I am the first girl to admit that I watch mtv's 16
and pregnant and teen mom. But I never thought it would relate to school in any
way. While in class and in our reading, the topic of gender is discussed and
how it is portrayed in media.
In
our textbook reading of chapter 3, "the meaning of memory", there
were several television examples of how women are portrayed on TV shows. Their examples
relate back to the 1950's. One of the books examples was "Mama's Birthday"
in which the woman didn't have much of a say as to the decision making was in
the family.
In
class, we also discussed the women's role in the household. The women were
portrayed as the housewife back in the 50's which sooner had a turnaround due
to economic problems. Women did not often have jobs in the 1950's and the men
were the sole bread winners of the family.
While
thinking about this concept of equal rights and women in the work place, I
thought about an episode of "16 and Pregnant". This episode was about
a girl named Aubrey who was 16, pregnant and getting married to her boyfriend.
Her and her husband had financial issues which led them to have to live with
her grandmother after the baby was born. Her husband, Brandon, had a full time
job but could not afford to get them out of her grandmother's house. When they
realize their financial situation Aubrey decided she wants to get a job.
Automatically Brandon has a problem with this. Brandon even said, " It's
more practical that I work, Your contributing by taking care of the
house." He does not respect her wishes to work, even though Aubrey shows
the argument that she wants to be seen as equal. Throughout this episode it
seems that job roles were a big conflict between the two of them.
Though
watching this episode and talking about equal rights of women in television, it
makes me realize that a lot of the same issues for women are still occurring
today and television makes it apparent to viewers. I have included a link to the episode on mtv's
website.
http://www.mtv.com/videos/16-and-pregnant-season-2-ep-15-aubrey/1652862/playlist.jhtml
I wanted to say that I am an Avid 16 and pregnant fan. I love watching this show and seeing how the gender roles are played out. There are a lot of cases that the men on these shows don't want the women to work, just stay home and take care of the children. What they really need to see is that that it really isn't possible for these family's to make a living nowadays if only the men work. In the 1950's when times weren't tough, then maybe this would work.
ReplyDeleteSadly, I know cases that are the exact opposite of this and are mostly what I see in real life. I know a lot of girls who got pregnant at 16 and the dad doesn't want to work. This forces the girl to have to get a job while she is pregnant. One particular situation I have seen, is a girl who is now pregnant for the second time. The dad still won't get a job and keep it to help out. In addition to this, he is consistantly in and out of jail. It is still this way now that she is pregnant for a second time, trying to take care of one kid, while pregnant and working. Horrible.
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