16 and Pregnant

My sister and I have this addiction to Lifetime movies.  We can't get enough.  It's kind of sad, really, but try as we might to fight this addiction we keep getting sucked back in.  Awhile back I literally went months without watching anything on Lifetime, and then the network came out with "The Fab Five: The Texas Cheerleader Scandal", and that was it for me.  One year as a joke, I bought my sister a classic Lifetime Movie titled "16 and Pregnant".  Some of you may have seen it, a sordid tale of teen pregnancy and the effects it has on the young mother and her family.  Kirsten Dunst gives a stellar performance as Tina, the young soon-to-be-mother whose loser of a boyfriend knocks her up then ditches her for a less fat girl, leaving Tina and her family to raise the baby.  I'm telling you, this is drama at its best.

Okay, but all joking aside, I think we are all aware of how big an issue teen pregnancy has become in this day and age.  I'm not an expert, I don't have a huge number of statistics to throw out for you....although I did see a report the other day that noted teen pregnancy was once again on the rise after several years of decline.  Overall I think it's sad that we now are accepting teen pregnancy as "just one of those things."  It's no longer taboo, in fact in a lot of places it's more or less the norm.  I think there are a lot of tangents that go along with discussing teen pregnancy, such as the involvement of schools, parents, and even the lack of morals seen in a lot of today's youths.    

Which leads me to the bulk of this post.  In keeping with the theme of guilty TV pleasures, I will admit that from time to time I find myself indulging in the somewhat new MTV series titled......16 and Pregnant!  I'm sure the title to this show gives it away.  MTV follows around a 16 year old girl during her final weeks of pregnancy, highlights her relationship with the baby's dad and her own family, then shows a bit of the aftermath in what happens after the baby is born.  I can't always stand to watch this show.  Especially the one where the 16 year old girl AND her mother were pregnant at the same time.  Nope, sorry, just couldn't go there.  Here's the deal kids.  I have many beefs with MTV and not just because of the fact that they hardly showcase music anymore.  But does a show like this help to make a case against teenage pregnancy, or is the network in a sense glorifying it?

True enough, movies just like the one I described above are produced all the time showcasing teenage pregnancy.  But I feel like on a network like MTV, a network that is frequented by teens probably more than any other audience, maybe a show like this is a little dangerous.  I realize that most kids today are probably not so desperate to get on TV that they would go out and get knocked up....but isn't that kind of the message MTV is sending?  And while I haven't yet seen an episode that could be deemed "happy," and while almost every girl on the show ends up saying she wishes she had never gotten pregnant, isn't there something kind of screwed up in the fact that MTV needs pregnant teens to apply to be on this show, meaning that they actually need people that young to get pregnant? 

I could be reading too much into this.  And if any of you out there have seen the show, maybe you feel that in some sort of reverse-psychology way MTV is actually trying to tell teens that having a baby that young is just not cool.  But I just cannot get behind the notion of putting these girls on TV for thousands of people (including me, at times) to gawk at.  It almost seems obscene.  But I guess this is where reality TV has gotten us.  It's not enough that we simply know the statistics on teen pregnancy and recognize that it's a growing problem, now we have to watch these young, immature girls experience it firsthand.  

Maybe there isn't a right or wrong answer to this pondering.  And maybe the fact that 1/3 of all girls in the United States will get pregnant during their teenage years means that a silly reality show is the least of our worries (thanks for the stat, Google).  But is the show just that, a silly reality show?  Is there something wrong with the fact that we are turning these soon-to-be mothers into nothing more than an hour of entertainment value?  These days everything eventually gets made into a "reality" show, but I just can't quite get behind the enjoyment of watching two young, immature kids, talk about how excited they are to have a baby, and how they plan on being wonderful parents.  Some people are calling this show a wake up call.  I think it's just sad.

Book Review: The Time Traveler's Wife

We can all use a good love story now and then.  Even if the story doesn't necessarily move along smoothly, or even in chronological order.  Such is the case is Audrey Niffenegger's novel, "The Time Traveler's Wife."

We are introduced to Clare and Henry, a couple whose bond to each other is decided when Clare is only six years old.  This is the age where she meets her future husband, Henry, only Henry is about 43 years old at the time.  However, we soon learn that Henry has an interesting code written into his DNA that allows him to time travel.  Forward, backwards, he is literally all over the place, only he does not get to choose where and when he travels....it is completely up to chance.

Clare and Henry keep track of his visits, and figure out when they will actually meet each other in "present time."  When this happens, the story really begins and their life together starts to take off.  And while some of their challenges are not typical to every couple (such as Henry disappearing when he goes out to water the grass, leaving behind only a pile of clothes), some of their tribulations are extremely relatable, like their struggle to start a family of their own.  Henry begins seeing a doctor who works with him to try and figure out how to stop the time travelling once and for all.  And while a solution appears to be just on the horizon, it doesn't seem like it will be realized in time enough to save Henry.  As the time travelling increases in frequency and in dangerousness, Henry and Clare are forced to realize that the thing which brought them together all those years ago could also be the thing that separates them forever.

I really enjoy reading love stories that don't seem like they are love stories.  It's refreshing to find a book that is able to capture the intimacy between two characters without having to focus purely on sex and mindless spoken sentiments.  It is really incredible the way the author develops the relationship between Clare and Henry.  It begins when Clare is still a child, and continues until she finally meets Henry in the present day.  In the beginning of the novel the author lays out a number of building blocks and foreshadowing circumstances that don't immediately make an impact on the reader, but pay off big time toward the end of the book. 

Aside from the story iteself, I think the overall layout of this book is one of its biggest triumphs.  Even though there is a lot of jumping around from past to present, the author does a remarkable job of keeping the story moving forward, and keeps the reader grounded in the story.  I didn't feel lost once, and what I really appreciated was that every seemingly odd passage or questionable action was explained by the end of the book.  So many times I feel like there are scenes thrown into books that are meant to throw the reader off track, or create some kind of surprise element, but then they are never explained.  When this happens I often wonder if the writer just forgot, or simply just didn't have a good explanation by the end of the book so decided it wasn't worth revisiting.  The author really does a great job of giving the reader the entire story, so by the time the book is over you really feel like there are no more questions.

My only qualm with the book is Clare and Henry.  It seems strange, I know, because while I really loved the overall story and thought the development of their relationship was superb, I couldn't quite connect to them as characters.  I tried, but there was something very bland about them, and honestly I felt like they were so similar (aside from the time travelling) that if you removed the names it would be like reading about the same characters.  In a way, for me, they were almost too predictable, and even though I liked them because of the story, I'm not sure I would have liked them set in a different story.  Maybe that doesn't make sense, but I just didn't feel a very strong connection.

This is really a touching story, and if you're an emotional reader like I am you will definitely experience a broad spectrum while reading this book.  It is so well written, and such an original story, I am beyond impressed with what the author has created.  In terms of the modern love story, I think this book is as good as it gets.