Juno: A Modern Day Fairy Tale?
Pregnancy in life and in Hollywood.
While “Juno” lost out to “Sweeney Todd” for the Best Musical or Comedy Golden Globe at last night’s ceremony…er, press conference, the comic tale of a 16 year old who becomes pregnant has had America talking not only about the film’s wit but its unintentional pro-life undertone.
The New York Times ran an opinion piece yesterday exploring Juno’s “fairy tale” message of an unwanted pregnancy with a happy, carefree ending vs. the reality of what this means, physically and psychologically, for women, specifically teenagers.
We reported last week that the majority of teens having sex are doing so safely (click here to read), but young women find themselves in Juno’s situation every day. According to Planned Parenthood, approximately half of the six million women who become pregnant each year did not intend to do so.
The author of the Times’ opinion, Caitlin Flanagan, asks questions that are tough to answer but even tougher to ignore: “Does the full enfranchisement of girls depend on their being sexually liberated? And if it does, can we somehow change or diminish among the very young the trauma of pregnancy, the occasional result of even safe sex?”
What do you think? Click "Post Comment" below.
Discussion
In Juno, i think her parent's reaction to her plight has a lot to do with the "fairy tale" aspect of the movie. It seems that her character has to deal with little to no consequences for her actions. Many times, in "real life", women are faced with a lot more negativity as a result of gettin pregnant at a young age or out of wedlock and the consequences are a lot more substantial.
Knocked Up carries a similar pro-life message even though both directors were just trying to make movies not promote agendas. The Planned Parenthood statistic is really surprising!
