There's very little angst that Juno experiences over carrying the baby and giving it up ,the character is almost disconnected from the many deep-seated emotions that pregnant teens feel. Is that deliberate - or naive?

The narrative implies that carrying a pregnancy to term and relinquishing the baby - giving it up for adoption - is nothing. But we know that it isn't so for a pregnant woman. That's totally unrealistic.

In 2013, the teen pregnancy rate reached a new low. It declined by 63 percent from 1990 to 2013, from 118 to 43 pregnancies per 1,000 females ages 15 to 19—the lowest rate reported since estimates began in 1972. Among females younger than 15, there was a 78 percent decline from 1990 to 2013 (from 3.4 to 0.7 pregnancies per 1,000 females). Over the same period, rates for teens ages 15 to 17 declined by 72 percent, from 75 to 21 pregnancies per 1,000 females; the rates for teens ages 18 to 19 declined by 56 percent, from 173 to 76.

The pregnancy rate among teens who are sexually experienced (those who have ever had intercourse) has also decreased similarly. In 1990, there were 225 pregnancies per 1,000 sexually experienced female teens; by 2011, that rate had fallen 55 percent, to 101 pregnancies.

Older teens have much higher pregnancy rates than younger teens. In 2013, females ages 18 to 19 had a pregnancy rate of 76 per 1,000 population, compared with a rate of 21 among females ages 15 to 17, and 0.7 among females under age 15.

 After years of increases in the 1970s and 1980s, the teen pregnancy rate peaked in 1990 and has declined steadily since. ... Basically, teen pregnancy rates candecrease in one of two ways—if teens have less sex or become more effective contraceptive users.

  

It’s not that Juno treats her pregnancy as a joke, but rather that in the sardonic spirit of the screenwriter, Diablo Cody, she can’t help finding humor in it. Tiny of frame and huge of belly, Juno utters wisecracks as if they were breathing exercises, referring to herself as “the cautionary whale.”

At first her sarcasm is bracing and also a bit jarring — “Hello, I’d like to procure a hasty abortion,” she says when she calls a women’s health clinic — but as “Juno” follows her from pregnancy test to delivery room (and hastily retreats from the prospect of abortion), it takes on surprising delicacy and emotional depth. The snappy one-liners are a brilliant distraction, Ms. Cody’s way of clearing your throat for the lump you’re likely to find there in the movie’s last scenes.

The first time I saw “Juno,” I was shocked to find myself tearing up at the end, since I’d spent the first 15 minutes or so gnashing my teeth and checking my watch. The passive-aggressive pseudo-folk songs, the self-consciously clever dialogue, the generic, instantly mockable suburban setting — if you can find Sundance on a map, you’ll swear you’ve been here before.

But “Juno” which played at the Telluride and Toronto film festivals, not the one in Park City, Utah respects the idiosyncrasies of its characters rather than exaggerating them or holding them up for ridicule. And like Juno herself, the film outgrows its own mannerisms and defenses, evolving from a coy, knowing farce into a heartfelt, serious comedy.

Muhmmad

 

The Guardian