Teenage Pregnancy in American Culture Essay - 2349 Words

In recent years, teenage pregnancy has been labeled a major issue amongst teens that it can be known as an â€Å"Epidemic.† Is teenage pregnancy directly responsible for a host of society’s ills? Increasing teenage pregnancy rate translates directly into increasing rates of â€Å"school failure,† early behavioral problems, drug abuse, child abuse, depression, and crimes. Many social problems can be directly attributed to the poor choices of teenage girls. The talk shows today are flooded by episodes dealing with teen pregnancies. The teenage rate in the United States declined in 1993 and 1994. Unfortunately, the number of birth decreased only to older teens, ages 18 and 19. Babies born to teens younger than 17 actually increased,†¦show more content†¦Teenage hormones seek gratification, this may become addicting; they sort of become sexual predators. Many cultural influences remind these young people of teenage sexuality. Proscribing sexual activity for teens has gone to the personal liberation and media-saturated sex desire. Billboards, commercials, magazines, everywhere you look, sexuality is expressed. Watching a beer commercial has become one of the targets for sexuality because almost all these commercials has a half naked woman trying to seduce a man into drinking â€Å"their† label of beer. Another concern regarding teenage pregnancy is coercion. In California, more than 70,000 babies were born to teenage mothers in 1993, are now charging men in their 20’s who get underage girls pregnant with either statutory rape or lewd sexual activity with a minor. The Urban Institutes states that three-quarters of the girls under the age of 14 who are sexually active say they were forced by their first partner to have sex relations. Media attention focuses a lot on teenage pregnancy casting the unmarried teenage mothers as the source of many society’s ills. Illegitimacy is an important social problem, I believe more than crime, drugs, poverty, illiteracy, welfare, or homelessness. The reason why is because unwed parents are the main drive for all of these other social problems that are due to the illegitimateShow MoreRelatedEssay on Mtvs 16 Pregnant Glorifies Teen Pregnancy1582 Words   |  7 Pagesreflecting the rapid boom in teenage pregnancy across various cities in America. Since the early eighties MTV has been considered somewhat of a cultural phenomenon for American adolescents and its depiction of gender has a strong impact that continues to this day (Holtzman 2000). Created by Morgan J. Freeman (director of teen shows Dawson’s Creek and Laguna Beach), the show â€Å"16 Pregnant† has been said to be guilty of exacerbating, normalizing and even glorifying teen pregnancy. Perhaps, it’s just reflectingRead MoreThe Issue Of Teen Pregnancy1722 Words   |  7 Pagesteen pregnancy which is still an enormous problem that needs to be addressed. 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