After briefly discussing Jamie Lynn Spears' pregnancy in class today, I wondered what had happened to the former child star in the last four years. Someone at Entertainment Weekly must have been thinking the same thing, because this article was published just 3 days ago.
http://popwatch.ew.com/2012/02/03/jamie-lynn-spears-teen-pregnancy-glamour/
Like someone said in lecture on Monday, I, too, was incredibly shocked in 2007 to learn that Jamie Lynn Spears was pregnant at 16. I'll admit I was quick to judge and criticize - thinking that she must have been careless and fame-hungry in the shadow of her sister's global stardom. However, the fact that we haven't seen much of her since then, the statements made by Spears in this article, and the idea of social construction that we talked about in class make me think that perhaps I was misguided and a bit pretentious in my initial critique. Though I do still stand by my opinion that Spears' getting pregnant was a huge blow to Nickelodeon and the young star's pre-teen fans, she makes a valid point in stating, “I’d had one boyfriend. It doesn’t make it perfect or all right. But I was judged for something that probably most everyone does. I was young. I was in love. I was like every other teenager, except I had this last name.”
Jamie, like a large number of teens in the United States, was having sex at 16. However, like we discussed in lecture today, she was judged and criticized for not being able to hide the evidence of her sex life by getting pregnant. In her above statement, Jamie also shines light on another prevalent stereotype of teen pregnancy - that girls who get pregnant at a young age must be promiscuous. For whatever reason, this stereotype still exists in today's society and we are quick to label teen moms as "sluts" who must "get around." Spears' reminds us in this article that this is not always the case. In fact, as we learned in Week 1 readings, a large portion of teen pregnancies occur within the context of committed, monogamous relationships.
Good for her for stepping out of the spotlight to quietly focus on raising her daughter. Still probably won't be rushing to the store to buy her debut album though...
I like the fact that Spears left the all the craziness of Los Angeles and went back to her home in Louisiana. Her taking herself out of the media shows that she didn't get pregnant to get put in the limelight even more, or to do something that her sister hadn't. Spears took responsibility for her actions, which is more than many 16 year olds could or would do. I agree with her when she says that it was a bigger deal because of her last name. Had she been any other teenager no one would have been let down or had as much to say. The fact that she was willing to try again to do something with her life but first tell her side of the story I personally think is impressive. Instead of letting the media tear her down she took the first step and allowed readers to better understand what happened. She clarified that she was not sleeping around, it wasn't something she wanted, but something she now loves and changed her lifestyle for. She is coming out as a new person one the public doesn't know and shouldn't be quick to judge.
ReplyDeleteI was right there with you when the news came out about Spears' pregnancy. The most shocking part of it all was that I didn't hear it on the news or from my friends, but from my younger kid brother, who at the times was 7 years old. That is evidence that being a star on a network for young kids definitely comes with a kind of responsibility that Spears may not have been aware or had forgotten about.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I never looked at her side of the story or realized the circumstances of her situation. And like Spears said, being in a long term relationship with someone she "loved" does not make her actions all right. People are just quick to judge her and make those assumptions without the facts. It is sad that she was criticized by so many people eo didn't even know her because her private life wasn't private at all. But, again, that comes with being a child star.
When Spears was mentioned in class, I too thought to myself, "well I wonder where she has been these past few years, definitely under the radar." I didn't even think that she was taking her own time to raise her daughter, and she made the right choices in trying and basically succeeding in doing that as privately as she possibly could. I find it interesting that her pregnancy was such a big scandal, but no one really bothered to follow up on her until now when publicity is starting on her new album.