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“Teen Mom” stars wish they had been cuddling

Fri, 06 May 2011 15:34:00 +0000

The stars of MTV's "Teen Mom" have filmed a PSA about safe sex and how they wished they had waited. "I wish we would have cuddled" more than one of them says, in a commercial airing on the network for Mother's Day.

Well, hey, at least MTV is being more realistic than the abstinence-only message pushed by teen mom Bristol Palin.

It's strange, though. None of these moms – who are really only known to us because they are famous for having children at such a young age – say that they are happy with their decision. Of course that kind of message (Amber Portwood is glad she had a kid in high school!) wouldn't be likely to get very far, especially since MTV has positioned the show as more of a cautionary tale than a reality star haven. Plus, this is still a public service announcement after all, not a bad-idea machine.

MTV “Teen Mom” star faces domestic battery charges

Tue, 28 Dec 2010 14:38:00 +0000

Prosecutors in central Indiana have filed felony domestic battery and child neglect charges against a star of the MTV reality show "Teen Mom."

Anderson police began investigating 20-year-old Amber Portwood after a September episode showed her slapping, choking and kicking the 24-year-old father of her daughter.

Portwood was arrested Monday and jailed under a 24-hour hold until Tuesday afternoon.

Detective Mitch Carroll tells The Herald Bulletin that the child neglect charges stem from Portwood's then-1-year-old daughter being present during two filmed instances of domestic violence.

The Associated Press left a telephone message seeking comment Tuesday at the office of Portwood's attorney Robert Schembs.

Anne Houseworth of the Indiana Department of Child Services said dozens of viewers called the state's child abuse hotline to report Portwood's outbursts.

America’s new bad mom

Thu, 16 Dec 2010 00:55:00 +0000

Britney Spears has been dethroned, ya'll. It seems the tabloids have handed the "bad mom" crown over to Amber Portwood of MTV's "Teen Mom." There's the 20-year-old on the cover of this week's In Touch alongside the all-caps headline, "She's pregnant!" Yes, she is rumored to be carrying her second child, just weeks after her first child was made a ward of the state. Also, she allegedly has no clue who the dad is. The cover teases that she's "unfazed about losing daughter Leah," has "slept with 8 guys in 2 months" and admits to being a "sex addict."

Amber isn't a stranger to negative press: She was castigated for yelling at her daughter and roughly yanking her up by the arms on the show. Then followed the felony domestic violence charges for punching, slapping, kicking and choking the father of her daughter, and the Child Protective Services investigation. Now, British tabloids are scrutinizing the single mom's sad dating life (at the same time that they're providing tips on getting her "look"). Even Perez Hilton has joined the handwringing: "While all this [is] going on, WHO IS WATCHING YOUR BABY???" The National Enquirer recently claimed that she's also nursing a drug addiction. Radar has devotedly followed the Amber beat in recent months, publishing photos of her partying and reporting that her daughter "is so confused about who her parents are she refers to her grandmother as 'mom.'"

The twisted ethics of “Teen Mom”

Tue, 19 Oct 2010 22:01:00 +0000

Tonight, MTV will conclude its second season of "Teen Mom" in the same way it wrapped the "16 and Pregnant" series that introduced us to the four girls in the first place. They'll bring in Dr. Drew, therapist to the stars, who will explain what it all means, or at least ensure that the hottest issues brought up this season -- including domestic violence (both incidents, interestingly enough, perpetrated by women), unprotected sex, and of course, having a kid in the first place -- are dutifully acknowledged and packaged with the proper warnings and hot line numbers so no one can accuse the network of condoning such behavior to its young audience. And thus far, the network has been validated. A recent study showed that, far from "glamorizing" teen pregnancy, watching the show has made most teens less likely to want to become teen parents.

But what is "Teen Mom" really teaching us? And what does its popularity tell us about our current moment?