Juno?

Hi friends! So you guys know that I post on Choice USA's blogging site too, so I think I'm going to cross post, which is why I'm linking to ChoiceUSA blogs in this one.

So there's a lot of controversy over Juno huh? Well, I saw it Sunday with some of my favorite people, and discovered why. I walked out of that movie with my heart decidedly warmed, but my head buzzing with hesitation. Something about that movie just didn't sit right with me even though I loved it. The music, the acting, the wit! It was wonderfully entertaining. And there's the problem: it was too damn easy. This young, white, suburban girl makes the decision to carry the fetus to term and give it away to a happy loving (white) couple. Read this article for more, it's really spicy and it hits on some very important issues in reproductive justice. We never see her get shit from her fellow classmates about being pregnant, and we never once see her parents give her a good talking to (which, I don't know about you, but my Mom would tear me a new one if I came home pregnant in high school). I had a hard time believing that this was ever a difficult situation for her, and I had an ever harder time believing that a 16-year-old girl could go through this situation with as much grace and charm as our heroine Juno. But I think I missed the point.

Okay, so it made me uncomfortable about the message it was sending. Maybe I should just relax, put the soapbox away, and enjoy the damn movie. When I finally did that (much to my friends' delight), I realized that as a pro-choicer, I have an obligation to try to understand this particular story. This is possible, in fact, it's probable because of abstinence-only education, for a girl in a suburban Minnesota town. Sure, she made it through with wit and charm, but that's Hollywood. It's a movie; it has to be entertaining at least a little. It's important to see this story not as a message about all teenage pregnancies, or about ALL young women, or about ALL pro-choicers. As members of the pro-choice community, we have been charged with the responsibility to see every woman's situation as important or relevant, regardless of the message it sends.

The problem here is not that Juno's story is not believable, because it is. The problem is that it's not every woman's story, it never can be. Unfortunately, and I'm sure you all can agree, it's the only story like this out there in the mainstream consciousness, aside from Knocked Up and Britney's little sister. That's where we should be directing our extreme dissatisfaction. Juno's story is important, and even if it's fictional, it's still relevant because it's generating some much needed discussion on a national level. The problem is that there is nothing else right now that is speaking to the issues of teenage pregnancies, abortion, and sex-ed so we're expecting this one film, with its privileged role in the mainstream spotlight to fulfill all of our hopes and dreams. People are talking! That sure as hell is a step in the right direction.