Posted on 01/21/2008 12:27:41 PM PST by Wolf13
With little media fanfare, Hollywood is creating a new genre of films marketed to the prolific ticket buyers who make up its target demographic, teens and young adults. Though not known as a conservative bastion, the movie industry has always been quick to pick up trends that turn a profit. And among America's young people, pro-life is in.
Consider the recent sleeper hit "Juno," the story of a precocious 16-year-old who becomes pregnant following a tryst with her best friend. Juno initially contemplates abortion but hesitates after talking with a pro-life counselor. Juno ultimately decides for life, giving her child to a young couple unable to conceive.
As it climbs the box office charts (currently ranking second in box office revenues and first on Yahoo's popularity index), and having recently garnered three Golden Globe nominations, Juno is demonstrating that the pro-life message resonates with audiences and critics alike.
But Juno is just one of many recent filmsincluding "August Rush," "Knocked Up," "Bella" and "Waitress" with unmistakable pro-child messages. A series of recent polls illuminates why films like "Juno" are a hit with America's youth.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
The younger folks today give some reason for hope. In general (it’s always dangerous to generalize), their sense of sexual morality is unbelievable. But they’re *not* in favor of infanticide.
I remember being in my late teens and early twenties and I don’t recall that the sense of sexual morality was particularly great then, either.
I’m beginning to see the logic in having children marry earlier than has been the norm the past few generations.
“Yeah! Since that sort of thing NEVER happens why should anyone make a movie dealing with the morality of it? /S”
Children have been getting drunk and irresponsible for a loooooong time.
“The pro-child attitudes of this generation are very apparent to me in my real estate dealings. Lotsa 4 child families (and beyond) being planned. Good for them.”
That’s great to hear. The future belongs to the fertile.
Not that long. Only since there’s been children
;-)
To better plan one’s life, it’s best to have children early. This gives parents time to plan for the college expenses and then their own retirement without having all this happen at once. It also means parents are younger and stronger when their children are in their difficult teen years. Plus young parents have more energy for their young kids.
But is this generation actually marrying earlier or just have children out of wedlock? 38% of children are born out of wedlock, and there is no sign that that trend is waning among the young, many of whom are the those giving birth to those babies.
I know of two women in their mid twenties who became pregnant. Both were unmarried at the time and both have since given birth. One has since married the father, the other is raising her child with the help of her family. Abortion was never seriously considered by either and one recently changed the mind of a friend who was going to get an abortion.
“But is this generation actually marrying earlier or just have children out of wedlock?”
I don’t know, but from what I’ve been seeing, probably the latter. If it’s a choice between illegitimacy and infanticide, I’ll take illegitimacy.
“38% of children are born out of wedlock, and there is no sign that that trend is waning among the young, many of whom are the those giving birth to those babies.”
I think that the trends in illegitimacy are in large part economically driven. So long as illegitimacy is viewed as a low risk proposition, the trends will continue. The econonomy since the late 80’s has been very good and there hasn’t been the overriding economic incentive to marry that there has been in past generations. I.e. illegitimacy = destitution. Well, the stock market opens in about an hour and I think the consensus is that we’re about to see a fairly dramatic change in the economy.
As a sidebar note, illegitimacy is part of the reason why I see AFDC as being such a very bad idea in spite of the fact that we don’t spend all that much money on it. The few hundred dollars a month that a family draws a month is pocket change in the grand schema, but it has a strong impact in encouraging irresponsible behavior.
Well, another thing is that bringing children into a Boomer dominated system was not very appealing. We decided to forgo it completely. Those now in their 20s will never have to deal with Boomers running the show, by the time their kids are in high school many of them will be dead.
Illegitimacy is the norm in Europe these days. After all the state is the true parent. In Norway hardly anyone gets married any more.
My boys - now 23 and 19, and my brothers children are quite conservative in their mral attitudes. They are however very different to the way we were. They are extremely self confident (a bit too much if you ask me) and they tend not to fret about bills too much but on the whole they certainly are interesting. Oh they are also very hard working - which is one up on me!
Mel
I work at a 400 person company where most people are under 40. The 30 and younger crowd (including me) are way more conservative. In my experience (in the Boston area) it seems like there is a definitive line, almost uncanny, IMHO, that those born after 1975 start to get more conservative - on a lot of, but not all, issues.
I think the workplace is a good guage of people as a whole because of the varied backgrounds there.
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