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The Representation of Teenage Pregnancy in American Visual Culture on the Example of 16 and Pregnant and Teen Mom Researcher: Main Supervisor: Anna B. Bedyniak dr Grayna Zygadło (Student Number: 3645762) (University of Łód) Support Supervisor: Iris van der Tuin PhD (Utrecht University) 101 The Representation of Teenage Pregnancy in American Visual Culture on the Example of 16 and Pregnant and Teen Mom Researcher: Main Supervisor: Anna B. Bedyniak dr Grayna Zygadło (University of Łód) Support Supervisor: Iris van der Tuin PhD (Utrecht University) 101 Uniwersytet Łódzki Wydział Studiów Midzynarodowych i Politologicznych International Gender Studies The Representation of Teenage Pregnancy in American Visual Culture on the Example of 16 and Pregnant and Teen Mom. Reprezentacje nastoletnich kobiet w cizy w amerykaskiej kulturze wizualnej na podstawie serialu Licealne Cie i Nastoletnie Matki. Anna Bedyniak Nr albumu: 270726 Praca napisana pod kierunkiem dr Grayny Zygadło. Łód 2010 (załcznik 1/appendix 1) Łód, data/date 15. 06. 2011 r. Imi i nazwisko/First name(s) and surname: Anna Barbara Bedyniak Nr albumu/Student identification number: 270726 Kierunek/Main field of study: Stosunki Midzynarodowe/International Relations Specjalno/Field of specialization: International Gender Studies Wydział Studiów Midzynarodowych i Politologicznych/ /Faculty of International and Political Studies Uniwersytet Łódzki/University of Łód (wesja polska/Polish version) Owiadczenie Owiadczam, e złoona przeze mnie praca magisterska, koczca studia pt.: “Reprezentacje nastoletnich kobiet w cizy w amerykaskiej kulturze wizualnej na podstawie serialu Licealne Cie i Nastoletnie Matki”, jest moim samodzielnym opracowaniem. Oznacza to, e nie zlecałem/am opracowania rozprawy lub jej czci innym osobom, ani nie odpisywałem/am tej rozprawy lub jej czci z prac innych osób. (wesja angielska/English version) Declaration I hereby declare that my Master’s thesis submitted upon completion of the studies, entitled “The representation of Teenage Pregnancy in American Visual Culture on the Example of 16 and Pregnant and Teen Mom” is my own work written unaided. This means that I have not had it or any of its parts written by a third party, and I have not copied it or any of its parts from anyone else’s work. ………………………………………… (podpis/signature) (załcznik 2/appendix 2) Łód, data/date 15.06.2011 r. Imi i nazwisko/First name(s) and surname: Anna Barbara Bedyniak Nr albumu/Student identification number: 270726 Kierunek/Main field of study: Stosunki Midzynarodowe/ International Relations Specjalno/Field of specialisation: International Gender Studies Wydział Studiów Midzynarodowych i Politologicznych/ /Faculty of International and Political Studies Uniwersytet Łódzki/University of Łód (wesja polska/Polish version) Owiadczenie Wyraam zgod na udostpnienie mojej pracy magisterskiej pt.: “Reprezentacje nastoletnich kobiet w cizy w amerykaskiej kulturze wizualnej na podstawie serialu Licealne Cie i Nastoletnie Matki”. (wesja angielska/English version) Declaration I hereby grant consent that my Master’s thesis entitled “The representation of Teenage Pregnancy in American Visual Culture on the Example of 16 and Pregnant and Teen Mom” be made available1. ……………………………………… (podpis/signature) 1 For consultations in the faculty library. (załcznik 3/appendix 3) Łód, data/date 15.06.2011 r. Imi i nazwisko/First name(s) and surname: Anna Bedyniak Nr albumu/Student identification number: 270726 Kierunek/Main field of study: Stosunki Midzynarodowe/ International Relations Specjalno/Field of specialisation: International Gender Studies Wydział Studiów Midzynarodowych i Politologicznych/ /Faculty of International and Political Studies Uniwersytet Łódzki/University of Łód (wesja polska/Polish version) Owiadczenie Zawiadczam o zgodnoci zawartoci danych na noniku elektronicznym z przedstawionym wydrukiem pracy magisterskiej. (wesja angielska/English version) Declaration I hereby declare that the digital version of my Master’s thesis is an unaltered copy of the printed version. ……………………………………… (podpis/signature) (załcznik 4/appendix 4) Łód, date/date 15. 06. 2011 r. Imi i nazwisko promotora/Name of the supervisor: dr Grayna Zygadło (wesja polska/Polish version) Owiadczenie Owiadczam, e złoona przez Pani Ann Bedyniak praca magisterska, koczca studia pt.: “Reprezentacje nastoletnich kobiet w cizy w amerykaskiej kulturze wizualnej na podstawie serialu Licealne Cie i Nastoletnie Matki” spełnia wymagania kierunkowe dotyczce prac oraz egzaminów magisterskich na Wydziale Studiów Midzynarodowych i Politologicznych Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego i została przeze mnie przyjta jako praca zaliczajca seminarium magisterskie. (wesja angielska/English version) Declaration I hereby declare that the master’s thesis submitted by Ms Anna Bedyniak upon completion of the studies, entitled: “The representation of Teenage Pregnancy in American Visual Culture on the Example of 16 and Pregnant and Teen Mom” abides by the official requirements in regard to Master’s theses and exams established by the Faculty of International and Political Studies, University of Łód, and has been accepted by me as an assignment for the Master’s seminar. ………………………………………… (podpis promotora/supervisor’s signature) Table of Contents Introduction . 6 Chapter 1: Teenage pregnancy- facts, numbers and research 1.1 Historical background . 8 1.2 Data and statistics . 11 1.3 The reasons for high teen pregnancy rates . 17 1.4 The possible effects of teen pregnancy . 21 1.5 Education and prevention . 22 Chapter 2: Theoretical background 2.1 Teen Mom and 16 and Pregnant . 26 2.1 Visual and Popular Culture . 29 2.2 Representation of women . 31 2.3 Pain, body and motherhood . 39 2.4 The medicalization of sexuality . 47 2.5 The Transparent Body . 53 Chapter 3: Pain, motherhood and experience in 16 and Pregnant and Teen Mom 3.1 Transition to motherhood . 60 3.2 Painful relations with other people . 66 3.3 The gaze, objectification and stereotypes . 70 3.3 Representation of medical discourse . 71 3.4 Educational value . 75 Conclusion . 77 Bibliography . 79 Summary in Polish . 86 Introduction Visual culture is a broad field of studies embracing aspects of cultural studies, philosophy, anthropology and communication studies. It recognizes that the contemporary culture is built on various images which are not only presented as print images or graphic design, but also transmitted by television, Internet, different display technologies, photography and architecture. Those images construct and represent a system of meanings, various phenomena and trends. The fact that visual culture is an umbrella term for both “high” and “low” forms of culture enables to analyze within its theories and frameworks products of contemporary pop culture such as for instance MTV programs or Cosmopolitan magazine, as well as some more elaborate art forms. The specifics of certain visual representations within visual culture often vary depending on the context they appear in - country, audience to whom they are addressed and many other factors. However, often the representations of the same phenomena are identical regardless of the context, for instance, the MTV series Teen Mom and 16 and Pregnant. Although it is an American produced reality show and all the participants are young Americans these programs were broadcast in many other countries including Poland. The decision to screen it in other countries than the United States proves that teen pregnancy is seen as an important problem of today’s adolescents in general. MTV is one of the icons of pop culture. In the past it used to be only a music television. Nowadays its profile has slightly changed and next to the latest hits there are reality shows and series targeting young audience. It is striking that this type of entertainment television channel decided to create a controversial program on hard issue of teenage pregnancy. The problem of teenage pregnancy should not be seen as a problem of a single unit, but rather an international issue. An influential NGO, Save The Children, estimates that currently there are around 450 million teenagers (aged 15-19) of which 13 million gave birth to babies (Kost, Henshaw, Carling 2010). This phenomena is clearly a nuisance for young women, unprepared for motherhood, their families and governments. Also, the issue of teenage pregnancy is of great interest to researchers such as gynaecologists or sociologists. Due to the specific nature of the period of adolescence, the period in which youth experience strong crises of identity and officially become adults, applying interdisciplinary approach to teenage pregnancies is more than necessary. The publications I encountered deal mainly with the psychological aspects of pregnancy, childbirth and bare statistics about births in a given year, but there are hardly any resources on the representations of teenage motherhood in contemporary popular culture. This was the main source of my motivation for writing this thesis. I would like to open a discussion not only on the problem of early and unplanned teenage pregnancies, but also on the representation of this phenomenon in the media. I believe my insights might help to define whether the existing representations are satisfactory and in the future maybe this thesis will contribute to the construction of more objective and fair representations. The aim of this thesis is to analyse the representations of teenage pregnancies in American visual culture using examples of the popular MTV series