My First Senior Moment

In the name of journalism (and job security), a friend asked me if I could join a Lycos Viewing Party to watch Secret Life of the American Teenager. I'll pretty much watch anything cheesy, especially if it involves Molly Ringwald, so persuading me to log in and watch this week's episode wasn't exactly pulling teeth. For those of you unfamiliar with Secret Life, it's a summer drama on ABC Family about a girl who has a one night stand (get this....while at band camp!) and winds up pregnant with one of the drummers. The plot lines of the hour long episodes focus on high school students who are either having sex, talking about having sex, acting like general know-it-all-smart-asses, or professing their love for Jesus. Like most teen dramas there's quite a lot to keep track of.

In order to lure in sponsors, Lycos started airing Viewing Parties for some of the more wholesome ABC Family favorites such as Secret Life, 7th Heaven, and Gilmore Girls. Viewers log into a pre-scheduled Viewing Party and chat about the episode while it airs. Foul language isn't allowed (eg: the word "sex" is replaced by characters) and particants are discouraged from revealing their actual location. There were almost 10 users logged into my chat and several dozen more Viewing Parties scheduled throughout the day. It sounds like Lyocs may have hit a homerun with this one.

I helped my friend by getting the chat rolling by typing stuff like "Ashley = best character in the show" and "OMG why is Amy with Ben???". Witty banter regarding the acting ability of the characters and far-fetched story lines ensued. Most comments were pretty innocent and charming until one particular scene involving an encounter between pregnant Amy and Baby Daddy Ricky. One viewer stated that if Ricky had pulled out then Amy wouldn't have ended up pregnant.

Um, excuse me???

The old lady in me immediately fired off a reply to the effect that pulling out isn't effective but condoms, or better yet, not having sex with random guys when you're 15, generally are. Then I had to calm myself down because I remembered that I was dealing with teenage girls who don't need to be judged or preached to. It's just unfortunate that a lot of them don't have a clue. It suddenly became very obvious to me that when you know nothing about sex and nobody has ever sat down to have an honest conversation with you, you're more likely to believe your boyfriend when he tells you that pulling out is as effective against pregnancy as condoms, birth control, or abstinence.

There's a disclaimer at the end of the show urging younger viewers to talk to an adult if they are feeling pressured into having sex. The timing of the announcement is ironic considering that the entire show focuses on the fact that everybody in high school seems to be doing it. Old school TV teen love affairs (eg: Donna and David; Rory and Jess) been superceded by the "everyone else is doing it so why shouldn't I?" message of Secret Life. It's unfortunate, especially given the pregnancy epidemics that are eroding student life at many American high schools.

Secret Life is a fairly new show so it's not quite clear where the writers are heading with the series. It's suggested that Amy will take an unlikely "visit" to grandma's while she waits out her second and third trimesters. Ricky may end up shocking everyone by stepping up to take responsibility for his child (one chatroom participant bemoaned that "pregnancy is almost always blamed on the girl while the guy gets off (scot free)"). I'd personally like to see some of the characters show the viewers how difficult it is in the real world for a 15 year old single mom to raise a baby. A teen drama broadcasting the not-so-glamorous side of taking personal responsibility for careless actions? Unfortunately that's likely to happen the same day that the New England Journal of Medicine publishes an article touting the "pull out" method as a 100% safeguard against pregnancy.