Image Credit: MTV For a show as formulaic in nature as 16 and Pregnant, it’s sometimes difficult to find the nugget that makes it different than previous episodes. Teens + unprotected sex = one hour of conversation-spurring television brought to you in part by executive producer Morgan J. Freeman. Last night, I didn’t have that problem. The programming pearl in the clam of cliché was set out right before us late in the episode by our 15-year-old subject of the night. Personally, it came with an uncomfortable dose of shame. To properly explain, I have to rewind a bit.
Valerie, the subject of the episode, is 15, pregnant, and has a beat-boxing boyfriend named Matt, who (surprise!) is hesitant to man-up to his responsibilities to his child, even talking at one point about requesting a paternity test. (Note: Did his friend seriously call it a ”fraternity test”? Help us all.) Despite his flaws and seeming disinterest with having an active role, Valerie opted early on to keep her baby — as an adopted child herself, she admitted that she had always longed for the biological mother-daughter connection. She was one of nine adopted children in her household of 13 and before getting pregnant, used to skip school and run with the wrong crowd to get attention.
The blame game was in full force by the time the first commercial break rolled around. Even when no one is around to entertain my judgment calls, I can’t help the thoughts that roll through my head during every episode. What went wrong? Who is at fault? What should have happened to prevent it? I’m not sure what the point of my mental debate is; it usually leads nowhere. Frankly, I’m not sure there is ever any one answer to such questions. Still, you sometimes can’t help but develop theories and assumptions. And last night’s pinnacle point was about just that.
By the latter quarter of the episode, Valerie had thrown my assumptions about her (and even Matt) out with the garbage like a dirty diaper. The teen with an apparent princess complex came into her role as an adult with responsibilities quickly, staying strong through her newborn’s medical scare, accepting her inability to return to normal high school, opting to stay in home school, and learning how to adapt to her role as the primary parent to her daughter Neveah. As for Matt, he ended up moving 200 miles away in hopes of finding a job with health benefits. To his credit, even at his worst during the episode, Matt was not nearly as odious as last week’s teen father.
But even with all that, it was Valerie’s parting words that left a hole of shame where my theories used to be. ”I was very judging before I got pregnant. If I saw myself pregnant, and I was 15, I would have thought, ‘She’s nasty. She sleeps around with everyone.’ You’re just judging. You don’t know what’s going on in their lives.” Stated like a true teenager, but the point is loud and clear.
But what about you? What did you think of last night’s episode of 16 and Pregnant? Is the point of the show to debate and discuss the situation (but rather to do so with teens)? Sound off below.
“Who’s fault it is?” I think even Yoda would know that the word you’re looking for is “whose.”
give yourself a pat on the back! you caught a spelling error! you must be so proud of yourself.
Always use capitilization at the beginning of a sentence!!
And that statement had something to do with the show how???
Just about as much as YOUR statement has to do with it.
Actually, you’re wrong. “Who’s” is correct here, since the full line would be “who is”, “whose” is the possesive of “who” — ex. “whose shoes am I wearing?” So no grammar issue.
SEX
I don’t think, as far as ‘judging’ goes that people think these teenagers are so much promiscuous (hope I spelt that right) as people wonder how they can come across so willfully ignorant. While the education system has failed teenagers as far as sex ed goes, and parents seem more and more averse to reality and what reality requires of them as far as educating their children goes, the average 15/16 year old at all times has a plethora of information at their fingertips…literally, whether it be laptop, or cell phone or whatever, teenagers can educate themselves and it seems that they don’t want to. When I was getting my first tattoo, I didn’t walk into a palor and just let some random guy mark me for life, I thoroughly researched it online, did some digging and chose a well respected artist. I came from a community where no was tattooed and my parents probably assumed I’d never get one. Now is that the same as being sexually active and getting pregnant? Not quite, but these boys and girls….and they really are just boys and girls, do come across as being quite flippant and not really thinking before becoming sexually active. Parents need to man up and drive home that being sexually active demands responsibility. I had a friend who was on the pill and she and her boyfriend always used condoms. imagine her shock when at 17 she found out she was pregnant when she was always careful. I think at the end of the day parents do need to inform their kids and do their best to drive the point home (which could easily be done by pointing out all that was required to care for *their* kids) but ultimately the 15 or 16 year old who can go online and find some obscure band info can just as easily look up sex and safe sex practises
You know what I find funny? My 30 year old friend came to me the other day and told me she was late. She and her boyfriend aren’t married, and not ready for kids yet, and I asked her if she was worried. So I said, “oh, so you’re using protection?” She scoffed at me. They weren’t using any type of protection except “leaving the party early” which is NOT protection, obviously. It amazed me that even at 30 someone wouldn’t realize that they could get pregnant from that. Results of pregnancy test are currently pending.
Damn! Thats Effed up
My married friend got pregnant at 35 using the same “method”.
You’re talking about 30 somethings who have careers and husbands, that’s a lot different than a 15 year old
Your friend is lying. The odds of getting pregnant while on the pill AND wearing a condom are literally like 100,000-1, if not more. Your chances are greater of dying in a plane wreck. So either A) your friend is the unluckiest person ever born on the face of the Earth or B) she isn’t being completely 100% upfront about her usage of condoms. Not that theres anything wrong with that, out here in the real world (AKA non-PC-land) its pretty unusual for a long term BF to still be using those months and months into the relationship, especially when the pill is involved.
well, I’d like to think she was telling the truth but its not impossible that she fibbed a bit on the details. but still, point is, even if you’re being safe, you can still get pregnant, less likely you will, but you still can
I know several people that were in the same situation. You are correct that the odds are really low but they are not impossible. I would hardly call getting pregnant while using both forms of contraception being the unluckiest person on the Earth. There are far worse odds for things such as being struck by lightning twice, winning the lottery, being attacked by a shark, or dying of a papercut.
Isn’t the point of the show and these teenage couples, that they don’t use ANYTHING?? I think there may be an on-purpose thing going on here.
Why is everyone dancing around the obvious. It’s OBVIOUS she got pregnant on purpose to make the dude stay.
I think it’s obvious that every one of these couples got pregnant on purpose. NONE of them used contraceptives while they were sexually active. Not a single one from either season. That means a lot in the discussion of teenage pregnancy. Now the question is WHY are they choosing to get pregnant at such young ages and no resources.
I don’t think that any of the pregnancies we have seen are on purpose. Many of them think that pulling out will prevent you from getting pregnant or they use protection only occasionally. It’s being uneducated/reckless that’s the problem.
How could you leave out the best part of the night – when she yelled at her bf on the phone, “Get it through your head, we had sex a lot!”
I think this show illuminates our sex-ed problem. Quite a few of these couples are like “how did this happen!!?” when they find out about the pregnancy. In my opinion, we are neglecting to teach that sex, especially unprotected sex, can have consequences. I’m not saying teach abstinence only because that doesn’t work for everyone, but goodness we need to be teaching them something.
Question/Comment/Complaint:
It may be picking but, “brought to you in part by executive producer Morgan Freeman.” I believe is incorrect.
I mentioned that same observation during the first season and my younger sister says, “You dummy. It’s not THE Morgan Freeman, that’s why they distinguish it with ‘Morgan J. Freeman.’ Dumb.”
So if the 21 year old sitting at home notices that and subsequently puts me in my place…shouldn’t the person who is getting paid to pay attention know the difference?
Just curious. Am I wrong?
Nope, you’re right. It is Morgan J. Freeman.
youre not curious or wrong…. just extremely annoying. who cares? this is a blog not cnn.com. be entertained and stop nitpicking everything.
I agree, people can be annoying on blogs by pointing out spelling and grammar mistakes, which are unintentional. But writers really should get such basics as names right. If we go by your “logic,” blogs can say whatever, just as long as it’s entertaining. That’s stupid.
Agreed. It’s one thing to point out a spelling or grammar error. It’s another thing to get something like just flat out wrong. The writer should have done a quick google search to make sure it was the same person, it would have taken 2 minutes to do.
I work for a newspaper and we have to triple check EVERYTHING or we get phone calls the next day just like people on here complaining at how incompetent we are…silly silly people…we usually just laugh, but still, it gets super annoying…so that’s why I usually triple check my spelling so I don’t get the calls the next day
Um…due to the page break you might not have seen it, but the article DID say “Morgan J. Freeman”
It didn’t earlier.
Matt surprised the heck out of me last night. When we were first introduced to him I thought ‘Oh no another typical (ex)boyfriend on this show’. However he did man up and outside of the phone call early in the episode he seemed very respectful and helpful so kudos to him.
I don’t understand why no one ever talks about sueing the guy for child support on these shows. Like Ryan and Maci last season. Take his butt to court and then let’s see how cocky he is.
sex ed in this country is definitely lacking. at my high school, parents had to sign a permission slip for their kid to sit in the room during the “abstinence only” lecture. and that was the ONLY thing offered. the rest of health class was spent identifying the flu and stuff. this show is infinitely more educational. as for kids not looking safe sex practices on the internet: in general, that’s not how teens use the internet. unless they’re working on a specific class project, the internet is more like a lazy afternoon drive. they just kind of get on and go and see where they end up. and most teen sex isn’t premeditated. it happens once, without consequence, so they think it can happen again and again without consequence. (this is a general statement, obviously. there are teens that don’t fit…)
sad.
The young man surprised the hell out of me. He said he had to move away and get a job and he did it. There are times in life where we have to make sacrifices…
I have to assume (God help me) that with all the information out there these kids are using ‘protection incorrectly. That can’t still be thinking ‘it cant happen to me or ‘we don’t have to use it everytime, can they?
She specifically said they were not using anything.
Sigh..all this chatter about birth control. Of course teens know about birth control. They know about STDs as well. Teenagers live in a magical world of fairy tales and unicorns where nothing “bad” will ever happen to them. That stuff happens to other people not “me”. The shock when they find themselves pregnant believe it or not folks – its real.
Um…. does this show really NEED a recap column?
I found it extremely sad when, at the end of the episode, Valerie said she just wanted them to be a family, and she was 99% sure that was going to happen. Maybe there’s more that went on between her and Matt that we didn’t see, but he told her repeatedly that he didn’t want anything to do with her other than the baby. Reminded me of last weeks episode when the girl said she still loved her d-bag baby daddy.
I think people are giving Valerie way more credit than she actually deserves. She didn’t really decide accept homeschooling because she’s becoming more mature– she HAD to accept it because no one was going to watch her kid for free AND her parents wouldn’t help. Not to mention, she really just wants to return to school for “fun” and socialization. Oh well, Valerie. You’ve socialized enough. The entire episode I couldn’t stand how she treated her parents. She was incredibly rude to them when they had good reason to doubt her decision making ability. Matt, on the other hand, is given eternal hope and understanding. Personally, I think Matt is becoming more mature. He’s constantly thinking of money. Money is a big part of him being able to contribute to his daughter’s upbringing. Valerie needs to get on the same page. Funny how she was willing to get a job to go to school, but I didn’t see her mention it again when the school thing didn’t work out. I can’t wait for a follow-up on this couple. Valerie needs to appreciate the people who help her DAILY and stop wishing on a star for a family that is NOT going to exist. Matt has made his intentions clear to her and she needs to accept that. It would be nice if the person who got you pregnant loved you, but it’s no exactly the trend these days. She’ll soon realize that she’s just another statistic. Get a plan for YOUR life and stop waiting on Matt’s plan to work.
That was a horrible review. It seemed to project the authors opinion rather than recap the show.
I was pregnant at 15 and had to grow up realy fast. If these kid today just take a moment and thing about the cost alone of having a child they would wait until they have finished school before having sex or at least use some form of protection.