Pop Culture Confessional is a weekly column where our writers can divulge and indulge in their most deeply embarrassing cultural passion — and then tell you why it actually rocks. Everyone has a few dirty little secrets. Only the truth shall set us free.
Winter break bears unexpected discoveries, and occasionally babies — such as the dramatic world of Teen Mom, MTV’s spin-off of the controversial show Sixteen and Pregnant. Sometime between Christmas and New Year’s Eve, I chanced upon this gem of television, which chronicles the lives of four teenage mothers: Maci Bookout, Amber Portwood, Catelynn Lowell and Farrah Abraham.
Forget Bristol Palin and Jamie Lynn Spears. Unlike their celebrity teen mom counterparts, these girls don’t have access to strategic PR by the McCain-Palin campaign or that gratuitous Zoey 101 salary that bought Bristol and Jamie Lynn all those packs of diapers. These girls have far fewer resources — they grapple with real problems like paying the bills, balancing childcare and schoolwork and dealing with douchebag baby daddies who don’t think to contribute to the welfare of the living, screaming, eating and pooping infant their sperm has unwittingly produced.
Each episode had me sniffling at two in the morning, and not without pity or even disgust at times. It made me outright angry that the parents of Catelynn, a seventeen-year-old high school senior from Michigan, disapproved of her decision to give up her baby for adoption. “She made the right decision, Butch!” I found myself screaming at Catelynn’s mullet-tastic stepfather. “She can’t have a kid! She’s just a kid!”
I never thought a reality show would encourage meaningful thought and reflection on my part. As new father Ryan skirted his responsibilities by clubbing all night and fiancé Maci waited at home with baby Bentley in tow, I thought about how easily the pregnancy could have been prevented. During Sixteen and Pregnant, the couple from Chattanooga, Tennessee attributed the pregnancy to “hokey-pokey,” but whether it’s due to the lack of effective sex education or just plain carelessness, these girls have ended up with burdens they can’t just unload. A college education, dating and independence are among the many things they’ve had to give up in order to be mothers, although some of them still struggle to keep intact the “normal teenage life” that they once took for granted. Farrah’s search for a new man (since the baby daddy is “out of the picture”) transforms her parents into unwilling babysitters most nights of the week. Amber juggles her GED classes around the schedules of baby Leah and her fiancé Gary. And inevitably, drama ensues as various motives conflict and daily itineraries clash.
Over the years, I’ve remained consistently pro-choice in my attitudes on abortion, and because of this I was initially extremely wary of the show. Yet whatever my social and political beliefs are, I’ve grown attached to these girls and sympathetic to their plight. To me, it seems they are just trying to make the best of a less-than-stellar situation, and I can honestly say that I want them to be able to work things out.
To those of you who argue that the show shamelessly exploits teens and even babies (!) of a certain socioeconomic status… well, I can’t argue much on that point. But no one can deny that the show encompasses several key elements that enable its overall success. Mix unpredictable teenage hormones, misguided parental intervention and a cute gurgling baby every now and then, and what do we have? A show that kept me glued to my laptop screen until the wee hours of the morning — hours I would have spent with old high school friends and family. A bit pathetic? Maybe. Do I regret it? Not for a moment.