Assignment 5-1: Society Lost

A recent anonymous survey conducted in large urban school districts across 39 states, reported that US teen sex has risen 1 percent in the last two years. Over 14,000 students were surveyed, and found:

• 14.9 percent of teens had sex with four or more people in their lifetime


• 61.5 percent claim to have used a condom during sexual intercourse

I am happy to see that our teens are practicing safe sex, but it shouldn’t be happening at such an alarming rate. It leaves room to question: Is our society promoting teen pregnancy?

It seems that Hollywood is the promotional capital whether it is the new “must-have” bag, or that magical glow that’s associated with the “baby bump”—almost like a fashion accessory. Does Hollywood not see this trend as a problem? For instance, all the publicity that surrounded the pregnancy of Jaime Lynn Spears, the 16 year old sister of Brittney Spears and star of the hit Nickelodeon “kids” series Zoey 101. It worries me that her character was such an inspiration on the show, in which she made correct and confident decisions; that kids may get this confused with her “real” life situation and look at pregnancy as the cool thing to do.

Our teens are exposed to real-life on an everyday basis, they deal with hormones and puberty, then they go to the movies and are bombarded with sexually explicit innuendos, exploiting teen sexuality, straight from the screen from kids who look and think just like them. It’s an example of reverse child pornography, promoting adult sexual activity to children.

Case and point, the hit movie of 2007 Superbad; in which the storyline involves 3 virgin teenage male friends ready to kick off their sex-life before going to college. They have been invited to a graduation party in which they spend the entire day trying to buy alcohol in order to inebriate their “dream girls”. They discuss sexual positions in immense vulgar detail and hope to be the “regret hookup”. In the end, their plans fail and they don’t actually get laid, however, the plot is already in the minds of the viewers.

It is highly unrealistic to think that one pregnant celebrity could have such an impact on the teenage race, but it’s plausible to think that this could be the start…