Moose call 911! and a filed compliant with “Secret Life.”
Every Monday, I luagh, cry, and get slightly nastalgic about my high school days by the tv glow. I am admitting that I’ve been a fan of “Secret Life of the American Teenager” and I don’t think I’ve missed an episode. (Thanks to DVR.) Though I’ve enjoyed following the show, I have a few compliants. If you haven’t watched the show, you may be lost in this post simply because I don’t feel like taking the time to catch you up on background information.
Well, let me cut to the chase. The show is sponsored by stayteen.org. Stayteen is an organization dedicated to promoting safe sexual practices among teens and preventing teen pregnancy. Every episode, during a commercial break, one of the actors form the show encourages both parents and teens to talk about sex, in hopes that it will prevent teen pregnancy. When the show first started, they seemed to be promoting an ideal that sex is best saved for marriage. Now, it’s very clear that ideal is more that teens are just two young to be having sex. My problem and compliant is that really, anymore, they are promoting a mixed message.
Whether the promoters of the show are trying to send the message that teens should be tuaght to that sex should wait for marriage (like me), or just a mature relationship beyond high school, isn’t it sending a mixed message if, in the season finale of “Secret Life,” two parents and a therapist encourage young teenagers to have sex in an attempt to solve their problems? I don’t know, a show that seemed to once promote a real positive message about the dangers of teen sex seems to be doing nothing lately but promote their characters having sex.
The shift in this message was made really clear on the finale tonight when one of the characters was trying to get his Christian girlfriend to have sex with him. This guy also considers himself a Christian. He says something along the lines of “Don’t all religious systems promote the idea of not having sex before marriage? I think even athiests say you shouldn’t have sex before marriage.” In context, he’s saying most people say they believe sex is best within marraige, but most people are simply going to have sex anyway…despite what they believe, or what their church says. To further emphasize this viewpoint, this girl’s mom, who apparently is a strong Christian, is dating a Jewish guy and having sex with him.
I guess my point is that this particular philosophy gets people no where, especially teenagers, who with the influence of raging harmones can’t be expected to make great judgments in the first place. I mean, this thought is very true. There does seem to be a ton of people out there who are going to have sex anyways, despite what they say their values are, but this view point gives no clarity or direction. It only highlights a truth of human nature- that many times sin takes us captive.
I simply feel the show would give teenagers more clarity if it went beyond the whole “well teens are going to have sex anyways so let’s make sure they are safe” and take a strong stand one way or the other. Either teenagers should have sex, or they shouldn’t. And if they shouldn’t, don’t have trusted adult characters encourage the teenage characters three times in the season finale to have sex. That doesn’t make a whole lot of sense!
