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Unfit Subjects: Education Policy and the Teen Mother, 1972-2002 ReviewWanda S. Pillow uses qualitative and quantitative data to examine America's ongoing teen pregnancy problem. The only western nation without comprehensive sex education, America also boasts a dubious distinction of having the western world's highest teen pregnancy rate.
Teen pregnancy became noticed as an individual demographic-specific problem in the 1960's, but different races were and have always been treated differently in America when they find themselves pregnant.
White women were historically regarded as having made a 'bad choice', but ultimately were redeemable (through the intervention of moralistic social service personnel) only if they sequestered themselves in maternity homes. Here they could become 'repaired' through a strict regimen of religion and vocational training, while they were supposed to ultimately find a man---their having a child allegedly limited marriage ability. Later on, some homes would even offer adoption services, allowing the woman to further `erase' the teenage pregnancy and have a second chance at respectability.
Contrasting, black teenage pregnancies became cited as `evidence' of that community's problems and consequently were left to their own devices. Black teenagers traditionally were supposed to turn to their own for assistance.
Although teens are no longer kicked out of school for becoming pregnant (Title IX), they are instead being handed many punitive options by our government. The same entities who do not give them access to information about preventing a pregnancy then appear to constantly remind them that their options are limited once they are pregnant. This compounds the sense of isolation which those young women have.
What daycare and social service programs exist for teens is not enough to meet the demand. The American government historically and currently does not want to make the social policy investitures required for having actual social change. Connaught `Connie' Marshner was a Reagan administration political appointment to head the office of family life, but she actually knew very little about the program which she was supposed to direct. Marshner was soon replaced by somebody with more related experience, but that 1980's incident is emblematic of how little priority the government gave to seriously addressing and then ending teen pregnancy. If bureaucracies ultimately function through expertise only, the first appointment never was actually going to address teen pregnancy. Rather it was going to reinforce ideological stereotypes about `promiscuous youth' and 'values'; 'good people' allegedly did not have teen pregnancies.
The 'promiscuous low-income youth' myth reared its head in the 1990's with welfare reform. Welfare reform itself was built on the assumption that young women of color were becoming rich from having litters of babies, selectively ignoring the actual payment levels pre-reform, which were not enough to live above poverty anywhere inside this country. The sexuality of black women ultimately provided sufficient ammunition for politicians to attack the welfare state, even Democratic president Bill Clinton had endorsed and signed the measure.
She also includes information on Hispanic young women. By virtue of being people of color they are also being victimized through race-sexuality dichotomies and additionally face language barriers while trying to obtain social services. The thrust of the book's racial-ethnic focus is centered on the black-white politics of sex, teen pregnancy, and poverty. Since 19th century miscegenation laws were first enacted, black sexuality has terrified public policymakers as alternately being both inferior and effectively destructive to the country.
Identifying many connotations within the term `epidemic' Pillow concedes that American teen pregnancy rates will not substantially decline until we begin having honest talks. Our country needs to talk how current policies are/have been fundamentally race-gender-socioeconomic constructed and then we can adopt a more inclusive approach to sexuality education.
Unfit Subjects: Education Policy and the Teen Mother, 1972-2002 OverviewWanda Pillow presents a critical analysis of federal law and polciy towards pregnant teens, representations of teen pregnancy in popular culture and educational policy assesses how schools provide educational opportunities for school aged mothers. Through in- depth analysis of specific policies and programmes, both past and present, thsi book traces America's successes and failures in educating pregnant teens. Unfit Subjects uses feminist, race and poststructural theories to inform a satisfactory educational policy.
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