Article Misses the Point of ‘Juno’

March 15, 2008 - 10:30 am By CC Staff

Warning: This post contains spoilers!

Recently USA Today ran an article questioning Juno’s portrayal of teen pregnancy. It seems that some people worry the movie glorified the whole thing.

Maybe it’s just me, but I think they missed the point of Juno. One of the quotes in the article suggests that teens won’t see that Juno faced any consequences, because the baby was “handed off.” Juno ended up with her boyfriend and was able, presumably, to go on with life as usual.

Sorry, but I think that’s BS. First of all — and I don’t know how many times we have to stress this before the right-wingers get it — pregnancy is NOT about punishment. Yes, the movie ended happily, but it wasn’t because Juno didn’t face any consequences. It was because she made a big, and really tough, decision. I don’t think that even a self-involved teen is going to miss that.

Furthermore, let’s not forget the outcome of that decision: By giving her baby up for adoption, Juno made another woman’s dreams come true. Honestly, you’d think the conservatives would be happy about a movie that promotes adoption as an alternative to abortion!

Okay, so Juno doesn’t portray teen pregnancy as one of Dante’s nine circles of hell. So what? To be perfectly honest, I think it portrays it realistically. Choosing between abortion, adoption, and keeping the child is a difficult decision, no matter how self-involved the teen is. And contrary to what many adults would apparently like teens to believe, getting pregnant does not mean the end of the world. Girls survive teen pregnancy every day — maybe a little worse for wear (like Juno), but they get through it.

I know what Juno opponents are afraid of. They think that if they praise Juno’s decision-making abilities after she becomes pregnant, then teens will interpret that to mean that getting pregnant is okay. Personally, I think Juno’s struggles speak for themselves — the viewer knows that even if everything turns out all right, it was a difficult road that got her to that point.

C says:
Sat, 15th Mar 20081:18 pm

I just have to say THANK YOU! I love Juno and I hate how people are like ‘its so pro teen pregnancy!’ because honestly what teen girl is gonna go get knocked up cause hey juno did it? They say it’s portrayed as easy cause they dont show scenes where Juno is being teased by her classmates but that’s just not the point of the movie.

Juno MacGuff says:
Thu, 20th Mar 20087:35 pm

It was a freaking movie. There was hardly anything realistic about it. From the first moment she started conversing with another being in the movie, it was CLEAR that the whole thing was scripted.

Yes, the movie did show NO negative consequences. Friend’s suggestion for adoption and just like that, baby goes away.. not a difficult decision. It was hardly a decision at all.. and her parents were WAY too chill with it. Wouldn’t EVERYONE love to have parents like that.. and normally.. girls don’t get knocked up with nerdy guys.. ‘cuz nerdy guys would be more responsible than that.

The movie was TOTALLY a “oh hey look, 9 months went by.. out comes baby. YAY, here comes boyfriend.” Not to mention underlying racism that was portrayed.. dorky, shy asian girls, and dissing the technician. Very mature.

What kind of difficulties did she have? She had support from all her friends, and she just gave the baby away.. moses in the reeds? No consequences, for sure. No 20-years-later-why-didn’t-you-want-me-doorstep-child. Just get rid of the baby and happily ever after.

SO realistic. Because that’s what TYPICAL teens do.. it doesn’t show any dropping out of school or trying to raise children on their own. Teen mothers, I’d like it if movies actually portrayed some of THAT kind of realistic teen pregnancy.

So you’d think that conservatives would be happy about adoption as opposed to abortion? Because putting children up for adoption in the case that there is a shortage of PERFECT child-loving women/men is WHY there are quite a few orphans in the world right now.

But heck, you don’t have agree with me. I think the adoption thing may even be overrated in the case that there isn’t someone who wants the child. The world’s getting so freaking overpopulated now irresponsible pregnancies should be kept on the down low, if not allowing abortions to become the norm.