Will the Real Problem Please Stand Up?

Will the Real Problem Please Stand Up?
By: Matthew

Reality dictates that we live in a society that is not economically friendly to those who have children, particularly not at an early age. Raising children is an extraordinarily expensive endeavor despite the numerous attempts by local, state, and federal governments to ease the financial burden of parenthood with entitlement programs, tax incentives, and so forth. Childbirth is seldom a lucrative enterprise. As result, the prevailing common wisdom is that childbirth under any but the most economically secure circumstances amounts to fiscal (and, by logical extension, social and moral) suicide. The greatest reproductive horror we may foist upon ourselves in this day and age, save perhaps the contraction of a sexually transmitted disease, is the dreaded teen pregnancy. Statistics will easily support the argument that teen pregnancy can lead to poverty, reduced educational opportunities, depression, and other social ills. The offspring of teenage mothers suffer their own host of problems. It should come as no surprise that commentators of all stripes routinely express shock and dismay whenever a display of teen sexuality and fertility rears its ugly head.

What we have seen recently is a rash of incidents hinting at a growing trend in teen sexuality, at least according to the media pundits reporting on them. Amid reports that teen pregnancy is on the rise, we had the release of the acclaimed motion picture Juno featuring a heroic teen mother; an alleged (falsely alleged, as it turns out) teen pregnancy pact resulting in 17 teenage girls from a single school in Gloucester, MA becoming pregnant within the span of a year where normally 4 per year become pregnant; Jamie Lynn Spears, younger sibling to Britney Spears, becoming pregnant and giving birth below the age of 18; and Miley Cyrus, a pop-cultural icon to many 'tween girls, being photographed in pseudo-sexual poses for Vanity Fair magazine. Additionally, a hacker has apparently obtained more unseemly photos of Cyrus from a cell phone, some of which he has released and some of which he has threatened to release on a future date.

To top it all off, we now have a study out of the UK claiming that all this exposure to rampant teen sexuality and positive images of teen pregnancy is damaging teenage girls psychologically. The study further concludes that pressure to lose weight, wear makeup, wear "adult" clothing, and have plastic surgery is also causing harm to teen and 'tween girls. The entire study (and many others) can be found on Girlguiding UK's website - www.girlguiding.org.uk - though a condensed synopsis of the study is making the rounds on popular news sites (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,382021,00.html). Central to the study is the stunning conclusion that girls come under a great deal of social pressure to appear "pretty" to other girls to gain social standing, and that media outlets aimed at young teen girls can have an enormous impact on how 'tweens perceive beauty along with socially-acceptable behavior.

Is the real problem here the content of 'tween media, or is it that 'tweens drink up such garbage like it's purple Kool-aid? It has long been documented that the psychology of young women can be quite different from males who often revel in defiant, counter-cultural displays, but what has not emerged is a reliable method of disabusing young girls of the idea that media outlets can and should affect their behavior. To its credit, the Girlguiding UK study does hold forth positive feedback from parents and peers as a viable bulwark against negative peer pressure driven by sensationalist media outlets; unfortunately, a sole focus on bolstering the self-esteem of girls ignores the very important life lesson that media outlets frequently spew pure garbage that must be held in suspicion, particularly from their entertainment and fashion news divisions. Furthermore, there is the stark and cold reality that girls become powerful and dangerous members of society as they develop physically and sexually, giving them the power to create human life and spread STDs in the most awkward of circumstances. It would be foolish for us to assume that an overwhelming majority of young girls would shun their own developing sexuality regardless of how logical and prudent it might be for them to do so. Should any significant number of young females successfully experiment with tossing aside their own virginities, today's socially inter-networked 'tweens would no doubt learn of the phenomenon very quickly and consider experimenting themselves. It is quite possible that Miley and Jamie Lynn serve more as icons of a trend rather than instigators of socially unacceptable behavior. A great number of young girls are fighting against the tide of social pressure from adults, embracing instead the notion that teen sexuality (and fertility) need not be held in shameful contempt by all those who bear witness to it (or partake of it). You can censor media all you like, but you won't stop a widespread change in culture and sexual mores in the process.

In the end, it does not seem that anyone can pinpoint what the problem is beyond the fact that many adults are profoundly uncomfortable with current trends in teen sexual behavior and the all-too-coincidental increase in sexually-charged media content aimed at teens and 'tweens. As far as media content goes, the way to protect your children is to instill in them a healthy level of contempt for vapid entertainment and fashion reporting (at the very least). However, no matter how much your struggle to brainwash your children into staying virgins until at least the age of 25, some of them are going to discover that their genitalia are functional at a much younger age and will exploit this fact towards whatever end they see fit regardless of the short-term and long-term consequences. What remains to be seen is whether or not this cultural shift, should it prove to be lasting, will include a thorough and meaningful adjustment in social behavior on the part of young women to account for the many hardships of teen pregnancy and childbirth. We adults have not found a solution to the social ills associated with teen pregnancy short of preventing pregnancy itself; can a generation of networked teens do any better? Don't bet on it.