Salon.com > Teen pregnancy http://www.salon.com Sun, 19 May 2013 01:00:00 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 NYC uses shame, petty insults in new teen pregnancy campaign http://www.salon.com/2013/03/05/nyc_uses_shame_petty_insults_in_new_teen_pregnancy_campaign/ http://www.salon.com/2013/03/05/nyc_uses_shame_petty_insults_in_new_teen_pregnancy_campaign/#comments Tue, 05 Mar 2013 21:37:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13219851 The New York Human Resources Administration launched a new ad campaign this week that uses "straight talk" in an effort to prevent teen pregnancy. The ads feature images of sad-looking children alongside messages like "Honestly, Mom ... Chances are he won't stay with you. What happens to me?" and "I'm twice as likely not to graduate high school because you had me as a teen."

The ads have already been harshly criticized for using these statistics to shame teen mothers rather than educating sexually active young people about where they can access condoms and other contraceptive care. But the subway and bus shelter ads aren't actually the worst part.

As reported by Miriam Pérez for RH Reality Check, at the bottom of each ad is the message: “Text ‘NOTNOW’ to 877877 for the real cost of teen pregnancy.” Text the number and you're directed to a choose your own adventure "game," which includes "scenarios about Anaya being ignored by her 'baby daddy' and shunned by her parents," but no information about how not to get pregnant. Instead, the texts use threats of social isolation, the prospect of losing your boyfriend and petty fat-shaming to drive home the message that teenagers who get pregnant are deserving of hardship and ridicule.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/03/05/nyc_uses_shame_petty_insults_in_new_teen_pregnancy_campaign/feed/ 8 Dumb tweet: Somethin’ ’bout my generation http://www.salon.com/2012/09/24/dumb_tweet_somethin_bout_my_generation/ http://www.salon.com/2012/09/24/dumb_tweet_somethin_bout_my_generation/#comments Mon, 24 Sep 2012 21:30:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13020800 A hashtag currently trending in New York reads #WeLiveInaGenerationWhere. Before picking out any particular Dumb Tweet, it's worth pointing out that the popular hashtag is itself dumb: We do not live in a generation "where," we live in a generation "when" or "in which" -- because generations are temporal, not spatial.

One tweeter (retweeted around 200 times) bemoaned that "#WeLiveInaGenerationWhere children are having children," which is absurd, because under modern conceptions of childhood, every generation in recorded history has seen children giving birth to children.

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