Weekend Musings

So I was checking out everyone's blog today, and Ashlee had a post about teen-reforming hotline commercial... it made me think about those crazy episodes of The Maury Show I'd watch during school vacations... mmm, daytime TV is so classy.

Of course, that got me reminiscing about The Maury Show... the thing about it was that there were really only four episodes: paternity tests, reforming rebellious teens, transform my frumpy wife, and is my wife/husband lying/cheating/having an affair?

Just thinking about this show got me thinking about how they handled the "troubled teens" -- they would bring out the drill sergeant to scream at them for a while, make them go to a prison to see what they'll become, then they send the kids back to mom to apologize... of course they all do, weeping that they will never do drugs/talk back/have sex ever again. Awww.

So... here's a gem I found on YouTube.



Of course, we have to take this with a grain of salt. The Maury Show is not a cross section of America... nor is it likely to research its guests' claims. But what happens on this show? What is it telling us about teenagers... and how to "fix" them?

I was all about guiltily laughing/feeling really sorry for her, but then she said this line: "It doesn't matter what people think about me! I am what I am!"

The video doesn't show what happens when she gets brought into that prison, but it looks like she gets yelled at and humiliated some more. I know what she was doing was terribly irresponsible, but is that how we should treat people that make those choices? And what about the men she was having sex with? There was no discussion of that. It's likely that the state she lives in has statutory rape laws that might apply if the men are older.

Instead of trying to help this young woman sort out why she wanted a child and why she thought it was ok to steal (which I think are bigger issues), the focus is all on her having (lots of) sex... which is an issue, but there's clearly a lot more going on in this situation.

A lot of the teen reform shows focused so much more on getting the kids to suppress their actions and emotions as opposed to channeling them into more positive action. It's disturbing.


Well, anyways... my Juno blog will be up tomorrow! That'll be a completely different look at teen pregnancy.