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Recently in Salon Mothers Who Think

Different hero, different war
John McCain's first wife won't say a harsh word about the man who dumped her. Is she a spineless wimp or a quiet hero?
By Jennifer Foote Sweeney
[03/06/00]

Consumed by consumption
Shoplifting brand-name jeans is more honest than buying them.
By Amy Benfer
[03/06/00]

Lessons in consumption
Only by immersing our children in marketing can we teach them to choose.
By Nick Gillespie
[03/06/00]

Watching TV on the bus
Teen TV novelizations invade bookstores and void the teenage mind.
By Carina Chocano
[03/03/00]

The tyranny of "Abercrappie"
My brother is under the spell of a company that promotes the frat-boy free-for-all.
By Damien Cave
[03/03/00]

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But there is one thing that always gets to me in TV land: abortion. I'm sure you've noticed the cliché: Any "good" character who has an unwanted pregnancy on network television either has a miscarriage or gets some strange, mysterious disease that rids her of the inconvenient fetus. If only reproduction worked that way in real life! The rare good character who wants to be pregnant always has the baby. (Remember Andrea on "90210," way back when?) I can't help myself: I yearn for an abortion plot line.

Which explains my naive excitement when a plot line about abortion developed on "Felicity." Now, I'm well aware that the pretty young college kids who populate the TV environment of Felicity's urban university in no way reflect the reality of your average college undergraduate, let alone the urban, working-class students whom I teach. Again, it's just my overwhelming desire for a decent abortion plot line.

It did look hopeful for a while. Noel (a nice guy) got Ruby (his nice girlfriend, although one of the show's minor characters -- a sign of trouble) pregnant. The episode began with Ruby and Noel agonizing over a pregnancy test, which they couldn't quite wrap their minds around getting. The episode as a whole reflected the excruciating pain of a young woman watching her life grind to a halt as she faces the fact that she cannot necessarily or perfectly control her body unless she abstains from intercourse -- an overwhelming agony that nearly every woman who has been sexually active in a heterosexual relationship has experienced and that politicians seem utterly unwilling to acknowledge.

At the same time that Ruby went through the mental anguish of her late menstrual period, Felicity had just discovered that she was the product of an untimely college pregnancy. Can you really blame me for feeling hopeful? Since the previous episode had clearly linked the fact that Felicity's mother had had to drop out of school and reroute her entire life because of her unplanned pregnancy, all of which had led to midlife angst, divorce and upheaval, I felt certain that the writers would not force the same fate on young Ruby.

Indeed, the episode next followed Ruby and Noel to the health clinic, where a kind young doctor reassured them that an abortion wouldn't hurt much more than menstrual cramps and that it was three times safer than having a baby. And did I mention that the word "abortion" -- not just a euphemism -- was actually spoken?

As we were watching the show, however, my husband pointed out that no one was touching Ruby. As she confided in Felicity, for example, there was no hug, no physical comfort at all. Even Noel maintained his physical distance from Ruby, whose pain was amplified by the fact that no one seemed willing to comfort her. Did she not deserve hugs? Was she somehow tainted by her unplanned pregnancy?

Next page | Not the symbol I was hoping for