Sunday, April 24, 2011

The Social Experiment

I know I have only blogged about once since the elections last year but watching this little news spot kinda brought me out of semi-retirement.

Straight-A student Gaby Rodriguez decided to conduct a social experiment where she pretended to be pregnant to observe everyone's reaction and to shatter stereotypes.

View the interview here.

Ok, sounds fair enough, it was a big risk. However, there were a few things with which I had an issue.

First, it struck me that she said when she revealed that she was in fact NOT pregnant, there were people that were SAD. I can understand being shocked, but being sad that a teenager was not pregnant, really?

Second, she stated that the rumors were that she was irresponsible, probably wouldn't finish college, and that it was bound to happen. While I disagree with assertions that it was bound to happen, I must say unless it was due to factors outside of your control such as rape or incest, getting pregnant when you're in your teens is ALWAYS irresponsible and it does exponentially reduce your chances of attending and/or finishing college.

Third, she stated she would forward her findings to community leaders in an effort to shatter stereotypes and foster more understanding and acceptance? I hope I'm not reading too much into this but I do not think that we should be accepting of teenage pregnancy. Teenage pregnancy is an epidemic plaguing our schools and when we've become more concerned with whether or not an expectant mother will be able to maneuver down the stairs at the end of the stage and whether or not she'll pop before she graduates rather than where she'll be attending college, we've got a SERIOUS problem. I think the problem is that we have in fact become too blase about the whole thing.

I do not feel that talking about it in any community setting will help unless the talk is more about driving the point home that getting pregnant in your teens is NOT acceptable or in any way glamorous and that it cannot be expected that everyone around you alter their lives to cater to this new condition. Perhaps this is the direction this straight-A student should take.

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