Teen Father Fights for Full Custody of Son

Hello ladies!

In this weeks class we are focusing on the images and perceptions of fatherhood, particularly in reference to teen fathers. I am sure many of us can agree that the outlooks are usually negative, however, there are teen fathers who do own up to their responsibilities or would like to. I found an article and a news report that involves a 17-year-old high school father who is fighting for full custody of his child.  After receiving word that the ex-girlfriend was expecting a child, Christian Diaz and his family began preparing for the baby. Upon the birth of the child Diaz was denied access into the hospital room because the mother exclaimed he was not the father. After petitioning the courts for a DNA test, Diaz was proven to be the biological father. Diaz's 6-month-old son was put up for adoption against his will due to a lack of communication between him and the ex-girlfriend. Diaz did not give his consent for the adoption and he refuses to give up his rights without a fight. 

"Other teen-age fathers don't want to be in their baby's life, but I do," he said. "I don't know of many other 17-year-old unmarried fathers who are not afraid of publicly saying, 'Yes, that's my son. I will take responsibility for raising him because I love him, and he belongs with me.'"

This particular case can be of shock to many being that there are not many fathers who show concern when deciding whether to parent a child or not. Also several teen fathers in particular or fathers to be, usually do not feel they are ready to take on the role of parenting and object to the mother continuing on with the pregnancy.

  Other than the few reasons I have given, what are some other reasons why this case is surprising? Also do you think this father will be successful in gaining custody? Why or why not? Check out the links below to see the full story to help answer the previous questions.

-Tiffany Williamson

http://www.bakersfieldnow.com/news/investigations/112047419.html

http://www.bakersfieldnow.com/news/local/112524214.html

Peer Pressure on Women to be More Sexually Available to Men

This week in class we are talking about sexuality. In one way or another, whether we personally are sexually active or not, we can all relate to this topic. After doing some thinking and research about what sub-topic to tackle in my blog entry, I stumbled upon this online article on MarieClaire.com called, "Are Women Pressuring One Another To Have Sex Like Men?" that I found pretty interesting. The article is based on the opinions of two sociologists in a book called: Premarital Sex in America: How Young Americans Meet, Mate and Think About Marrying. I will post the link to the article at the very bottom of the blog entry as reference.

In this article and book, it talks specifically about relationships between females and males on college campuses. In higher education, the number of women outweigh the number of men, which some say produces this idea that men have so many options when it comes to who they can date/have sex with that they don't have to settle for a female who won't "put out." Knowing that, women feel pressure to offer sex earlier on in dating and relationships. A great definition of this sad cycle is quoted in the article: "The thinking goes that, since women are so plentiful, a man who isn't getting what he wants from a girl could easily move on to the next." Personally, though it could be true for some, this idea that all men go into dating and relationships for the sole purpose of finding a sex partner seems a bit like a stretch to me, but perhaps I'm naive. What do you think? Do you feel that this collective idea that men push women who are unwilling to have sex aside?

The research given has shown that when young women are having sexual encounters on a man's schedule, instead of their own, they are most often unhappy. Meaning, when starting to date a guy, if the woman feels peer pressure to hurry up and have sex or they will lose the guy, whether they are hearing it from female/male friends or the person they are actually dating, and they follow through with it, they are left unhappy with their decisions. As a result, women are being encouraged to wait to have sex until they are ready and feel comfortable with it.

The co-author of the book, Mark Regnerus, gives somewhat brief descriptions on some of the topics in his book in this article. I'm not going to go through each of the topics and describe what the book says about them, but I do want to talk about one that I feel is the most important for this article, which is how women can resist sexual pressure. A powerful force in a woman's decision to have sex early on in a relationship or not is her network of friends. If a female has a group of friends who have the same thoughts and feelings about not having sex early on in a relationship, it is easier for her to stand her ground on the topic to the male she is in a relationship with. When most women are having sex earlier in their relationships, females who don't wish to find it harder to accomplish. How the people around us are behaving and the decisions we are making are going to effect our next relationships. In the outline of the topic of how men make long-term relationship decisions, Regnerus makes a very interesting statement about men, he says, "Men will do amazing things -- including being patient, winsome and productive -- in pursuit of sex. But they won't if they don't have to." The problem is, women are not putting the pressure on men to commit or to wait to have sex, therefore men are finding it easier to talk girls into have sex earlier.

My questions to you readers are: Do you agree with how the article portrays women as submissive and men as sexually dominant? If not, in what ways do you disagree? Do you agree that there being more women on college campuses is making it easier for men to pursue women only for sexual partners? Do you think females or males are at fault for this "pressure"?

-Rachel Mitts

Adolescent Teenage Pregnacy in South America vs, US

Hey guys! I found this article in the humanitarian news and analysis online. It provides information about the disturbing teen pregnancies in South Africa. I am going to relate South Africa teenage pregnancies with the US teen pregnancies. This closely relates to what we have been talking about in class; comparing the similarities and differences of other counties to our own.

In Africa, alarming figures released by a South African provincial education department indicate that schoolgirl pregnancies have doubled in the past year, despite a decade of spending on sex education and AIDS awareness. The number of pregnant schoolgirls jumped from 1,169 in 2005 to 2,336 in 2006 in Gauteng, the country's economic heartland and most populous province, according to statistics. The problem is not equally serious in all parts of the country: on average, two to three girls fall pregnant in a typical school with 1,200 to 1,400 pupils. The study of contraception in South Africa found that social pressures often prevented young women from using contraception: "The girls felt they would only be accepted as women once they had proved their fertility - many mothers wanted their teenage daughters to become pregnant so they could have a baby at home again." Other factors are also driving the high teenage pregnancy rate in some areas. The “nurses” were uncomfortable about providing teenagers with contraception and attitudes were a major barrier of teens getting hold of contraception.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=70538

Unlike South Africa the United States has much more access to contraception. Studies have shown in the United States, the later you wait to be sexually active, the more likely you are to use contraceptive and to use effective contraceptive methods, which substantially lead to lower pregnancy rates. The majority of the decline in teen pregnancy rates in the US (86%) is due to teens’ increasingly consistent contraceptive use; the rest is due to higher proportions of teens choosing to delay sexual activity. Of the 4.2 million U.S. births in 2008, fewer were to teen mothers than in the prior two years. The teen birth rate fell 2%. Teen pregnancy peaked in the 1990s and declined every year until 2005, then increased for two years before declining in 2008.

As you can see there are some differences in teen pregnancies all over the world. Here are some questions to continue this discussion: Can sex education programs prevent teenage pregnancy? What can South Africa do to promote contraception better?

http://www.overpopulation.org/teenpreg.html

Molly Ewigman

shaping peoples views on teen pregnancy

Hey ladies!

I found this good article on the New York Times oppinion page titled 'Behaving Like Children'. This article responded to a "crisis" that was published last week about 1/4 of the girls at a Memphis high school being pregnant. The news was just about to be taken in until a miracle happened: facts. Investigations found that this number was greatly exaggerated but it was only after the news, media, pregnancy experts, and some celebrities, such as Kim Kardashian, indulged in zero-evidence rhetoric attributing Memphis's non-existing crisis to everything from adolescent stupidity to MTV's "Teen Mom".

Later, Memphis officials connected the high pregnancy rates to long-term hardships such as poverty and family abuse like rape. The author of the article goes on to say that even though evidence like statistics shows that teenage pregnany is dropping, the media continues to press alarming claims of new epidemics such as these. The author then goes on to point out how even statistics are manipulated when it was brought to attention that mostly 18-19 year olds accounted for the rise in teenage pregnancy in 2005-2007, not the younger teens which seem to be the only group that the media wants to focus on. No one cared to address this statement because the sex advocates and abstinence-only promoters rushed to blame each other and the 'sexed up popular culture' for the increase. They didn't even have an explanation for the drop in teen pregnancy in 2008-2009.

I think this article closely related to this reading we had to do this week about the Rhetorical visions. In particular, the section that discussed," propaganda-the idea that one person or group will express a particular rhetorical vision that they want another person or group to adopt, and ideology, a term that refers to a pattern or set of ideas, values, assumptions, and beliefs that shapes and permeates a society, culture, or group and is made to seem natural or objectively "factual"." The assumptions made in the Memphis community regarding the fake crisis of teen pregnancy was in my oppinion, a propaganda because the media falsly put out information that led large groups of citizens to believe that there was a teen pregnancy crisis when there really was not. They wanted us to believe something they did because this is what they knew would get attention, whether it was accurate or not. The other thing they did was use ideology to create this vision that there was a crisis in this Memphis high school.

Do you think that the media, sex-advocates, and anti-abortion groups were successful at winning over citizens to see things their way even though these facts were not true? Why or why not?