How Taboo is Teen Fatherhood

During that last class period we were lectured on teen fatherhood. To me teen fatherhood is not a common phrase the one would really hear about. It almost seems taboo for people to speak about teen fatherhood. This is because father is mostly ignored or assumed to be absent. But the only way to change the opinions of others on teen fathers is to step into their shoes and understand not from the mother's point of view but form the father’s point of view. I can say that I am guilty of assuming that most teen fathers are not a part of their children's lives because of the stereotype that society has placed on them. But then i had to sit and think that how can these teen fathers be a part of this when most of the teen mothers live at home with their families. Present within the Teen Mom episode of Markai, her mother did not allow the child's father to be around to help Markai with the baby. This was an example of how the teen father was not allowed to help and do his fatherly duties. 

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1074862-2,00.html

I have found this article that may reinforce the lecture about teen fatherhood. This article talked about how the teen father is seen in a negative light because people assume that the situation between him and the mother was a "hit it and quit it" scenario. But in some cases it is totally the opposite. This article also talks about how the mother is not the only one that has to give up everything to take care of the baby, the father does also. Not only do they have to stop their lives to help with the child, they have to provide for the child and the mother. The guy goes from one mouth to feed to three mouths to feed. This article helped me to see the teen father’s point of view and I hope that it would change your opinion also.

-India M.

Lead Blog 3: Do Daddies Make A Difference?

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1074862-2,00.html

Girls who grow up without a father present in the home are SEVEN times more likely to get pregnant during their teenage years. Girls without fathers are more likely to have children with out fathers also continuing the cycle.  But what about the father’s father??

Time did an article on the issues that the often forgotten teenage fathers face when having a child. Not only does the teenage mother have Dad issues, but the teenage father is often a child of a single parent household most likely being without a father figure. On 16 and Pregnant the teenage fathers are often not shown or barely doing their part in raising their child. This is said to be because the teenage fathers were without a father themselves and are unsure of their roles and responsibilities as the father. Time describes the young fathers as being eager to help, but not necessarily knowing how to help, or feeling it to be emasculating to ask for help. 

Overall, Daddies do make a difference but do having both parents present in the child's life make enough of a difference to prevent the teen pregnancy cycle from continuing?

Kristi H

Lead Blog Week 2: The Disconnect

The first day of class we learned that sexually active teens who are not using contraception have a 90% chance of getting pregnant within a year.  The 16 & Pregnant episode for this week "Felicia" and the discussion guide put an emphasis on how Felicia and Alex rarely used protection and in addition she has older siblings that became pregnant at a young.  She claims that she wanted different for herself and that she was not ready to be a mother.  Where is the disconnect? 

There are many opinions:
-They never thought it would happen to them
-They can't afford birth control
-etc.etc.etc.

The reading for this week: Guttmacher: "Minor's Access to Contraceptive Services" shows that in the last 30 years there has been an expansion of a minor's consent to health care, including care related to sexual activity.

I think that this information is where the disconnect occurs.  How many teenagers are aware that they have the option (most of the time) not to tell a parent that they are seeking birth control or other contraceptives in order to have safe sex.  The information on Guttmacher's article are not common knowledge to teenagers.  Google can only provide so much research, where should parents/teachers/doctors step in to make sure that teenagers know all the facts? 

Obviously there are issues with this logic:
-Information can become outdated and some parents/teachers may not be aware of changing health laws
-Personal Opinion/Bias:  Some still believe that if you provide birth control, you are condoning the action

Megan Z

Corporate Welfare

ALTERNATE ASSIGNMENT, NOT LEAD POST--NO NEED FOR GROUP TO RESPOND

"Wonder why news outlets regularly demonize low-income mothers who need small sums of public assistance to feed their children, yet very rarely report on the billions in corporate welfare (tax breaks, incentives, bailouts) raked in by their parent companies or their advertisers?"

This is a quote from the Media Literacy Article for last week.  I found this excerpt especially interesting.  MTV, while definately not considered one of the above news outlets, is a multi-billion dollar corporation and I'd be very curious to know about how corporate welfare plays a part and how that impact trickles down into their individual shows like "16 & Pregnant." 

Wikipedia's page for "Corporate Welfare" describes an instance where agricultural subsidies are portrayed as helping honest, hardworking independent farmers stay afloat. However, the majority of income gained from commodity support programs actually goes to large agribusiness corporations such as Archer Daniels Midland, as they own a considerably large percentage of production.

http://reut.rs/eLdL0y <--This article talks about some of the ways that corporate welfare are being battled on the political level but through research I could not find a connection between MTV and the Media Literacy article.

Megan Z

Hello all,

Sorry it took so long to post! You think with all this snow I would be doing homework and being productive. Sadly, not true. But here I am, ready to blog for the very first time.

I know that we are going to cover abortion in 16 and Pregnant later in the class. I'm sure we will read some literature on the subject and discuss how there have only been a few women portrayed on 16 and Pregnant who have choosen an abortion. But there is some disturbing news that has come out recently that I thought I could pair with what we are learning in class.

We have learned so far in class that 16 and pregnant, though declaired by some to be an affective form of birth control, does not accuratly portray the statistics on teen pregnancy. And obviously this applies to abortion statistics with teen pregnancy as well. According to the article on Feministing,http://feministing.com/2010/12/27/mtvs-16-and-pregnant-to-air-special-on-abortion-tomorrow/, nearly a third of teen pregnancies end in abortion. Abortion is hardly even an option discussed on 16 and Pregnant. In Kailyn's episode she briefly mentions abortion but quickly moves on from the subject. In most episodes it is not even discussed as an option. If we really want to use 16 and Pregnant as a teaching opportunity we must show the realities of teenage pregnancy, and show the options that young women have.

But abortion may not be an option for all women soon. Just recently a bill was proposed to stop federal funding for abortions for women who have been raped. The bill requires that funding only go to abortions to women who have been forcibly raped. This excludes statutory or coerced rape. http://feministing.com/2011/01/31/what-you-can-do-to-stop-the-no-taxpayer-funding-for-abortion-act/
This article describes the details of the bill. I understand that this is loosely associated with 16 and Pregnant, maybe I am stretching. But I thought it was worth getting the word out there that women are not given the option to choose what happens to thier bodies, even when they have been violated. And not having options or accurate information does apply to 16 and Pregnant.

If you want to do something, you can sign a petition at this website. http://pol.moveon.org/smithbill/?rc=fb.share.smithbill.1.2

Hope you all stayed warm!
Brittany W.