This past week, I had the privilege of traveling to San Francisco to attend the National Communication Association conference (NCA). This was my first NCA experience and it was an INCREDIBLE one. I met so many amazing people and attended many panels where young scholars were able to present their research. One panel in particular was in the Feminist Studies genre and focused on media portrayals of real experiences of women. Specifically, one paper focused on the experience of pregnancy and all the ideas and behaviors that it entails. I would love to share that analysis and then provide my own thoughts on the topic.
The main thesis behind the paper was that the way media, specifically in a set of movies (Juno, Citizen Ruth, and Precious) portrays pregnancy as being an experience that is either positive or negative based on socio-economic status. The final analysis showed that we frown upon pregnancy and treat is as though a woman of low economic status is incapable of successfully raising a child. Though she may work hard, be loving and caring, strive to be greater and a potentially great mother, she is not treated as such. Her options are to give up the child or terminate the pregnancy before it is "too late." For this BLOG, I will focus on Juno, as I am most familiar with this movie.
Juno, a 16 year old girl, from a low/middle class family finds out that she is pregnant with "Bleeker"'s baby, another 16 year old boy from a middle class home. Immediately upon becoming pregnant, Juno calls Planned Parenthood to schedule an abortion. There is no discussion or reference to alternatives at the start. The "best" thing to do in Juno's mind is to just "take care of it." As she heads toward the building to have her procedure, a friend of hers is protesting out front repeating "All babies want to get borned." Juno reluctantly continues to head toward the building. Finally, the young protester tells Juno that her baby already has finger nails. With this comment, Juno promptly decides that an abortion is not what she wants. Instead she consults with a friend and searches for a family looking for a baby.
After telling her parents about her pregnancy, they tell Juno that they will support her in any decision she makes. Although Juno's parents were surprisingly receptive to the news and gave their daughter the option to keep the baby, Juno still decides to give the baby up for adoption. This decision supports the idea that Juno is doing "the right thing" based on her current age and social class. This is what society will accept as the best thing for the baby. But, is it unnecessary? Could Juno and her family taken care of her baby? I would argue that they most certainly could have. At the end of the film, however, the baby is given to a wealthy, white woman who is "prepared" to take care of the baby. This provides us with an image of what a respectable household to raise a child in looks like. All is well that ends well. Juno returns to her life as a 16 year old, with no more responsibility than she had pre-pregnancy. Does it always work out this way?
Another film I will touch on briefly is Precious, a movie following the traumatic and disturbing life of a young black girl. She is abused by both of her parents and becomes pregnant with her father's child (for the second time). She has the baby and attempts to raise it herself, but the hardships continue. This highlights the message that it would have been a wise decision for Precious to have given the baby up for adoption. The plot eventually informs us that she has contracted HIV, only emphasizing the trials and tribulations of someone of her socio-economic status. Though these films are simply that, they are very impressionable and easily correlate with how we view reality.
The presenter's final analysis revealed that these films, and I venture to guess many others, send a message that certain factors must be present for women to have children. Typically, pregnancy is only seen as acceptable, happy, and joyous in situations where the woman is married, financially well off, surrounded by a good family, and is essentially an outstanding citizen. In my opinion, society essentially controls who can have children. At least, they control how we view pregnancy. If you take a minute to stop and think of situations where you have found out someone was pregnant and recall their age, marital status, economic class, etc. What did you think of it? Better yet, how did you discuss the situation with friends and others? In my experience, I know these factors have unknowingly made an impact on my opinions of having a child. How much agency do we have in these thought processes? Or, are these public portrayals so ingrained in us we do not even recognize their influence?
No comments:
Post a Comment