Cultural Progress Through Teen Abortion

There's a disturbing article in today's New York Times titled "Television's Most Persistent Taboo." As all right-thinking Times readers know, the word "taboo" signals an outdated, backwards, and stifling constraint on individual freedom and cultural progress. In this case, the taboo is the networks' reluctance to portray teenage characters having abortions on their programs. Thankfully, some trailblazing programs are changing that, forging ahead in portrayals of characters not only going through with an abortion, but (more importantly) not regretting it. As one writer observed, "If they're talking about it in the schoolyard, we should be able to talk about it on television." And conveniently for the networks, once the television teen idols start having regret-free abortions, there will be even more such talk in the schoolyards. It seems the only time the entertainment industry expresses any degree of humility is in its constant denial of the cultural influence it exerts, especially among the nation's youth. This argument is certainly in the networks' self-interest, for the only way they can justify their programming is to assert, against all logic, that TV does not shape society, but simply reflects who we already are. If the networks are correct, then watching TV would be significantly more depressing than it already is.

Rob