Juno Blamed for Massachusetts Teen Pregnancy Pact?
Since the dawn of cinema, I don’t think there has ever been a time when movies weren’t being blamed for society’s ills. Glorification of violence in particular has always been a hot topic, whether you’re talking about A Clockwork Orange, Reservoir Dogs, Natural Born Killers, Fight Club, Saw, The Basketball Diaries or any number of other movies, the question remains… does art imitate life or does life imitate art?
But now here’s one accusation I haven’t really heard before… never mind the glorification of violence in movies, what about the glorification of teen pregnancy? A recent scandal in Gloucester, Massachusetts has parents wondering what could have possibly possessed 17 girls at one high school to enter into an alleged “pregnancy pact” together. As you might expect, the situation is quickly snowballing into a media frenzy, and a couple of recent movies are being brought into question — specifically the Academy Award-nominated Juno, and Judd Apatow’s Knocked Up. Although experts have been quick to point out that a rise in teen pregnancy started back in 2006, it hasn’t stopped news outlets from drawing the comparison (as in this BBC news report).
I think most people realize that this is just another easy scapegoat, and as far as I know, none of the girls involved have ever mentioned Juno as inspiration. What do you think… could these movies really be changing teen attitudes towards pregnancy? I can only imagine the horror that will ensue when all the mothers who took their daughters to see Juno last year realize they may have inadvertently helped them to get preggers!
Comments (14)
The parents of the world are never going to realize that they are the most responsible for the retarded things their kids do.
Posted by Ryan on June 23rd, 2008“could these movies really be changing teen attitudes towards pregnancy?”
No. Apparently most if not all of the girls where “unpopular” and this looks like they are in some desperate attempt at getting attention I guess.
Posted by Swarez on June 23rd, 2008It will be interesting to see how many back out or will be proud of their accomplishment.
I think Juno and Knocked Up are responsible. I look forward to the lawsuits ala the one against Judas Priest.
Posted by Henrik on June 23rd, 2008If film impacted people as much as they say it did, why am I not a mass murderer?
Posted by Cinexcellence on June 23rd, 20081. I hate the term “preggers”. It scrapes at the backs of my eyeballs whenever I hear/see it.
2. Since when have young girls wanted to get pregnant when they’re teenagers?
3. This is bullshit story.
Posted by Rian on June 23rd, 2008Are teenagers that dumb? Oh yeah.
However, I highly doubt film had anything to do with their stupidity.
On the other hand, Juno and Knocked Up did fuel my desire to get a bunch of teenage girls pregnant.
Posted by Greg on June 23rd, 2008wouldn’t knocked up fuel your desire to get career women pregnant?
Posted by Drew on June 24th, 2008Dude….people get out of films what they want. Die Hard, Fantasia and All Quiet on the Western Front make me want to get teenage girls pregnant too.
Does it make me weird? Sure. But it’s what makes film wonderful.
Posted by Greg on June 24th, 2008That’s what I love, the pure subjectivity of film.
Posted by Sean on June 24th, 2008Greg I can’t believe how entertaining your comments are. Reviews too, you should write some sort of book man.
Posted by Henrik on June 24th, 2008Scapegoating is fun.
Posted by Matt on June 24th, 2008You guys should make this a news item for the podcast next week… I wanna hear Jay rant about teen pregnancy, lol.
I agree with Rian… I hate the term preggers. I don’t know why, but it makes me want to punch babies.
Posted by joe on June 24th, 2008check out this Juno Rant, very fitting to the situation
http://youtube.com/watch?v=UI_u3ssHL6A
Posted by roxie on June 26th, 2008My father in-law made a joke that the baby better be a boy or not to bother telling him. I was so hurt! How do you even respond to comments like this?
Posted by luisr on November 17th, 2009Leave a Reply