There is this pervasive shaming and stigmatization of young parenthood disguised as “teen pregnancy prevention”. It is so normalized by the corporate media that many don’t question the depravity of shaming young parents and few find it disturbing. But it is so very disturbing. From MTV’s Teen Mom to the Candies Foundations and United Ways offensive and and misinformed “teen pregnancy prevention” ads.
What is the purpose of stigmatizing young parenthood and shaming young parents? What is the purpose of drilling into girls that the worst thing they can do is have a baby young?
So that when a teenage young woman gets pregnant she is so filled with feelings of failure and shame because she is sentencing her baby and herself to a horrible life that she contacts a Crisis Pregnancy Center (CPC) who then confirm all her fears and add a few more before assigning her an adoption counselor who tells her what a brave selfless decision she is making as her stomach aches for her newborn and she ends up pumping milk for her child now in the care of strangers.
Recently, under it’s “Good News” section, Huffington Post ran a congratulatory story about a teenage mother who pumped gallons and gallons of milk for her baby who was being raised by strangers. It is curious that this is the image of teenage mothers that the corporate media portrays positively: a young mother pumping milk for her baby that she is aching for.
What is the message that this sends? That teen mothers are only acceptable are only worthy of praise when they are doing the “best” for their babies and allowing them to have “adult” parents.
There are never news stories about teen mothers lovingly caring for their children even though this is the honest reflection of the vast majority of young mothers.
“Teen pregnancy prevention” papers over the real problems that make life a challenge for families young and old. Capitalism+White-Supremacy+Misogyny. The huge intertwined ball of systemic oppression whose existence is a constant attack on working-class families of color all over the globe.
How about fighting for rent control so that teen mothers have access to truly affordable housing?
How about fighting for a real living wage so that teen mothers don’t have to work two jobs to care for their children?
How about fighting to end the gender pay gap that has women of color earning less than white men, white women, and men of color?
How about fighting to provide a real safety net for women with abusive partners so they can leave the relationship without making themselves and their children more vulnerable?
How about dismantling the white supremacist classist educational system that suspends and expels working-class children of color at outrageous rates starting in preschool.
How about dismantling the school to prison pipeline that targets working-class children of color for consumption.
How about dismantling the prison industrial complex that profits from tearing Black and Brown families apart.
How about working to create a world that is hospitable to young families…to all families.
A child is not the problem. A young mother is not the problem. A young family is not the problem.
truthoutadoptioncollective 
These are all such incredibly important points. In a society that vilifies and demonizes teen parents, when will they realize that all that energy spent harming us could have been used towards creating a more supportive environment?
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Exactly!! Support all mothers, help them create viable families and raise their children.
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Reblogged this on The Life Of Von and commented:
Supporting young mothers.
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Yes Yes Yes
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