Forever 21 Promoting Teen Pregnancy?

[newmom]

Watching Fox News and this story comes on...

Forever 21 is for the young girls. The company states it's not promoting pregnancy, ARE U KIDDING ME. It's launching it's line in some of the highest teen pregnancy rates, CA, AZ, UT, and a few others. But like the commentary stated (can't remember her name) if my daughter looks at a maternity shirt in forever 21 and says "oh that maternity shirt makes pregnancy look sexy" then I failed as a parent and need to explain what messages companies and people are stating.

http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=news/business&id=7557957

http://www.parentdish.com/2010/07/14/forever-21-launches-maternity-line-in-states-with-high-teen

http://www.myfoxdfw.com/dpp/news/071410-forever-21-launches-maternity-line

[drkaje]

Teen pregnancy is a parenting problem and has nothing to do with clothing.

[brooklynbruiser]

Promoting? No. Capitalizing? Oh yehhhhh.

[Dos Equis]

They probably knew exactly what they were doing.  Marketing people do their homework. 

[newmom]

Drakje I agree with you but the simple fact they have that line of clothing sickens me

[brooklynbruiser]

C'mon, NM! Would you rather pregnant teens wear ill fitting clothes, accentuating their already compromised situation? Teens that will get pregnant will regardless if the clothes exist or not...might as well have proper fitting kit to go with it.

[Eyeball Chambers]

C'mon, NM! Would you rather pregnant teens wear ill fitting clothes, accentuating their already compromised situation? Teens that will get pregnant will regardless if the clothes exist or not...might as well have proper fitting kit to go with it.

Would you hit it? 

[240 is Back]

Trashy parents have trashy kids that get knocked up at 16.  Disgusting.

[newmom]

Trashy parents have trashy kids that get knocked up at 16.  Disgusting.

I don't agree with that.

[Eyeball Chambers]

Trashy parents have trashy kids that get knocked up at 16.  Disgusting.

That's not true.....

[drkaje]

Would you hit it? 

If I wrote "no" it would be a damn lie.

[240 is Back]

I don't agree with that.

okay.,.. maybe 1% of the time, a 16-year old gets preggo and her parents were on top of things.

but the other 99% of the time, it's the same thing... they let the boyfriend stay over... they let the kids drink... the parents weren't there much of the time... etc etc.

hell, you can look on your kids computer or myspace and learn a ton about them these days.  Or, you can just sit and talk with them.

I have known a lot of teenage moms, and in every case, it was always the same.  parents let the circumstances happen and one thing just led to another.  it's trashy.  Limits much of the kid's options for life... having a child that young makes school/work MUCH harder... and the boy she's dating at 16 is very rarely the kind of man she'll want at age 25 when she's established her career and education.

So yeah, 99% of the time, trashy parents let their kids run wild and lots of sex = teenage mother.

EDIT
I dunno... A kid has no business f---king... it's that simple.  Wait until you're 18 and out of the house.  Teach them what options are limited if they have a baby before they're a senior in high school.  Maybe it's perfect parenting and trashy kids, just fcking without condoms because they're idiots.  But 99% of the time, parents hold blame too.

[Dos Equis]

Good grief.  Talk about naive.     To say 99 percent of pregnant teens had "trashy" or uninvolved, "bad," etc. parents just shows you don't have enough life experience.   

Good parents have kids who make dumb decisions.  Most parents who have raised teenagers will tell you they do some pretty stupid stuff sometimes.  Bill Cosby was right about kids:  they have brain damage.   

[lester]

I don't agree with that.

x2

My mom was 15 when I popped out.  My grandparents were pretty strict.  Military background, had to be home when the street lights come on,  all of that kind of stuff that is lacking today but sometimes stuff happens.  99% of the time is too high of an estimate 240.

[newmom]

x2

My mom was 15 when I popped out.  My grandparents were pretty strict.  Military background, had to be home when the street lights come on,  all of that kind of stuff that is lacking today but sometimes stuff happens.  99% of the time is too high of an estimate 240.

Exactly lester, stories like this, it happens DOES NOT mean it's trashy. Sounds like my days of growing up..Get home, better do the homework THEN go OUTSIDE, when the lights came on, in the house. Especially Military background, ran deep in my family.

Good parents have kids who make dumb decisions.  Most parents who have raised teenagers will tell you they do some pretty stupid stuff sometimes.  Bill Cosby was right about kids:  they have brain damage.   

I love that skit

[240 is Back]

Sorry... I've seen just so so many teenage parents as a teacher - and I met many of their parents - and every one of them had their heads up their asses and allowed the circumstances that let it happen.  They didn't get knocked up after their first beautiful experience at prom... then did is sleeping over at a boys house on a thurs night... I mean, WTF...

There are lots of ways to relieve sexual tension without intercourse.

Instead of telling kids "don't do anything until youre married"... might be wiser to teach them (once they're 15,16,17 and you fear the inevitable is arriving) ways to relive instinctual impulses without risking STD and pregnancy.

I believe in a higher power.  But I dont think the bible works for many kids.  it DID work for me - I held off until way after most of my peers because of religious reasons. 

[Dos Equis]

What does abstinence or the Bible have to do with your comment?  

Trashy parents have trashy kids that get knocked up at 16.  Disgusting.

This is simply a ridiculously inaccurate and judgmental statement.  There are instances where poor parenting contributes to teen pregnancy, but there are many instances where teens who received good training make poor choices.  

[drkaje]

No matter how you slice it, most teen pregnancy is a parenting issue. Kids can be more confused by an environment where sex is never discussed as any extreme in the opposite direction.

Plenty of people turned out fine but someone knocked up young wouldn't being monitored or was poorly informed about sex. Thinking you're the exception, rather than the rule, just feels better.

[Dos Equis]

No matter how you slice it, most teen pregnancy is a parenting issue. Kids can be more confused by an environment where sex is never discussed as any extreme in the opposite direction.

Plenty of people turned out fine but someone knocked up young wouldn't being monitored or was poorly informed about sex. Thinking you're the exception, rather than the rule, just feels better.

I disagree.  I've been around enough teenagers and "good" parents to know that good training doesn't always produce teenagers who make good decisions . . . all the time.  Teen pregnancy is about one mistake on a given day by two dummies who couldn't control their hormones. 

[kcballer]

Teens have sex wow who would have thought?  This is more 'moral' outrage that focuses on the peripheral rather than on the topic - if teens are getting pregnant how can you reduce that?  Well you can't stop them having sex (abstinence doesn't work for the majority and never will in human beings with hormones) so you educate and inform.  If kids are wearing protection, taking birth control and making smart decisions about their sexual relationships they have a far less likely chance at being pregnant.  No store is to blame for it, just the poor decision making of teens in heat and the parental/religious groups who handcuff schools so they can't teach kids how to be safe and to not get pregnant.

[Dos Equis]

The only "safe sex" is sex between married couples.  Condoms are an abject failure.  Kids will not consistently use them.  But that horse has been beaten to death on the board. 

[kcballer]

The only "safe sex" is sex between married couples.  Condoms are an abject failure.  Kids will not consistently use them.  But that horse has been beaten to death on the board. 

hahaha give me a break.  Condoms are not a failure in any sense of the word.  We also have 'the pill' among other birth control methods.  But hey keep beating the 'dead horse' of anti-condom campaigns.  You sound like those african 'leaders' who say condoms are for sinners and won't protect against HIV.  Or better yet those physchos who take their daughters to 'abstinence balls' 

[Dos Equis]

hahaha give me a break.  Condoms are not a failure in any sense of the word.  We also have 'the pill' among other birth control methods.  But hey keep beating the 'dead horse' of anti-condom campaigns.  You sound like those african 'leaders' who say condoms are for sinners and won't protect against HIV.  Or better yet those physchos who take their daughters to 'abstinence balls' 

You sound like someone with no kids.     But keep on repeating the lie that teenaged boys will consistently use condoms if it makes you feel better.  And the pill doesn't protect against STDs, just fyi. 

[kcballer]

You sound like someone with no kids.     But keep on repeating the lie that teenaged boys will consistently use condoms if it makes you feel better.  And the pill doesn't protect against STDs, just fyi. 

Never said they would, but the pill is 99% effective for pregnancy in females.  Give kids easy access to condoms and more education on condoms and you'll have more and more use of them.  Keep pumping the 'they don't work' mantra, making it hard for them to get or making them have to hide them or demonizing schools who teach the proper use of them and you'll continue to have rising STI and pregnancy rates, and as such high rates of abortion. 

[Dos Equis]

Never said they would, but the pill is 99% effective for pregnancy in females.  Give kids easy access to condoms and more education on condoms and you'll have more and more use of them.  Keep pumping the 'they don't work' mantra, making it hard for them to get or making them have to hide them or demonizing schools who teach the proper use of them and you'll continue to have rising STI and pregnancy rates, and as such high rates of abortion. 

Kids already have easy access to condoms.  They're given away in some schools.  They're available over the counter in a plethora of stores.  You can walk into any number of local clinics or abortion mills (aka Planned Parenthood) and get them.  Millions have been--and continue to be--spent advertising them.  But what it comes down to is sex with and without a condom is like night and day.  There is no way any teenager whose hormones are going nuts will consistently use them.  That's simply reality.