shore fame accidentally bumps into “B. Palin,” who we are to assume is perusing the costume rack backstage on the set of Dancing with the Stars. They proceed to have a yuk-yuk filled conversation about her belief in abstinence, which he “totally respects” because “it has the word abs in it.” (Buh-dump-bump.) Palin in turn tells The Situation that she doesn’t need to borrow one of his, ahem, magnum sized condoms because she “avoids situations.”
Dennis DiClaudio over at the Comedy Central Indecision blog says, “I don’t even know what it is. A PSA for abstinence? A debate over safe sex vs. no sex? Some kind of a fetish video for people who like pain in their eyeballs?” Exactly. This video is laughable not only because of the corny script and bad acting, but because it completely lacks focus. Take a look:
In her post on the subject, Being Pregnant’s Danielle says, “While the message being provided is certainly something we need for our young people today, especially with the rising teen pregnancy rates… couldn’t they have picked… better spokespeople for the public service ad?” I don’t question the choice to cast Bristol Palin or The Situation as spokespeople to reach today’s teens; I think they’re both ideal candidates for a safe sex PSA. Both celebs are famous for simply being themselves, and everyone knows they’re talking from personal experience on the subject, which gives them cred among the demographic that needs to hear the message, “Pause Before You Play,” the most.
What I do question, however, is The Candie’s Foundation’s choice to promote abstinence as an effective means of preventing teen pregnancy. Continue reading »
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