Lately I've become increasingly irritated with Television. Last summer there was a new show coming on a channel dedicated to family stuff about teen pregnancy. My university major was Family Science, so I was interested to see where this show would go. I watched it here and there, but it wasn't entertaining for me. Maybe it's entertaining to teens... Anyways, I tuned in here and there to see what the "Family Channel" was in a sense teaching about teen pregnancy. The main character (who is pregnant from a one night stand...or maybe she's had her baby by now) goes from deciding to give up her baby for adoption, to choosing a same gender family to adopt the baby, to deciding to keep it herself. I was thoroughly irritated by a line delivered by the younger sister of the main character.
"You love your baby enough to take care of him before he is born, but not enough to take care of him after?"
'What!' I thought. Clearly these people don't understand adoption. Adoption is one of the most selfless acts I know of. It's not about not wanting to deal with something, it's about realizing what is best for a child. I looked on the website for that channel and saw comments by a bunch of kids talking about how lots of 15-year-olds are responsible and mature enough to raise a child. Wow. These are some of the "values" being taught on television. Nice. The show also shows all these young high school kids (freshman and sophomores) sleeping with each other and so forth. There's even a super religious girl in the bunch who (at the beginning of the show) vowed to wait until marriage who is now on birth control. The show irritates me so much because it's a channel for families, and I feel like the media is gift wrapping all these things and saying "Here. These are the things that are right and normal, and be sure that your children know and accept these things."
Things like this bring the scripture Isaiah 5:20 to mind....very forcefully.
For similar reasons I've decided to give up watching 2 of the 3 shows I watch somewhat regularly (Bye Grey's and Private Practice). I just cannot take the sleeping around and non-existent values anymore. I wouldn't want my children watching those shows or ever thinking the things that take place among the characters are appropriate. They aren't. An interesting story littered with trash is trash. Plain and simple. I can say that my life is no better by watching them. I can say that it probably will be better by avoiding them. So alas, this is goodbye.
6 comments:
should take up the office. no teen pregnancy there! nothing but dumb humor!
Good for you! I won't watch Grey's anatomy anymore either (never did watch private practice). The last few times I've seen it have made me so sick that I can't even stand it! It really is a sign of the times, isn't it? I wonder what kind of crap will be on t.v. when our girls are teenagers. Scary!
Waita be strong! And I totally agree on the whole adoption issue. Before my mom was LDS she was pregnant at 16 and gave her baby to a loving family, and the baby grew up to be a lovely woman who has since found us at age 24 and is now part of both families! Adoption does work!
Good for you! I really don't watch tv anymore specifically for those reasons and all the stupid commercials. We mainly watch Clifford the Big Red Dog and some local news. If you are looking for a clean (at least I remember it being so) medical type show, I would recommend E.R.
I was totally watching this show too and had the exact same feelings. I started watching it because of Molly Ringwald, but have decided it doesn't portray family values at all and is actually encouraging teenage intercourse. I wish more people felt like you did too. After the season finale the other night I couldn't help but think to myself what a horrible waste of my time.
It's so nice to know there are so many others who feel the same way! I'm just getting so irritated with mainstream media. Who are they to tell us what our values should be. I usually restrict M's tv viewing to disney videos, Clifford, Sesame Street, or Curious George...whatever we manage to catch. But even with Disney I'm not always comfortable with the way they talk to one another. For instance, have you ever noticed how much yelling goes on in the Incredibles?
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