“If I got pregnant,” my 17-year-old asked casually the other night while she and a friend were talking about a girl they knew who’d gotten knocked up, “would you want me to keep it or get rid of it?”
“We’d want you to keep it,” I said. “I mean, having a baby and giving it up for adoption would be extremely traumatizing. But I think abortion as a teen would haunt you more later in life, especially since you live in a family that could deal with a pregnancy.”
She nodded, still looking a little too casual for my comfort. Oh. No. Juno.
“But you would totally be grounded the whole time!” I added quickly.
The blase attitude melted. “What?!” she sputtered. “Grounded?!” This hadn’t figured into her scenario at all.
“Yes. Grounded.” I said flatly. “For the duration.”
She sighed heavily and began discussing with her friend whether it would be fair to be grounded during pregnancy. The whole thing was more than a little unnerving. After seventeen and her friend had graduated from junior high, several girls from their neighborhood school had gotten pregnant and gone through with having their babies, either letting their moms raise the child or giving it up for adoption. The two girls talked about teen pregnancy like it wasn’t all that out of the ordinary.
It didn’t help matters, I realized, that Juno had emerged as one of seventeen’s all-time favorite movies. And why not? It was a funny, heartwarming film, and Juno was the kind of girl with whom many teens could identify, a smart, sarcastic, and deeply witty teen who didn’t quite fit in with the high school crowd. The problem was that in Juno’s Hollywood-ized world, a girl could get pregnant, face a minimum of criticism from friends and family, give her baby up for adoption, get her man, and live happily ever after in blissful song-singing satisfaction.
The image is so potentially problematic that USA Today now has devoted an entire article to it.
Here’s an excerpt:
Sarah Brown, CEO of the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, is concerned about the message girls will get from Juno, which she believes is unrealistic. The movie paints a portrait of a pregnant teen who is not only extremely self-possessed but who also has a very supportive family.
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