Teen pregnancy, shame, social problems and intersectionality

Once again, I am blogging on the  ways in which young people themselves are challenging stereotypes and conventions regarding teen sex, sexuality and pregnancy...I found this blog post - referencing a couple of articles about a teenage girl who faked a pregnancy for a school assignment, and recorded the reactions of those around her to demonstrate how shaming and morality impact the topic.

Read this story...what do you think about her findings? Do you think this was a good way to fulfill the assignment? Would you have taken this one? How does intersectionality impact her experience (see her words regarding society's assumptions about Latinas).

Empowering Teenage Moms

We have spent the semester debating how and why teenage pregnancy is considered a social problem, but we haven't really looked at the ways in which teen girls and young women who choose to parent might be empowered by their parenting identities. Some of you have heard the stories I have told about old friends and acquaintances who because of their status as young mothers made significant gains and created important and dynamic programs and policies that address inequalities that young women and men face.

Take a look at this website: Girlmom

This was started by a teen mom years and years ago, but the site continues on without her now. Read around, get to know some of the contributors - what do they have to say? How might it be different than what we have been hearing or reading? How does it make you think?

Pregnancy Prevention

I found this article about how the Candie's foundation, which has as one of it's foci, teen pregnancy prevention, paid Bristol Palin over two hundred thousand dollars for her to be a spokeswoman, but paid much less in actual pregnancy prevention programming.

What do you think about Bristol as a spokesperson for abstinence? Do you think she represents a good story about a teen who choose not to wait? How does her class, race, social location, etc impact her ability to be a parent to her child? How did it impact her choices? Do you think she had the same options as other teens - given who her family was and what they represented?

Bristol's story is complex...there has always been a great deal of media around her, but if we look closely at the actual events - we see a teenage girl who got pregnant, with a very political and influential family - one who staunchly supports abstinence only education and is stridently anti-abortion. What does this really mean for her? Is she being responsible now that she is advocating for other women to wait? What about the commercial she made...what is the message it portends to send versus the realities of her life...is it real? Is it fair?