Notice how everyone is talking about the possibility of a newly pregnant 16 year old giving up her baby to her mother with a kind of creepy glee? The idea that pregnant Jamie Lynn Spears, sister of another case study in motherhood moralising is “reluctantly agreeing that giving up the baby is the right thing to do” [my emphasis] isn’t ringing alarm bells for us. In fact, we’re all a-ok with that kind of decision making because it really is for the best that this baby not be raised by a teenage mother, even one with family support and lots of cash besides. Apparently Jamie Lynn should try to put this whole silly mistake behind her and move on with her life, because teenagers don’t get attached to their babies and anyway, it is All For The Best. “Jamie Lynn will be back at work and trying to remind people of her talent and not that she is an unwed teenage mother”. This thinking is all sooooo retrograde, you’d think we still dashed pregnant teenagers off to homes for the unwed mother. But it is permanently open season for teenage pregnancy. The idea that being pregnant is tragic or a sign of stupidity and that having sex is shameful and disappointing; there is a lot you can’t say in polite company these days about your bigoted views on women’s sexuality unless you’re talking about a teenage mother.
There is always the possibility that Jamie Lynn Spears really has made a well-informed decision to give up her child to her mother when it is born (or even that the whole rumour is fabricated). But with all this talk of her pregnancy as a moral scandal threatening the purity of her young fans, and the thrill of pondering whether being the kind of girl who gets herself pregnant she might also be the kind of girl to be sleeping around (ie. who is the father-to-be of her baby) – it is disturbing to think how disempowered she might be feeling about her pregnancy and, to what degree she is responding to our intense pressure on her to do the 1950s thing.
Ariel Gore, well-known motherhood writer and previous young mother herself’, rolls her eyes thoughtfully at the media response to Jamie Lynn Spears’ pregnancy in “congratulations, Jamie Lynn”
And, you know, even if you’ve got a hundred reasons why teen parenting isn’t a good idea—don’t you think it’s rude to share your opinions with expecting moms?
The decks are stacked against teen parents. We all know that. So why not unstack the decks instead of making everyone feel bad on top of it all?
I guess I just wanted to remind everyone that when you hear that someone is pregnant, no matter her age, marital status, sexual orientation, or financial situation, the correct response is:
CONGRATULATIONS.
blue milk 
I don’t understand why she just didn’t get an abortion. It could be done “quietly” enough, and no one would ever have to know.
Even if she does give the baby to her mother, by the time it’s old enough to read (or perhaps even sooner), it’ll know exactly what happened — and I wouldn’t think that would be the best recipe for a happy, healthy childhood (not that having Britney as an aunt/sister is much help, either).
And, uh, no, I don’t think “congratulations” is always the correct response. Perhaps the polite response, but not the “correct” one.
Being a cynic when it comes to celebrity spin-doctoring there is undoubtedly pressure on her to give up the baby by the people who control her career – her managers and agents, and others who disguise their self-interest by their claims that it was all her choice. I’m not denying the possibility that she made the decision on her own too, but I bet there are many pissed off people out there whose incomes were depending on her maintenance of a chaste, wholesome image. She was positioned as the complete opposite of her sister (but, remember Britney marketing herself as a a virgin?) All this marketing of a wholesome image is an attempt to gain large segments of the lucrative Christian teen market.
Having an abortion would be far more scandalous than an unwed teen keeping the baby, especially with the potential loss of her Christian fans. Giving up the baby rather than having an abortion means that she will be seen as a good example to teens everywhere (except for the sex bit!) The entire coverage of this AND Britney sickens me.
This talk about teenage mums also reminds me of the story on ABC or SBS last year about a high school in a lower socio-economic area of Sydney that set up a program to help young school-age women who became pregnant and had children finish their HSCs (can’t remember the title of it). It was tough to watch without judging their choice to have a child at such a young age, but the principal was respectful and supportive towards these young women and I ended up admiring their guts and tenacity. Also an antidote to the crap above.
It’s not just being polite to say ‘congratulations’, it’s supportive, it’s helping to make the best of it, to make it work out, rather than compounding the problem. 16 year olds become mothers, in most cultures, at most times in history, this is unremarkable. In our culture everyone is up in arms and thinks they need to tell the young woman in question that she’s stupid and her life is over. Instead of helping out, making sure she gets decent medical care, and talking honestly to her about the challenges of motherhood (for all of us, however old we are) respectfully, and about all the other things she might want to do in her life, and how she might still do them.
Kate beat me to it.
There is absolutely no reason why our society can’t be constructed in a way that supports mothers whether they’re 16 or 45. There’s nothing super special about formal education that it can only take place between the ages of 5 and 21, nothing special about career establishment that it should only be available to young childless women.
If anything, younger women are better equipped physiologically to give birth and to run around after young children; and they’re more likely to have grandparents who can be actively involved. Which is not at all to say that women shouldn’t bear children when they’re older – just that the current trumped-up disdain for young motherhood has no rational basis.
But panty-sniffing scolds just loooooove telling pregnant women that they’ve ruined their own lives by getting themselves pregnant, and they revel in the artificially restricted opportunities available to young mothers – because they’re all about the punishment and the shame.
I’d think a possible message young viewers and fans will get here is that irresponsible sex, underage pregnancy, no problem! Mommy will just take the baby and I can still be a Disney star.
I agree, there doesn’t seem to be enough support for a young mother to learn from her experience and possibly even, oh I don’t know, grow?
i think its sad that this kid is being made into the pin up girl for what young american teens should do when they get accidentally pregnant, and there is no daddy and no marriage. I appalled that she’s being asked to make any decision at all at this stage,let alone one that is being announced to a waiting world. Does she get to change her mind?
I find this fundamentalist idea that a mother’s real job is to keep a man to support her really depressing… and even more depressing is the idea that women who get pregnant at the ‘wrong’ time should have to pay for it in some way – either by forcing them to continue with a pregnnacy they don’t want, or by making it too hard for them to parent and support a child.
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