Through out the course of the semester we have seen that the media portrays teen pregnancy as a social problem and in both 16 and Pregnant and Secret Life of the American teenager, which is shown on ABC family, we see this. In 16 and Pregnant we see young women who either didn't think about contraception or just failed to use it properly. In Secret Life, Amy a "good girl" gets pregnant the first time that she has sex with the schools "bad boy" Ricky. During the course of the first season Amy tries to decide what to do and even considers marrying Ben a "good boy" that she is dating. This presents the view that if you make the mistake of getting pregnant they should get married and raise the child in a 2 parent family environment. On another season Grace the schools abstinence supporter has sex with her boyfriend Jack and that same episode her father dies in a plane crash. Last but not least is Adrianne who is the most knowledgeable of the characters. She has had sex before and knows how to properly use birth control but in a moment of revenge she has sex with Ben and gets pregnant. What do all of these acts have in common? The moment the girls have sex something bad happens such as pregnancy or death. This is giving viewers a bias opinion that says if you have sex something bad will happen. Why do you think this is the case? The media is obviously giving a very strong opinion and it doesn't seem to be changing any time soon even though we live in a very sex driven society. The media seems to be saying that the only option for teenagers is abstinence and even go as far as advertising this option on most of their teen shows.
My question for you guys is do you think this issue will ever change in the future? and Also what changes would you make to shows like 16 and pregnant and Secret Life of the American Teenager?
http://abcfamily.go.com/shows/secret-life-american-teenager
-Ana Gutierrez
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Abstinence Focused Sex Education-Helpful or Harmful???
This week in class we learned that the state of Missouri, has an abstinence based sex education program. In this way of teaching, the students are primarily only learning about abstinence and not about the other methods of sexual health. And if these methods are being presented, they are not thorough enough in their presentations because they always go back to abstinence as the number one priority. I feel that the abstinence based sex education in Missouri is not helpful.
Being a student in Missouri since the fourth grade I rarely even remember learning about sex in school. My high school didn't even offer any type of sex health class. The first time I even came across any type of sex education was in high school and even then it was just a brief chapter or discussion in a biology or health class, taught by a science teacher or one of the creepy gym coaches. And when we did learn about sex health it was only the basics, the facts, and the horrific pictures of STIs they'd show. But what about everything else that comes along with being knowledgable in sex health..the emotions, your options, having the right for it to be okay and not frowned upon if you engaged in any sexual activity. And like many teens at that age myself and a lot of my friends were curious and had lots of questions but felt like we weren't able to ask those types of questions in class.
And needless to say because of our abstinence based education and unanswered questions, more and more girls every year were turning up pregnant in our school. And coming from a school with approximately 500 students, is a lot of girls. I think the law of the abstinecne focused education in Missouri needs to change. It shouldn't be so one-sided and just show things in one scenario.
Sex education should encompass all aspects of it, the good, the bad, and the ugly. It shouldn't only show one aspect and one outcome. There are other options for young people besides abstinence. And also the sex educations programs should present the emotional and mental effects of having sex. I feel as though if schools did this, and presented all and complete, thorough information, then teens will be able to make much more educated decisions about their sex life and not having to late find themselves in any unwanted situations.
How adequate do you feel the sex education in your state is???
Do you think there should be and amendments to how or what schools teach their students???
~Nikki Walton
Being a student in Missouri since the fourth grade I rarely even remember learning about sex in school. My high school didn't even offer any type of sex health class. The first time I even came across any type of sex education was in high school and even then it was just a brief chapter or discussion in a biology or health class, taught by a science teacher or one of the creepy gym coaches. And when we did learn about sex health it was only the basics, the facts, and the horrific pictures of STIs they'd show. But what about everything else that comes along with being knowledgable in sex health..the emotions, your options, having the right for it to be okay and not frowned upon if you engaged in any sexual activity. And like many teens at that age myself and a lot of my friends were curious and had lots of questions but felt like we weren't able to ask those types of questions in class.
And needless to say because of our abstinence based education and unanswered questions, more and more girls every year were turning up pregnant in our school. And coming from a school with approximately 500 students, is a lot of girls. I think the law of the abstinecne focused education in Missouri needs to change. It shouldn't be so one-sided and just show things in one scenario.
Sex education should encompass all aspects of it, the good, the bad, and the ugly. It shouldn't only show one aspect and one outcome. There are other options for young people besides abstinence. And also the sex educations programs should present the emotional and mental effects of having sex. I feel as though if schools did this, and presented all and complete, thorough information, then teens will be able to make much more educated decisions about their sex life and not having to late find themselves in any unwanted situations.
How adequate do you feel the sex education in your state is???
Do you think there should be and amendments to how or what schools teach their students???
~Nikki Walton
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