Review: MTV's 16 and Pregnant
Nothing makes me yawn more than teenage pregnancy. This hot button debate that has been raging on for years with no end in sight is now encapsulated on MTV’s series “16 and pregnant”. I could only stomach watching one episode of a teenage girl named Maci who was formally a cheerleader and outstanding student who got knocked up by her extremely immature boyfriend, Ryan.
Maci managed to graduate highschool at the age of 16 due to being such a great student, yet was too dumb to figure out how to use birth control or have Ryan use a condom…
This show will definitely disappoint, in the end, the “revelations” about these girls is what you would expect. They thought having a baby wouldn’t be as hard as everyone says it is. Duh. They thought the father of their illegitimate child would be more involved…um, double duh. I am sure there are 14-year-old girls sitting at home on Saturdays watching this show and dreaming of being on it. I mean come on, these pregnant girls ended up on a reality t.v. show, what’s not to like about that?
I have to wonder if Jamie Spears pregnancy is what caused MTV to come out with this series in the first place, I mean heck, that certainly made headlines. What I’ve always really wondered is how 300 years ago, women had babies at 14 and 16 and didn’t dump them in trash cans or sign up for a reality t.v. show where their loser boyfriends were followed around with a video camera documenting what a bad father they are.
Maybe it was because they were married and “settled down” at such a young age due to having a life expectancy of 40. Maybe that put things in perspective and made you realize that you really ARE capable and don’t need to be coddled all through your 20’s and can wear your big girl panties NOW. I don’t pretend to have the answer to this stuff, but I definitely think it doesn’t do anyone any good by documenting it on t.v. and giving these girls even more negative attention than what they are already receiving.
Posted by Jo Jo Says
I watched an episode of this against my will. While I wanted to look away I was flabbergasted by some of the things that came out of the girls mouth (the Farrah episode). There is nothing refreshing about this show and the first few episodes of the old show Reba handled the issue better. However, the part that amazed me was the stupidity of those involved and in this episodes case…the mother as well. Firstly, why would you want this to be aired on tv? Secondly, if you are going to wave your dirty laundry in front of the whole nation wouldn’t you perhaps (and I am on about the mother here) try to act like a decent human being? While the pregnant teen is classically immature in some respects, I ended up amazed she seemed to be as “together” as she was dealing with a mother like that. This show hurt my brain and I stayed up for hours afterwards with three small words rolling in my head “wtf”. The only entertainment value is to be able to watch someone making worse choices than you have (presumably). Or to shake your head in dismay and wonder at what point they thought any of this was a good idea.