Teen pregnancy shows have exploded over the past few years.  When I was a child, Maury would do paternity tests on his show but they were not exclusive to teens and didn't emphasize the theme of teenage pregnancy.  Now however, we have Teen Mom, 16 and Pregnant, and multiple other shows dedicated to the documentation of young mothers.  This abundance of programming on the matter of course led me to believe teen pregnancies were up, so when Professor Harris told us they were in fact down, it made me question why these juvenile moms have taken our culture by storm. 

This is my favourite teen mom

When I looked into the subject myself I found that not only had teen pregnancy dropped but teen motherhood rates were at their lowest in 70 years.  Of course there are negative connotations with this misrepresentation of teen pregnancy.  Most of these shows portray the mother as passive and the male as dominant, when education on the matter should empower females about their sexuality.  This gender stereotyping portrays a class of female victims who are unable to do anything about their current situation, something that just isn't true.  These shows say at the end that teen pregnancy is 100% avoidable however, how it's avoidable is rarely discussed in the show.  Furthermore, abortion, while controversial, is always an option but certainly not discussed in these shows.  Although I don't have any personal experience in the matter, I'm sure abortion at least crosses the mind of expecting teen mothers, so the issue should be addressed.  Professor Harris explained why abortion topics are avoided but it seems irresponsible to completely exclude an intense and intimate topic from programs that aim to help teen mothers.  Furthermore, the absence of abortion reinforces the perception of passivity for the female in the teen pregnancy shows and supports the image of a teen mother dealing with something that has happened to them.  Often the men are reluctant to deal with their children choosing to do things such as rodeo (yes this is a specific example from one of the shows) while the mother is left to deal with the pregnancy herself.  These narrow views of gender roles hinder faithful representations of relationships and promote stereotypes.

This is the teen mom who's boyfriends in the rodeo.  Yes, I watch these shows way too much

Despite these issues, I feel that these shows have contributed to the reduction of teen pregnancies.  Abstinence education, condoms, and other preventative measures have been around for a long time.  However, the presence of these shows, I believe, have created a generation that is hyperaware of how hard it is to raise a child as a teenager.  Education in our commodified was a big theme in the lecture this week, and California even thanked reality shows themselves for educating teens of the struggles of teen parenthood. (http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2011/02/teen-pregnancy-record-low-rate-california-.html)  However, the toy of education made available is not sufficient in dealing with the issue of teen pregnancy and sexuality.  Education needs to focus on equipping teens with the tools to understand media and avoid distorted views of sexuality.