Things that get in my craw #1

September is here, and I am particularly irksome. I find myself easily irked. Irkish, even. Might be the late-summer heat firing up my genteel sensibilities, some displaced annoyance over the stupid political national conventions, or just general bristling in response to the return to the school year. I dunno. All I know is that either I am running into more things that are getting my ideological goat, or I am responding more to things. It's probably both.

Anyway, did you see that movie, Juno? I did a couple months back. Some ok stuff in there to be sure. And seeing a young, confident, mouthy female protagonist was cool. But beyond this (and its annoyingly heavy layer of too cool for school-ness), I found myself ticked off to high hades at this flick. Just pissed in many different directions. Irk-ed. Have scribbled a bit of rant on it since then, and pretty much put it away.

So, last week, the university's Women's Programs office announced that they would be showing it for a welcome back students shebang. Oh, great. I emailed to ask if there would be a discussion after the movie. The director responded saying they weren't planning it, and can do only so much with kids who typically like to watch and split, but maybe? Yeah. So, I morphed the rants into a few thoughts, and dropped them off to her during the movie. Here they are:

What happens when a young, single, working class American female gets pregnant?

Well, according to the movie Juno, after a slightly uncomfortable conversation, she will get full support of her family throughout her nine months, no guilt trips or unwanted adult “protection,” maintain her typical connections to closest friends, have easy access to information and good future options to consider, a van to drive whenever she wants, no financial worries, clear confidence and self-direction in her decisions, and latitude from parents to call the shots on the important choices in her life and her pregnancy.

She will encounter friendly, highly unintimidating protesters and cold and crassly unprofessional staff at the family planning clinic she visits, form closer bonds with family members over her ultrasound, find an adoption parent who she is able to observe and grow to trust her child’s care to in the Penny Saver, not bother the father with any inconvenient calls for support or assistance that might take him away from his normal tasks, and give her new baby over to a closed adoption without much self-questioning or residual emotion.

When the pregnancy is over, she will return to her bike-riding life as she left it pre-pregnancy – complete with self-absorbed kid adventuring and puppy love with the boyfriend who had been absent for the past nine months.

And in worrying about her state early on, she will feel assured enough to walk into the local convenience mart to buy herself pregnancy tests.

According to Juno, dealing with a pregnancy will be relatively easy and straight-forward, provided you are adequately feisty, savvy, and self-aware, and, thus, able to pull yourself up by your own neoliberal bootstraps.

Of course, Juno is a movie. Creative license is allowed. Still, Juno presents itself as a comedy-drama, not a fairytale. So being, it is important to ask if what we take in here is even in the ballpark of accurate. Is this a fair portrayal of how pregnancy in America works for most not-financially-well-off teens? How is “choice” framed in this movie? How is access? Do economics matter? What do we take with us from this movie? Cui bono, "homeskillet"?

--

That was what I wrote. It came from a few places, I think. I'll touch on just a few.

First off, I was raised in a not-financially-well-off, very religiously conservative family. My parents told me where babies came from when I was very little, but outside of that, were not into giving info on the sex. They were, however, quite willing to impress on me that they (and Focus on the Family) did not condone sex outside of marriage. When I had to get a permission slip signed in 6th grade to attend a sex ed class years back, I remember waiting until the last minute to ask my parents because I knew they would not particularly like it. They didn't, but signed, saying "now, you know how we feel about this." I nodded, and prepared myself to hear again how, as Catholics, sex is forbidden outside of marriage, and how, as Catholics, having sex outside of marriage is a sin. It came.

Still, to their credit, they did let me go to the class. But, even so, years later, my late high school boyfriend was well aware of the fact that if I got pregnant, I would run off and kill myself. I made clear that it was just what had to happen. I was a determined and heady teen -- I totally would have done it. On top of this, while I love my family, I'm thinking I'm not the only young female out there who had relationships with ps that promised to be less than supportive if I came up preggers in hs. Lou Dobson has no "parenting tips" on this one.

Secondly, I still don't feel comfortable buying a home pregnancy test at the much more anonymous grocery or even big box stores without being sneaky, even if I use the self-checkout stands. And I am, like, full blown woman old! And the whole "sexually active" thang was awesome, but, in the age of abstinence only education, how many young women are able to be that self-assured of their sexuality and their options?

And finally, I have volunteered for years at Planned Parenthood and have never, ever seen anyone vaguely like that kindly protester out front, or anyone anything like that alienating receptionist inside the building. Quite the opposite, every front PP staff member I met have been exceedingly warm and empathetic, while the vast majority of protesters I encountered at Planned Parenthood were confrontational, aggressive, and insulting. They take pictures of women entering clinics, and yell things at them like "your baby will go to hell."

Yeah. Other things too, But that's enough.

Grr. I can't believe I wrote on a movie. Been wanting to get this off my chest for some time now, though.

As a kinda side, Palin's "Triggate" bring attention back to white teen mommas. That poor daughter, to be outed and paraded to a national audience. Yet another big score for abstinence-only education! Oh, wait -- you still believe it works? Well, actually, recent studies add to the findings clearly showing that those who go through a-o not only have the same rates of sexual activity as their peers, but that they are LESS likely to use contraception then other non a-o youth, opening them up to more STDs and pregnancies. Because of this, all youth are suffering from the lack of information we are giving kids about their own sexuality. However, it seems girls are getting the shortest and sharpest shrift. Here's some info. Here's some more.

Wonder how the chorus at the RNC would be now if Obama said he had a pregnant teen daughter?

Also, arresting journalists at the RNC on Labor Day -- Amy Goodman and producers included? Really? What the hell!

/pissy irkish rant