by Deputy Diva

This is more of a rant, but may I just say that I am sick and tired of seeing Jamie Lynn Spears’ pregnancy glorified by the media?  She is 17 years-old and was touted as a wholesome role model for children.  My own nieces, nephews and godchildren watched her on many TV shows and I’m sure many kids, young girls especially aspired in some way to be like her. I don’t understand why there is such a big production though over her giving birth.  She is even to be featured on the cover of OK Magazine as though she is some mother of the year. SOURCE   Even when it was announced that she was expecting, the tone was hardly negative.

I’m sure had this been Raven Simone, for example, we would never hear the end of it, and they would remind us all how she was little innocent Oliva from the Cosby Show, only to fling her legs open and give birth at the tender age of 17. 

They have already done this with American Idol winner Fantasia Barrino.  When it was discovered that Fantasia was a single mother at such an early age, controversy surrounded her final status in the American Idol competition because there were concerns that she was a “single mother who would be a poor role model for youth.”  SOURCE    The media only seemed to be somewhat forgiving after learning that she had been raped in the ninth grade by a classmate. 

In light of all of this however, and the many obstacles Fantasia and other young black women have overcome in the face of adversity, I haven’t seen Fantasia and any other young, single black mothers on the covers of magazines in this manner.   I’m not glorifying teen pregnancy either and really hope that young women, especially in these days and times of incurable diseases such as AIDS and Herpes, would wait for God to send them a mate with whom they are equally yoked. 

I realize that this probably won’t make much of a difference in the eyes of journalists and ‘Hollyweird,’  but I just needed to really vent that frustration.