Juno:”are you ashamed that we did it? b/c you don’t have to have the evidence under your sweater!” ***
I just thought I would start with this quote, tried to find a clip of it on YouTube, but it is a great example of the difference between a male and a female in a teenage pregnancy.
Females have much more at risk and to lose wtih a teenage pregnancy. As is evident in the show "16 And Pregnant". Many of the fathers do not stick around, it is easy for them to do so. Unlike the female in the relationship/partnership the male does not have to wear the evidence for 9 months. The female is the one to get stigmatized in the event of a teenage pregnancy. We kind of excuse the guys in the relationship when they are just as involved as the female, we have socially constructed a world so that the males can get away with not having active participation in their child's life. We just need to realize that it takes two to make a child and create a society that realizes that it is not just the female that should be taking on the full responsibility of a child.
We have also made it the females responsibility to prevent pregnancy in my mind by making it so universal and expected that women are on the pill. I have realized that all young men especially expect young women to be on the pill and this therefore gives the man the "option" to not have to use a condom. This is also a hugely socially constructed problem in our society now.
Many of these youth do not realize I think the full extent of what comes along with having these children and the proper way to prevent from having children before they are ready. There just needs to be more contraceptive use in my mind and this will not be possible till these young men and women are comfortable with talking to their parents about it. We need to make it a less tabo subject in my mind, it is something we all do, but we have made it unnatural and scary.
What can we do to make sex less tabo?
Who is to blame for the socially constructed idea of who is responsible for a baby?
Erin Richeson
I agree that all the responsibility should not be just on the female but equally on both the male and female. As unfair as it maybe, I cannot see this changing. It will always be "Mama's Baby". The mother will always have to be the one to step up and make sure the baby has everything that they need. Society has made it to were the women are suppose to look after the house and children while the men basically do whatever. This is not right but this is the way it has been for along time.
ReplyDeleteBrittaney Vaughn
I do not understand why the men do not seem to have to take on as much of the responsibility as the girls do. I feel as if society does not hold men to the same standards as they hold women. I do not think we can blame any one person for this. I think we have to blame society as a whole. Society believe women are more mature and responsible than men, but that does not mean that they can be the only ones blamed. Everyone needs to keep in mind that it takes 2 people to make a baby, so both should be at blame. We should not let men run around care-free and without responsibility while the girl has to "wear the evidence under [her] sweater".
ReplyDelete-Alex Antoniou
I, too agree that it is both the people involved should take the responsibility of having safe sex, but also if there is a child involved, the parents should both take full and complete responsibility for him or her. But as we know this is not always the case, sometimes, one or in my case personally both parents don't take care of the child and the responsibility goes to someone else in the family or the children become "property" to the state. It does take a village to raise a child properly. But I feel like if 2 people decide to have sex, that they should be ready in all aspects, in case it should happen, to raise a child, and if they're not they should be educated well enough to take the certain precautions to avoid it. It should be on one person, sex and a baby takes 2.
ReplyDelete~Nikki Walton
I feel that its not the guy's fault that they aren't expected to be there when a child is conceived. The reason for is is because women have traditionally taken care of children so men aren't required to be there for the woman. As for making sex less taboo I don't think that it will ever be that way, since its something incredibly personal.
ReplyDelete-Ana Gutierrez