User:MariellaBeltran/sandbox

Teenage Parenthood

Concern for teenage pregnancy comes from the public’s assumptions that a child cannot take care of another child. Motherhood is therefore said to be bad for teens because chances for a successful future are diminished. Poster from the Children's Defense Fund advises, "Stick with the crowd that has a bright future —don't get pregnant." Teenage girls have trouble avoiding pregnancy and fail to realize that having a baby will ruin their life's prospects. Some controversial research suggests that this may be the case for some black teens, who are in the prime of their lives have little employment choices and much help from relatives. One study shows that childbearing does not end in lifelong destitution , although they might have achieved more had they postponed childbearing, most mothers studied eventually graduated from high school, found full-time jobs, and got off welfare. Teenage mothers typically drop out of educational activities to care for their newborns and there is no evidence that delaying childbearing with Norplant will improve these adolescents’ chances for success. The myth that inner-city teens would be miraculously lifted out of poverty if they would only cease childbirth is a cruel phallic of our time. Adolescents make unfit parents and children of teenage mothers typically experience a number of disabilities and birth defects. While Norplant would avert these problems, it does not solve the socioeconomic causes of a risky pregnancy and deprived childhood, however these problems may stem from being raised in poverty stricken homes. The problems experienced with children to teens could be alleviated if teen mothers had better social support, including parental care, adequate nutrition, and assistance with child care.

Social beliefs

Ruth Hubbard the narrator, iterates that she is a scientist and starts the chapter Science and Science Criticism off by speaking of how "[n]ature is part of history and culture" but not vice versa. The speaker goes on to say that scientists are largely unable to grasp the concept of nature being part of life--- noting how she needed several years to understand the statement. Going into her scientific history, the narrator mentions how she originally never questioned how her efforts fit into society. Narrowing her focus, our speaker exposits that the Vietnam-era women's rights and women's liberation movements helped teach her of the roles of science in society.

The narrator continues forth with the various means of debate for both sides. One notable instance from men is when they revive various old and unfounded biological theories on women to justify the typical subservient positions of the female gender. The narrator even refers to the means of debate as "breathing new life" into old theories and assumptions. She further exposits the issues revolving around gender equality that were mainly brought to her attention by how she and her colleagues suddenly started getting promoted from their "ghetto" lab positions right into proper titles. The narrator promptly stresses that "[she believes] the subject of women's biology is profoundly political", explaining away the book's title as she does so. Proceeding onward her desire to go beyond "defining [women as a whole] as victims of male power and dominance," and pushes for women everywhere to show independence and individuality while learning to accept and embrace the biology that's continuously used by men to undermine them. To follow up, the author goes on to talk about women's health activists re-educating women on the functions of their body and goes on to encourage women to use the re-education to attain great power by eliminating the footholds of male misinformation and misrepresentation of their bodies.

The author promptly starts back up by speaking about why women scientists must ultimately and paradoxically turn away from the sciences to make their stand against male supremacy as opposed to the many female and feminist poets, novelists, and artists that can illustrate their points clearly and easily. The author isn't shy to admitting to being clueless about why the world is as it is in that regard as she notes how politics seems to vanish within the sciences. She exemplifies her point by noting social classes aren't a specific category listed under US health studies. The point she makes is that social and political realities can be blended or integrated subtly into all mediums. The subtlety of the integration ultimately creates great difficulty in discerning fact from prejudice. In addition, artists, novelists, and poets can compose their works without being victim to review under the funding agencies that makes the use of scientific fact tedious and less effective. The author leads in to surmise that the issues around women's rights must be raised and brought into public focus. After bringing up how science integrates itself into culture, she exemplifies the point by noting the prominence of biological terms in historical terminology and alluringly points out a biologist's tendency to place humanity above all other animals--- not unlike how men view women and their desire for equality. She raises the question of whether or not women can improve the sciences but makes an attempt to bring into attention her belief that women can make an impact. The author closes by saying that scientists never want their work to be forgotten and lost, and that she sides with feminism for political insight and analytic testing on the scientific assumptions about women.

Politics and Medicine

Teenage pregnancy has received numerous complaints as a blight to tax payers due to their mandatory support of welfare. Unmarried teenage mothers typically don't have the financial resources to properly look after themselves, and, for that reason, both mother and child are likely to be supported by welfare--- bringing more blight to tax-payers. If the mothers do not receive governmental aid, they will seek support from anywhere or anyone they can call upon for assistance. Many parents, teachers, and other taxpayers argue that governmental assistance for pregnant teens can leave the impression that the government supports teen pregnancy, and that using the contraceptive Norplant to stop teen pregnancy all together can help prevent increase in government deficit. However, this praise by taxpayers to Norplant's birth control programs neglects to observe teen mothers being afflicted with poverty. Europe and Canada each give out greater welfare aid and also has lower birthrates. The problem of teen pregnancy can be rooted in sexual abuse, racism, poverty, and poor resources for teen mothers and their children. This scenario remains unsolved by Norplant, which only focuses on delaying the birth of children. Norplant is a contraceptive that is easy to give to the patient but requires a very difficult process to remove which results in many doctors prescribing Norplant. Doctors refuse to remove the contraceptive due to risk to the patient, which the doctors greater control over the woman's reproduction due to Norplant's restrictive abilities. Many say that the assortment birth-control-oriented hormones Norplant projects into the user's body have harmful effects that have been referred to as a "form of torture,"

Anne Faust-Sterling

Case Study

Naturalism

"Of Gender and Genitals" is the third chapter of Myths About Gender by Anne Faust-Sterling (referred to as FS), a sexology and gender studies expert. The chapter starts with a case study description of sickle cell anemia, including the distinction hemoglobins and the risk of having hemoglobin-S crystallize, which leads to intense pain and potential paralysis in times of stress. The lecture on sickle cell anemia ends with two simple conclusions: the first is that a slight alteration to a DNA sequence will leave major changes to the DNA on the whole; the second is that traits and defects cannot be easily predicted. Faust-Sterling's data goes on to state that genes alone do not decide phenotypes; phenotypes are instead decided by the environmental and developmental history of the person, in addition to their total genetic endowment. In the same regard, behavior is not solely decided by only genetics. The data further goes on to state that while the number of nerves is decided in the former half of pregnancy, cellular interconnection continues to multiply and grow throughout the first four years of life. In addition, the mind and temperment of an adult is shaped by the environment he or she is raised in. Factors included, physical fitness, nutrition, and interpersonal relations with other people. Through these studies and analytical work, the following four gender development theories of biological determinist, psychoanalytic, social learning, and cognitive development have been devised.

Gender Development Theory

Following an abridged summary of the prior, Faust-Sterling continues forward and further shows her points on the gender development theories by noting how XY and XX chromosomes stay identical up until the 6th week of development in the womb. During these six weeks, the XY/XX embryos develop an indifferent gonad, an extra layer that isn't affected by the chromosome embryo due to their indistinguishable similarity at the time. This external process develops in a similar manner to the various male and female reproductive organs that later develop within the body. By the end of the first month and a half, all embryos would've developed, regardless of gender. In addition, the chromosomes within the cells will have developed different sets of Mesonephric ducts that are indifferent to gender. A set of ducts ultimately becomes the aforementioned reproductive organs based on the gender of the fetus. Once the Y chromosome in the XY embryo triggers, an extensive and lengthy process is detailed on the development of male fetuses. Conversely, far less is known on the development of XX fetuses. What is known about the female XX is that the fetuses produce approximately the same amount of estrogen in comparison to the testosterone production in the male XY. Later down the line of fetus growth, the originally identical genitalia of the two types of fetus will differentiate on the eighth week. In some cases the XY fetus will initially begin to develop a female crotch instead of the male penis and scrotum due to a deficiency in dihydrotestosterone. After detailing the opinions of John Money and Julianne Imperato-McGuinely on gender identity, Faust-Sterling concludes with the three influences that affect gender--- genetic regulatory information, intrusion from outside the womb, and "chance variation" in development--- and two points on sexual development."