The Juno Efffect: Or Why I'm Annoyed with the Media

A Disclaimer: I don't usually post on political issues and this is by no means objective. It's a rant. If you don't like it, don't read it :)

On the news this morning there were several segments about a group of high school sophomores in Massachusetts who created a pregnancy pact. I'll admit, I watched the coverage and thought "seriously?" Fads a great; I layered socks and wore stonewashed jeans at one point, but babies are not fads. At the same time I was watching, I was thinking that I really felt sorry for these girls, not just because they have forever changed their lives but because Time magazine had made them headline news, so they will also be villainized publicly for making what was probably a really bad decision. Even more so, they will be used as scapegoats for people to theorize what went wrong, and those people with likely be quick incite opinions that are neither rational nor productive.

For example, the first comment on the Pantagraph's website reads as follows:

Everyone of these babies should be taken away from these girls and given to a good home. What a bunch of sick kids

What follows is 27 other comments (and growing by the hour) of people blaming the girls, their parents, society as a whole, the school, the boys who got them pregnant. The only person I have not seen blamed yet is a politician (on either side), but knowing the Pantagraph commenters, that should be included shortly.

So, this morning I was both annoyed at the actions of the girls (because we have teens who don't plan to get pregnant and are stigmatized when it happens unexpectedly and this isn't going to help that) and really annoyed at the media coverage (yes, I realize that I am contributing to the attention by blogging about it, but the rant is still to come).

Somewhere in the back of my mind, I should have known the coverage was only going to make me more upset, but as I was flipping through channels this afternoon, I came across a report on Foxnews that sent me through the roof. The internet story starts like this:

With films such as "Juno" scoring well among critics and moviegoers last year and the media's great attention to the birth Thursday of 17-year-old Jamie Lynn Spears' daughter, many say teen pregnancy is being glamorized in the media.

Okay, I get it...the Spears are not the best poster children for responsible decision making. Do we think that teenagers think that they are? Even the infamous "media" has described Brittney more times than I can count as: a bad mother, mentally unstable, impulsive, a trainwreck, and numerous other pejorative adjectives.

This gets my to why this story really, really bothers me. FoxNews, and to be fair most other news outlets, has now decided that we must explain this behavior in some way, and the target of choice: Juno. Google News currently lists 89 news stories that link the "Pregnancy Pact" with the film. Better than half of these throw in the media coverage of Jamie Lynn Spears giving birth yesterday, and quite a few add the film Knocked Up to the list of those to blame. This assumption is one that I spend entire semesters trying to move my children's literature students away from. Books don't teach, and by extension movies don't teach. It's true that movies and books may spark and interest or start a discussion (in fact we hope that they do this), but simply by watching a movie the reader doesn't not instantly decide that pregnancy is "cool." If this theory were correct than every time adolescents watched or read Harry Potter they would be jumping in fireplaces to travel via Floo Network. Last time I checked, this has not been the case.

In fact if we look at the two movies being cited in this case, Juno does not keep the baby and her pregnancy is not presented as the height of fashion or convenience. Knocked Up is an even more bizarre film to blame because neither of the characters in the film are teenagers and the mother has a career and means of supporting the baby. Blaming the media (of any type) doesn't make sense, in addition to the fact that it's not productive. If media images of adolescent sexuality were really to blame then teenagers would likely not be getting pregnant. In adolescent literature, for example, an adolescent female who has sex will nearly always end up portrayed in a negative light--she will lose her job, her car, the father of her child, sometimes be stricken with and STD or other negative health issue. The overwhelming message is frequently if you have sex, bad things will always happen.

The term Juno effect being blamed here, isn't even being used correctly. John Seery first coined the term when discussing a report that abortion rates in the United States have dropped. He says:

The movie Juno--perhaps a sign-of-the-times flick--depicts a sixteen-year old girl who gets pregnant. She goes to an abortion clinic, first encounters outside a classmate who is a clinic protester, enters the clinic anyway, declines the receptionist's offer of a flavored condom, surveys the rest of the setting, and then turns away.

His use of the movie here is meant to explain the phenomena that has resulted in abortion rates dropping despite the fact that they are more accessible. He then goes on to note the following about why the movie is a significant reflection of "the times" adding an explanation that I've yet to see brought up when the term has been used to explain the teen pregnancies in Massuchussets:

We are left, I dare say, with a sense of Juno's own resolve and agency, a maturity and perspective seemingly beyond her girlish years. Her decision could conceivably have gone, however, the other way. And the film doesn't continue onward nor end as a happy-ever-after, feel-good triumph, though we do leave impressed with something more than Juno's pluckishness.

The upside of this rant is that it gives me something to talk about in my children's lit classes next semester.

UPDATE: apparently it's a feminist blogging kind of day. M just posted this which nicely addresses the complexities of feminism.

‘You lose everything,’ teen mom warns - Parenting & Family - TODAYshow.com