Rewind to summer of 2009; I’m channel surfing after a long day at work. Finding not much that catches my attention, I settled on MTV. I sit in awe as I watch a sixteen year old tell off her mother, yell at her cheating boyfriend, and give birth to a baby, all within five minutes. I, myself, am a twenty year old high school graduate, loving life, partying it up like college kids are suppose to do. I have friends that are teen moms, and amazing moms at that, and would do anything and everything for their children. That’s fine and dandy, but when MTV makes sex and pregnancy at a young age look glamorous, there’s a line that might have been crossed.
I do understand that teenage pregnancy is at an ultra high rate right now, and I do also understand that these shows can show the highs and lows of motherhood at a young age and that could be beneficial in some ways to teens who already have children. The issue at hand, now there are teens that are rumored to be making pacts to get pregnant just to get the fame of TV shows like the very one I watched on MTV that June day. I know that all teenagers, no matter how much you tell them abstinence is the way to go, will still at some point, have sex. Whether it’s because they are pressured, experimenting or just want to feel loved, but then again, my friends, I don’t feel like keeping your fingers crossed you get pregnant and can be on a reality show, is a good enough reason for teens to have intercourse.
I’m not at all bashing MTV, or teen mothers, but I do feel this has gotten a bit out of hand. When I see how my friends who have one, two or three year olds struggle, I ache to help them because I know they are working more than a normal eighteen year old should to give their children the lives they deserve. Although MTV is showing hardships, the tough times they’re showing are only fights between parents, breaking up with boyfriends, and changing poopy diapers, teen pregnancy might still be perceived as a glamorous achievement to the younger generation. I believe that media has blown sex up, so that it looks inviting to younger adults. Everywhere you turn, whether it be in a movie, a song, on TV, or even in a magazine, sex has being a marketing tool. Sex should be an intimate thing. This, in my opinion, is not keeping it intimate.
MTV gets amazing ratings from these shows, and I will admit I have watched them more than once myself. But, do we want our children or even our younger siblings watching shows like these and thinking if this happens to them, everything will turn out wonderfully just like these girls, and it won’t be a struggle? After you answer that question, ponder one more, are we throwing too much at the youth of today too soon? I guess we’ll just have to wait and find out.
