MiniCap: 16 and Pregnant

Recaps

By CathodeTube | Wednesday, April 4, 2012 | 1:35 am | 9 Comments
Tagged: , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in: 16 and Pregnant, MiniCaps, MTV, Recaps

Oh, man, tonight’s ep made me sad. And it’s not even the dead boyfriend ep. It’s just a very straightforward family who is fairly regretful about the baby. Briana graduated high school early, just in time to get pregnant. Her sister, Brittany, got knocked up around the same time but decided to have an abortion. That’s not really even the sad part.

What? All I did was ask the girl who just had an abortion to come look at my sonogram.

Their mother, Roxanne, is both a superwoman and a taskmistress, and I love her. She is the rock of the family and a dedicated on-the-spot helper with the baby. The baby is named Nova, and Briana’s relationship with BD Devoin is a no-go. He’s like a super-asshole, a proud loser who sits there and texts when people are speaking to him about serious life issues. It must have taken a serious effort on Roxanne’s part not to smack him right in the face, repeatedly.

You say bitchy, Brittany says practical.

And no bare baby feet to make everything ok for a second, unless I missed them. Not even any cute socks. After Nova’s born, Briana pretty much cries nonstop. Not a bitchy princess cry, more of a Holy crap, what have I done? cry. She’s simultaneously trying to process the reality of having to take care of this baby for the next 18 years and the setting-in fact that Devoin is pretty much out of the picture forever. Not even a courtesy call here and there to drop off some buttwipes. So there’s the grieving of the young love, compounded by something much more real and permanent. At one point, Briana admits, not in so many words, right over the baby’s tiny adorable head, that if she had it to do over again, she’d get an abortion.

This won’t be the first or last time I’ll say this, but the people who say this show glamorizes young motherhood just haven’t devoted a significant amount of time (if any) to actually watching it.

CathodeTube

CathodeTube has wanted to be a recapper ever since she read the MightyBigTV interview with Sars and James Van Der Beek. She lives in Chicago with her husband and baby son, and adores hip-hop, cop shows, competitive reality TV, and all foods involving melted cheese. She used to copyedit made-up blogs for the "reputation management" of people who got themselves on The Dirty or Mugshots.com. Turns out google-bombing doesn't work anymore, so now she writes product copy, is much happier, and still wears stretchy pants at all times.

9 Comments

  1. 1
    JudgyWudgy
    Posted April 4, 2012 at 10:16 am

    The only ones that realize this show doesn’t glamorize pregnancy are the ones with enough sense not to get knocked up as a teenager.

    Unfortunately, MTV has compounded this show with Teen Mom and it’s a very real scenario that nonsensical girls are purposely getting pregnant in order to secure their boob job and place in line as the next Maci or Farrah without realizing how slim those chances are.

  2. 2
    SuburBint
    Posted April 4, 2012 at 12:31 pm

    Agree. I don’t think it glamorizes pregnancy per se, but it has contributed to a culture in which making extraordinarily poor decisions = becoming a household (or at least grocery store line tabloid headline) name. The show is tragic much of the time when watching it from an adult perspective, but I can totally see how teenagers who already lack good impulse control and the ability to reasonably predict long-term outcomes of their actions would view the show and come away with the idea that having a baby at 16 isn’t really such a big deal after all.

  3. 3
    Gypsy Gypsy
    Posted April 4, 2012 at 1:09 pm

    I don’t watch this show but I have to comment. I don’t watch it b/c I think it’s doing EXACTLY what you are all eluding to and I refuse to support it. These kids are developing their own reality star niche. I’m sure there are plenty of teens who think. ” Maybe if I get prego I can get on MTV too! Then I don’t have to wait to be old enough for the Bad Girls Club or the Jersey Shore”….or some ridiculousness like that.

    I totally agree SuperB!

    End rant. :-)

  4. 4
    labowner
    Posted April 4, 2012 at 1:13 pm

    This show just reaffirms my – everyone one on birth control until you are 21. Then you can fuck up your life on your dime. No governmental assistance.

  5. 5
    Gypsy Gypsy
    Posted April 4, 2012 at 1:18 pm

    ^^^^^Rush might take issue with your comment labowner, LOL!

  6. 6
    ash1
    Posted April 4, 2012 at 6:37 pm

    This was the best and most honest episode. I r. I’d type more, but I can’t even see my comment…what is up with this site????

  7. 7
    Leita
    Posted April 5, 2012 at 5:46 pm

    I disagree with the above comments – watching 16 and Pregnant is the best birth control ever, because knowing is half the battle and the moar you know, you know. Watching the show every week scared me shitless and I fully credit it with creating my fear of becoming a young mother (even becoming a mother at 23 or 24 sounds like hell to me). You bet I bought the 40 count box of condoms and used them everytime.

  8. 8
    chaosbutterfly
    Posted April 5, 2012 at 11:51 pm

    AMEN
    I love babies to death…every time someone I know has a baby, I am all up in their house, sitting with the baby, feeding the baby, playing with the baby, sleeping over so I can help with the baby at night…..I am baby woman.

    But watching 16 and Pregnant makes me want to rip out my lady parts and burn them in a fire. Especially after episodes like this.

  9. 9
    JudgyWudgy JudgyWudgy
    Posted April 8, 2012 at 4:00 pm

    Sigh. I am assuming you are both adults, not teenagers who don’t want to be reality show stars. That was the essence of my comment.

Post a Comment

Your email is never published nor shared. Required fields are marked *

*
*

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>

Human Verification: In order to verify that you are a human and not a spam bot, please enter the answer into the following box below based on the instructions contained in the graphic.