The Name of the Game Is Shame

In the essay titled, “The Name of the Game Is Shame”, author Jonathan Alter established his views on teen pregnancy. He believes that the fact of “out-of-wedlock teen pregnancy” is wrong and those who are involved should be put to shame in some sort of manner. Alter brings the anti-teen-pregnancy campaign of President Clinton into his essay with great points on it. The voices of the coming backlash, the New Reactionaries, state that Clinton’s program makes them “feel guilty” and “blaming the victim,” and with their statistics of the highest percent of babies born out of wedlock, 30.5 percent, helps this group defend its cause well. With the fact of many teen mothers being coerced into sex, Alter believes that the sin itself is up for question. He stated that “the fact remains: every threat to the fabric of this country- from poverty to crime to homelessness- is connected to out-of-wedlock teen pregnancy.” It is debatable if the statement can be proven a fact but I believe that every situation is different in its own way and cannot be relied on to prove this true. Further into the essay, his statements pertaining to Bruce Reeds actions on Norplant and trying to put shame into the eyes of the pregnant teens really shows his views on the subject too. He justifies bringing shame into the problem and backs up its meaning. Alter also attempts to implant the ideas of shame into reader’s heads by the emotional effect he adds when he asked if the search of “creative shame” is worse than silently watching as boys are shipped to prisons and girls to lives of poverty. This is an excellent way of writing by the way he used emotion to appeal to different types of readers. I do not believe that he is correct in every sense because each birth of a child is different. Yes there are a lot of cases that need to be addressed, but there are also a lot of cases that end up in success. Each out-of-wedlock teen pregnancy should be handled with its own, unique solution.

In the next essay titled, “In defense if Teenaged Mothers”, author Mike Males obviously gives you a different view on teen pregnancy. Males’ great presentation of individual cases and statistics help to support her theory on teen pregnancy. It seems that Males’ and I have the same view that every case is different and should be handled differently. The 1992 study of pregnant teens and teenage mothers showed that two-thirds had been