17 teens at a MA school make a pact to get pregnant!

sunnyhibiscus · #1 06-20-2008, 01:41 AM

http://www.time.com/time/world/artic...815845,00.html

That is sick. Many of these girls are thinking , hey if Juno MacGruff and Jamie-Lynn Spears can have kids, so can I. Jamie Lynn admitted that she made a mistake.

KSUViolet06 · #2 06-20-2008, 01:55 AM

I personally don't think Juno "glamourizes being a young mom." Even if it did, it's a movie.

If girls are saying they're getting pregnant because they're looking for unconditional love, that sounds like a parental issue--not an issue of what they're watching on TV/in movies.

This article makes me want to throw up in my mouth listening to how stupid they sound. Honestly, when I was 17, I damn sure wasn't planning my baby shower. I was planning how to talk my parents into buying the prom dress I wanted.

I bet most of those girls are really just into the "idea" of having a baby. They want the "attention" they see other girls getting when pregnant. They want to experience the "fun" of picking out baby clothes, nursery stuff, and having showers. They want to play "baby dress up" and show their babies off to their friends. They don't actually WANT to be parents. They just want the perceived "fun" stuff.

I can almost guarantee that having a baby will immediately become unfun and uncute after they have their babies and deal with the late night feedings, diapers, and having no money for themselves. The novelty of having a baby will go away, the only problem is that the baby itself does not.

breathesgelatin · #3 06-20-2008, 02:30 AM

I actually knew a girl who got pregnant our senior year of high school because she "wanted to be remembered as the girl who was pregnant at graduation." This was not your typical teen pregnancy mom. She was in AP Chemistry with me... It was so odd. She wasn't even one of the "fast" smart girls - I knew girls in my honors classes who were having sex but they were using birth control and didn't want to be pregnant... She was a really quiet, seemingly uptight girl. I guess she thought it might make her seem edgy? I'm guessing based on the "skater" image her boyfriend tried to have but he actually didn't fit in even with the other poser skaters. He was a total skeeze too and to me seemed like he must have mental problems. Very creepy. I heard by the time we started college he had totally flown the coop - literally ran away to Tennessee and didn't leave her any contact info or anything. I haven't heard of her in years.

tld221 · #4 06-20-2008, 02:44 AM

i agree with everything said up above.

im pulling a race card here: would this even be a story if these girls (or the school/neighborhood) were not white? Because these same girls who are looking for love and think having a baby to raise is all fun times and giggles and even get pregnant with their friends to raise babies together--would probably be on Maury and made a spectacle of.

Send them to a bootcamp, a women and children's shelter, scare them straight and see how they feel at the babyshower.

who ARE the boys involved in all this--are they boyfriends, FWBs, random hookups? and seriously, one of the fathers is a homeless man? WTF?? are they all the same guy who thought it would be awesome to be a father to 17 babies at the same time?

and yeah, you go right ahead and blame TV/movies. that'll help.

x 1000. would it have been any better if these girls were ALL in committed, monogamous relationships? or if they had intentions on marrying their babydaddies? but ohhhhhhh, theyre UNWED, theyre lives are sure to be doomed.

breathesgelatin · #5 06-20-2008, 02:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tld221

i agree with everything said up above.

im pulling a race card here: would this even be a story if these girls (or the school/neighborhood) were not white? Because these same girls who are looking for love and think having a baby to raise is all fun times and giggles and even get pregnant with their friends to raise babies together--would probably be on Maury and made a spectacle of.

Send them to a bootcamp, a women and children's shelter, scare them straight and see how they feel at the babyshower.

who ARE the boys involved in all this--are they boyfriends, FWBs, random hookups? and seriously, one of the fathers is a homeless man? WTF?? are they all the same guy who thought it would be awesome to be a father to 17 babies at the same time?

and yeah, you go right ahead and blame TV/movies. that'll help.

x 1000. would it have been any better if these girls were ALL in committed, monogamous relationships? or if they had intentions on marrying their babydaddies? but ohhhhhhh, theyre UNWED, theyre lives are sure to be doomed.

Totally agreed with you on every point.

Actually in my experience, the black women I knew in high school were much more educated about their reproductive options and the rights afforded them than white women.

Also rolling my eyes at them trying to prevent the doctors from giving the girls birth control.

Senusret I · #6 06-20-2008, 06:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by breathesgelatin

I actually knew a girl who got pregnant our senior year of high school because she "wanted to be remembered as the girl who was pregnant at graduation." This was not your typical teen pregnancy mom. She was in AP Chemistry with me... It was so odd. She wasn't even one of the "fast" smart girls - I knew girls in my honors classes who were having sex but they were using birth control and didn't want to be pregnant... She was a really quiet, seemingly uptight girl. I guess she thought it might make her seem edgy? I'm guessing based on the "skater" image her boyfriend tried to have but he actually didn't fit in even with the other poser skaters. He was a total skeeze too and to me seemed like he must have mental problems. Very creepy. I heard by the time we started college he had totally flown the coop - literally ran away to Tennessee and didn't leave her any contact info or anything. I haven't heard of her in years.

Maybe because it's early in the morning, but this was the most awesome story evar.

breathesgelatin · #7 06-20-2008, 07:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Senusret I

Maybe because it's early in the morning, but this was the most awesome story evar.

CBU Jeff · #8 06-20-2008, 10:38 AM

This story is crazy. I had a girl in my 7th grade class get pregnant. I didn't quite understand it then, but now, I can't even fathom. I'm 24 and am not ready for kids yet.

UGAalum94 · #9 06-20-2008, 12:00 PM

I don't know you all. This doesn't seem like it's a case where the girls didn't know how babies were made and got pregnant by accident. Whether they could get contraceptives at the school doesn't seem to be the real issue when people are actively trying to get pregnant although if that's your agenda 17 pregnancies might theoretically help you make your case.

I'll admit that all my knowledge of Gloucester is limited to reading The Perfect Storm, but I think that for some families the economic circumstances are bleak enough that they don't see having the baby as hurting their futures. I think life is pretty sucky even without the boot camp.

And I think that the coverage is different, maybe partially because of race, but mainly because they have evidence that the girls got together and all deliberately decided to get pregnant, not accidentally got pregnant because they were teenage idiots who didn't think normal reproductive biology applied to them, which is how the media seems to want to sell it usually. To me too it seems like a really different case.

It sounded to me like they might be looking to prosecute some of the daddies. I doubt their finding out that one dad was a 24 year old homeless guy was purely for recreation.

DSTCHAOS · #10 06-20-2008, 12:47 PM

Girls at my middle school and high school had pregnancy pacts. This was 13-17 years ago and there weren't cool movies out that were blamed for glamourizing teen pregnancy. So it was either not discussed or blamed on something other than the media.

17 girls in a pregnancy boom is contextually a big deal. But this is even more of a big deal because of the demographic that is being hit. That's also why Jamie Lynn Spears and Juno are seen as "the example." I wonder how widespread this really is because if it isn't widespread, this is just another example of how the small scale incidents of some become action-worthy and discussion-worthy "emergencies." Interesting.

Kevlar281 · #11 06-20-2008, 12:52 PM

Wait, wait, wait…Juno glamorized teen pregnancy? Did I completely miss the point of that movie?

DSTCHAOS · #12 06-20-2008, 12:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tld221

im pulling a race card here: would this even be a story if these girls (or the school/neighborhood) were not white? Because these same girls who are looking for love and think having a baby to raise is all fun times and giggles and even get pregnant with their friends to raise babies together--would probably be on Maury and made a spectacle of.

Race isn't a "card" but to answer your question, no.

I thought we were going to ignore the obvious and not go THERE.

DSTCHAOS · #13 06-20-2008, 12:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kevlar281

Wait, wait, wait…Juno glamorized teen pregnancy? Did I completely miss the message of that movie?

I can see how Juno can be seen as glamorizing teen pregnancy.

Plus, the movie wouldn't have worked if the cast wasn't "cutesy" (and white). It was reaching a target audience that isn't disproportionately impacted by teen pregnancy. That's why the movie and whatever message it has was allowed to appear watered down and "cool" to some.

Kevlar281 · #14 06-20-2008, 01:06 PM

Doh, you quoted me pre-edit. The only thing that I found cutesy/watered down about Juno was the parent’s reaction to the pregnancy. They took it really well. Interesting fact about Juno…it was written by a stripper.

squirrely girl · #15 06-20-2008, 01:13 PM

and juno gave the baby up. i just don't think really recent popular culture should be blamed here.