Fiction Meets Fact: Juno and Teen Pregnancy

By Karen Sternheimer

I finally had the chance to see Juno this weekend after practically everyone has told me to go see it. Although I was miffed that I already heard all of the funniest lines on the commercials (but isn’t that always the case these days?), I found it to be a great movie and very different from the typical teen pregnancy morality tale. (Spoiler alert: I reveal some key plot points here, so if you haven’t seen it, go see it, and then come back and read this blog.)

Unlike the after school special genre I grew up on, this pregnant teen is not a “bad girl” or pariah—she is, after all, the character we are encouraged to most identify with. She is not the pregnant teen we have seen on Jerry Springer, Montel, or years ago on Ricki Lake, boldly promiscuous and claiming that she got pregnant on purpose, as the audience boos mercilessly.

Juno instead is everygirl, the girl who feels slightly out of place in high school (who doesn’t?) and finds the whole situation of adolescence a bit absurd. She is wise enough to know she lacks the maturity to be a mother or to make some of the decisions she now must make, but naïve enough to tell the infertile Jennifer Garner character (and potential adoptive mom) that she’s lucky not to be pregnant.

Juno isn’t the happy-go-lucky sexaholic many teens are portrayed as either. When she is offered flavored condoms at an abortion clinic by teen working at the reception desk, a repulsed Juno tells her she’s “kind of off sex now.” 

We see her deal with the judgmental stares of adults and peers at school and with an off-handed insult by a health care worker as she gets her first ultrasound. This film definitely does not make light of the fact that she is sixteen and pregnant, even if it does have its funny moments. Though the funny ads for the movie suggest otherwise, there are as many tears as laughs. Her pain is particularly evident after she gives birth and knows she won’t see the baby again. She weeps uncontrollably as the baby’s father holds her in the hospital.

I was surprised at first that her sort-of love interest, Paulie Bleeker (the father of the baby) isn’t a bigger part of the film. Played by Michael Cera of Superbad and Arrested Development, I thought for sure his great comic timing would be more central to the movie. 

But this is part of the beauty of the film—he’s not pregnant, and his life apparently isn’t affected too much. Juno’s father is obviously angry when he finds out who got his daughter pregnant, but he’s also a little impressed. “I didn’t think he had it in him,” he says of the pale, skinny boy.

When she tells first Paulie, he does ask her “what do we do?” and seems to be supportive (and totally freaked out). But she convinces her parents not to tell his, and as her belly grows she reminds him that she is the one who has to deal with the stares and insults, not him. Juno doesn’t even tell him when she goes into labor because he has a track meet that day. 

In fact, the only time a classmate mentions to Paulie that he heard he is the father of the baby, he seems impressed. The equally scrawny classmate comments that he will stop wearing underwear to improve his sperm count.

The truth is, when teenage girls get pregnant, they are the ones who bear not just the child, but the scorn of those around them and the broader society. Girls are the ones who get called “sluts” or “whores.” The boy fathers might instead be called "players” or “studs." Promiscuity is largely seen as a female stain; but remember that while females have more to lose by getting pregnant, they can’t get themselves pregnant.

In contrast to this movie, most babies born to teen girls are fathered by adult men, so “teen pregnancy” often involves an adult too. Teen girls are highly sexualized by the society (and adults) around them. The modeling industry, for example, relies on barely pubescent girls told to pout for adult (mostly male) photographers and sexy becomes defined as looking as young as possible.

But as Juno reminds us, teens are more than just naïve victims of the culture and society around them. As Janis Prince Inniss blogged about a few months ago, teen pregnancy rates are significantly lower than they were in past decades (despite a small increase in the last year data were available). Abortion rates have declined to their lowest level since 1974, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has found that teens are less likely to be sexually active compared with the 1990s (about 54% of high school students had sex in 1991 compared with 48% in 2005). When they are they are much more likely to use condoms (up from 46% in 1991 to 63% in 2005).

Even so, we have a much higher teen pregnancy rate in the U.S. compared with other industrialized nations (a topic for another blog), and getting pregnant at sixteen isn’t a great idea. Juno shows us why without being too preachy or requiring the girl to constantly suffer for her mistake. 

Comments

[Doug]

Why is our biology in such conflict with culture? Aren't teenagers designed and intended by nature to have sex? Don't various strategies of suppression result in aberration? I think I read somewhere that in some South Pacific cultures an older woman teaches a young man how to have sex. For the male this seems like a good idea. However, are there any cultures where there is institutional instruction on healthy sex for females? Is it true that teenage girls more often "fall in love" while teenage boys fall in lust? Is the "love" merely infatuation driven by hormones, or is there any real component to it. How does a culture teach healthy strategies if starting from a baseline where all the parents are neurotic?

[Karen]

So many good points, Doug! On the one hand we blame biology for teens who are sexually active (but don't use this same explanation for adults, interestingly). I'm not aware of the cross-cultural research on sex and females enough to say whether any culture has a training ritual for girls (but an anthropologist out there might....)

Karen

[reporter]

we have a required class at our school that may help deter teen pregnancey. go to http://voice.paly.net/view_story.php?id=6403 to read about it

[Webcam girl]

It's not easy to be a teen girl and fall in love....

[Kristen]

I thought this article had many good points. It was very true and many teenagers could relate to it. Juno wasn't the typical high school girl who is considered a "slut" and gets pregnant, she was more of a loner and wasn't hooking up with a lot of guys in high school. I thought Juno was a really good movie and I really enjoyed it. It was interesting to watch because Juno wasn't the typical high school cheerleader, she was different, and I really liked that.

I found the article to be very true and I liked the point made about that teenagers are more than just naive victims of our culture and society, they are real people who can make decisions for themselves. Another good point in the article is how teenage girls are the ones who bear the child and go through all the negative views society will give them for being pregnant so young. Juno shows us that the teenage girl is the one suffering from her mistake, not the boy. Teenage boys are the ones who are called the "players," and aren't looked down upon like teenage girls. I really enjoyed this article and found it very interesting and true.

[Rocio]

I found this article to have many good points. Juno is not the average popular girl, but the opposite. When she gets pregnant during high school she takes every body for a surprise. Juno seems to act like the teenager that she is, but seems to consider the future of others. By putting the baby for adoption to women you desire to be a mother more than any thing, but could not have children of her own. Juno had supporting parents to help her during her pregnancy.

I can relate to Juno in the fact that I also got pregnant my junior year of high school as the movie had funny moments and sad moments is what comes with any pregnancy. I agree with the article when teen ages girls get pregnant there consider “sluts” or “whores” to most people. I think that our society sees so low expectation of teen age mothers as my self and categorize as with out knowing who we really are. I also agree with the fact that when guys sleep around with girls they are called “players” or “studs”. The girls are usually the ones that have to nurture the child and provide for the child and men can be in the children’s life but can walk away any time they want.

The movie Juno is a good movie because it is a realistic situation girls getting pregnant in high school, however the movie does not really go into detail what harsh words and looks come with being a teen parent. I seem to believe that there is no right age to have a child as Juno she was mature when it came with the decisions she took when it came to the baby. This article has very true facts that pregnant teens are not to be look as out of control teens.

[Courtney]

Juno is an inspiring movie about an identity confused girl who gets pregnant and learns who she is throughout the story line. A lot of people were mad about the movie at first, telling teenagers it was ok to have sex and become pregnant. That isn’t the message of the movie at all. As the article explains Juno comes off as a sarcastic naïve character yet grows into a more mature image when she is held responsible for her baby.
Not only did the article touch base on her maturity level but also how she isn’t a “slut” as most teenage mothers would be called. I agree with the article when it says that society sees those mothers as carefree, just sleeping around with another “player”. But Juno and Paulie Bleeker change those images. The movie took two out of place teenagers and put them in the same situation as say the “sluts” and turned the whole theory around. Through the movie, Juno shows us that there is more to the teenager than just a naïve victim of culture, that they have emotions and concerns for how they deal with the pregnancy.
The statistics at the end of the blog opened my eyes to how teenagers really are becoming more aware of real life situations. The 17% increase of teenagers using condoms is an awareness of sex that teenagers are listening and Juno was another way of looking at the situation to help teenagers see the side affects of having sex.

[baekgoeun]

I absolutely agree with this article. People don’t think that teenager girls get pregnant is okay. We know that teenagers’ pregnancy have happened accidently, but the truth is that the responsibility of the pregnancy is all for only girls. The boys are actually not affected by having a baby because they are physically free, and also the girls who are pregnant are more likely to be named badly than boys are. For me, because of the atmosphere of society, the pregnant teenager girls suffer a lot from people who think the teen girls are delinquent; moreover, the society make people blame the teen girls. It’s mores among norms. There are core values of this society which is not having a baby when they are illegal age to get pregnant. For instance, at schools, they will be called “slut” or “whore” when the teen girls get pregnant. At home, the families are going to blame them because they were disappointed. The parents’ hope is that their children are not going to be out of norms and control. All social punishment is blaming the pregnant girls.
However, the movie is unrealistic because there are several reasons. The Juno’s family is not really like normal families. Her family have conciliatory attitude when they know their daughter get pregnant. Juno wasn’t also normal girls who are bad and out of control. She had her own opinion, and her boyfriend was also cooperative to solve out this situation. In the movie, the society which always has reaction from social problems is not same with real society. For me, the article is realistic explanation, but the movie, Juno, is out of real society.

[Boracay Beach Resort]

Watched the movie and liked how she handles her pregnancy in spite of the fact that she is only a teen.

[SEO Los Angeles]

What can I say I have watched the film and loved the story. All I can say is that you must continue with pregnancy even if you are not yet an adult because it is a gift from God.

[Boracay Hotel Package]

She really impressed me with how she survived each struggle she faced until her baby was born.

[3 weeks pregnant]

i have my own story ..my boyfriend is only young. No wonder he wasn’t ready to settle down even though I was pregnant.

[los angeles seo]

juno was a cool movie. i was dragged to it...but ended up digging it.

[Discount Furniture Burbank]

I loved this movie. I really appreciated how her parents reacted to her telling them that she is pregnant (for those that don't know or remember they say "ok, lets get you healthy than"). I wish that more parent would react this way. Being angry would not turn back time or change the circumstances.

[Therapist New York]

I enjoyed this movie as well. I thought that it approached a tough subject with compassion and humor and hopefully it got the message out there to some girls that teenage pregnancy is hard and if you're sexually active you should be safe.

[Teresa Evans]

In our society teen girls really experience inequality in terms of dignity. If a young girl get pregnant, she will expect bad comment from the people towards her situation, like what was said earlier in this blog. Many people will judge her that she's a whore, because for them it's not proper for girls to get pregnant at early age. Instead of judging them, maybe we should guide our teens into the right path for them to have a better life.