Does anybody really care about Jamie Lynn Spears or Palin's daughter getting pregnant. As you suggest, these "celebrity teens" could influence our dear old innocent daughter and make her promiscous. Nothing could be further from the truth. We'd like to think we raise our children with the strong moral lessons that we preach upon them. As parents we fail to realize, adolscents spend much more of their time with their peer group. I'm sorry, an hour at Sunday church and the daily dinner table does not even come close to the amount of time teens spend with their friends. A friend of mine with a 14 yr old daughter shared with me how much peer pressure there is to have sex. I was amazed the child could be so honest and gave my friend a lot of credit for not yelling at his daughter, "I better not catch you having sex!!!!" Palin came under great scrutiny for being a bad mother because her daughter became pregnant. What was she supposed to do? All any parent can do is trust their kid and hope they turn out okay. For us adults, when we were kids, who doesn't remember the "nice freshman girl" who was wowed by the high school senior or the local bad boy. Our kids are that close to experiencing teen pregnancy. The last thing they have on their minds is Spears or Palin.

This picture may sum it up: http://ninawesterberg.com/BarbieRedesign.jpg

Wow. Thanks. I guess this one image really shows how far through the culture this issue has spread. The image of pregnant Barbie ireally does sum it up in a smart and funny way. Thanks again. Can;t wait to see what other readers think when they see it, Z

was it hard for yu to confess

I am wondering what you would say about the shows that are targeted to the same age group of girls, such as The CW's Gossip Girl, that contain an increasing amount of sexual content. There has been a pregnancy scare, however there has not been an actual pregnancy. I believe that the pregnancy scare happens in the first season in episode 13, "The Thin Line Between Chuck and Nate". (If you are interested in viewing that one in particular) When this episode aired it was when the show was still on Wednesday's at 9 p.m.

Now the show airs at 8 p.m. on Monday's. This is a time when young girls are definitely going to be awake and watching their role models, who are in high school, having sex. While I thought the content of a pregnancy scare was a bit much for the age group that would be watching at 9 p.m., season two has shocked me even more with its content AND it is aired at an earlier time. What is going on here? Does The CW really want to sexualize our girls at a younger age? Is "passionate" and frequent sex what we want the younger girls in our society to be having, or to be thinking high school students are doing? Sex needs to come before pregnancy and it seems that The CW is helping them get to that next step of what you say to be, the seemingly positive attention getter of getting pregnant.

I know that political pandering is your full time job here, but could you at least comment on the quality of the shows? I watched an episode of Secret Life with my daughter and she and I both laughed a lot. I thought it was so poorly scripted and acted that it reminded me of the uniintentionally hilarious 7th Heaven. I think it's from the same idiots who did that show. My daughter giggled a lot and when pressed she said, Daddy, nobody talks like that, they're retarded. It's hard to make message TV when the message received by kids is that adults are idiots who don't have a clue about how kids think, talk or act.

Sorry to inject this tv discussion into your palin drool-athon.

Hello, I thought there was no TV entertainment stuff on this Web site? Kidding. Look, I agree that kids are a lot more resistant to Tv messaqges than parents think. But I teach "Children & Television" at Goucher College and have taught it for years at U. Of Maryland in College Park, and I will tell you something else that my students found in their ethnographic research with kids as the kids watch TV. Kids who watch with their parents often giggle a lot, because they are embarrassed. And they almost never tell their parents what they are thinking and feeling when quizzed immediately in front of the tube. The point: Just as kids are resistent to TV messages (to an extent), so do they have strategies to resist partental questioning. Look, I reject the rhetoric of Tv producers as "idiots" and all that. But I will tell you this celebration in the media of teen pregnancy is dangerous. Look upm a transcript from CNN's "Reliable Sources" -- just Google the title -- from July. I was on the show, but you will see others agreeing on the same topic -- like Howard Kurtz, the excellent media critic from the Washington Post. PS I have not seen your comments on any of the posts at this site -- the ones where I review and talk about entertainmemnt programs -- loike "Fringe" or all the Emmy winning programs I celebrated like Mad Men -- you know, the stuff you say does not exist on this site. Thanks. And PS, Yes, I will be sticking with Palins and all the other candidates as they use TV throughout the election and beyond. PPS As for the Palin-droolathon, many of the hundreds of comments were critical of me for not attacking Charles Gibson for asking her real questions. Here is a suggestion: Why not actually read the posts before you comment on them. I know this might seem complicated, but 1) you open the post, 2) read it all the way through, and then 3) you thjink about it, and then 4) you comment. I know the interaction on the Internet is supposed to be fast, but it is ok to think before you write -- even on the Web. Again, thanks. Z.

So unfortunately, this has been coming since well before Juno or Secret Life.

Daytime talk shows aren't necessarily the most reliable example, and this is certainly an extreme case - I mean, I hope it's an extreme case - but I believe this clip is from 2005, preceding all the examples you say could SPARK this attitude.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRdJ49ItMnc&feature=related

Sadly, it sounds like it's the result of neglect. Somewhere in the garbled English she says she wants the love and attention she'd get with a baby, like she's looking for another being to absolutely love and depend on her.

Anyway, while it's certainly not helpful for the media to portray teen pregnancy in such a glamorous light, I can't help but feel like it's more of a symptom than a cause. Victoria there is certainly not the only young girl who's ever had this attitude. I feel so sorry for any child who is born simply to be a tool to gain the mother love.

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