Ju-don't-No

Ju-don’t-No

I recently went to the movie theater and watched the film Juno. This film was about a young teenage girl who accidentally gets pregnant with her best friends baby. As opposed to having an abortion, the pregnant teen decides to give her child up for adoption to a family that is reproductively challenged. Throughout the film, we are able to see some of Juno’s challenges and hardships as a pregnant teen. As far as the movie goes, I feel that from a comedic standpoint, the movie was hysterical but as far as a lesson learning experience, the movie tended to be a little diluted. This movie, reminds me of why Linda Christian, had written her piece on how the media distorts reality and sends bad messages to young teens everywhere, which she refers to as the “secret education”. I enjoyed the movie very much however; I feel that the movie gave an unclear perception of what it is like to be a pregnant teen at school. One thing that I do not feel the movie mentioned was how teenage pregnancy may be ridiculed and judge by some but others, might be so approving that they actually get pregnant. Where I went to school, it seemed as soon a one girl got pregnant, six friends almost immediately followed. I think that movie showed teens that it was okay to get pregnant and as soon as it was over you could go back and resume your normal life style. This is a myth, once a person becomes pregnant, their life will change dramatically, regardless of your choice to either have the baby or not. I fear that this movie may distort teen’s perceptions on pregnancy and may encourage them to be careless. I think the movie is more powerful than what people would like to acknowledge. The fact is, that we as people tend to identify with actors in movies, we are supposed to, that’s what they are paid for, so for a movie to go ahead and give a very unclear message about what it is to be a pregnant teen is I feel is very irresponsible. I believe that in reality, when a teen becomes pregnant, there is a huge disappointment from their family that I do not believe is portrayed in the movie. I also believe that the idea of just being able to give your child up for adoption and to never think twice about it is a much-distorted version of the truth. I understand that the character in the movie was meant to be a cunning teen however, her very callous attitude almost made her seem inhumane. You never see Juno ever connect with the child inside her or even acknowledge that fact that she was pregnant for that matter. If pregnancy were that easy, there would be much more pregnant people in the world and many babies given up for adoption everyday to these needy families. I feel that the movie was good and humorous and as an adult, I am able to write off this distorted perception and ignore the “secret education”, however as a teen, I feel that this movie could be very dangerous.