As most of you know by now, I watch Secret Life of the American Teenager on Monday nights. Despite the low-quality acting, directing, and dialogue, the plot lines continue to keep me hooked. This season’s big topic is that yet another teen girl in the community has gotten pregnant. What makes it particularly juicy, is the fact that this girl, Adrian, is widely considered to be the school “slut”. She’s notorious for sleeping around, and even went so far as to sleep with nice boy Ben, just to get back at nice girl Amy (his girlfriend) for getting pregnant with her crush’s kid. Well guess what, Adrian just happens to get pregnant with Ben’s kid.
Looking past the very convenient plot development, I’m actually really happy that this happened to Adrian. Firstly, because it teaches the lesson that promiscuity can lead to consequences. And secondly, because she is definitely a pro-choice character on a largely pro-life show/network. In season one, when Amy was pregnant, it was quite comical how her pro-choice options were displayed. The character did walk into a abortion clinic and make an appointment, but it was so contrived right from the beginning that it obvious she wouldn’t go through with it.
While I’m not going to go ahead and declare myself pro-life or pro-choice, I do believe that forcing a certain point of view on the audience is not kosher, especially given the PSA-like voice of this show. Because of this, I was happy to see that Adrian and her mother were a voice for other side of the argument, to keep things balanced. Unfortunately, this balance did not last very long. Which is not surprising considering the show airs on ABC Family.
Adrian talks to her Dad in a very disturbing scene.
In the last five minutes of the most recent episode, Adrian’s father sits with her and tells her that he was raised Catholic, is pro-life, and that if she gets an abortion he will divorce her mother because he fundamentally disagrees with her mother’s support of it. So we jump right from, fair and balanced, to total guilt trip and threats. It was one of the most disturbing scenes I’ve watched on TV to date, and I’m a fan of Dexter, so that’s saying something. If this girl decides to keep the baby, just to keep her family together, which has been an on-going plot line for her, then what does that teach the young audience that this show attracts? It’s sickening.
The show has been known to tiptoe into some controversial topics before and they constantly throw in curve balls, so I very well may be eating my words next week. Considering the network behind the show and the constant, conservative messages being conveyed, I’m not really holding out much hope.