It’s not been a good month for Teen Mom 2 star Jenelle Evans. Mere weeks after showing up in court to battle charges of breaking and entering and injury to personal property (her accusers were no-shows, so the hearing was postponed), Evans has been arrested for assault in North Carolina following her attack on another woman last week. A video of the altercation shows Evans verbally instigating a fight with Britany Truett, who resists until an oh-so-helpful friend shoves Evans into Truett (TWICE!), spurring a physical fight that ends with Evans pinning Truett to the ground and pummeling her repeatedly in the face.
(Here is where I would normally post the video, but you know what? It’s pretty gross. Go to the source link if you really want to see it, but it’s not going to add anything positive to your day, I can guarantee you that.)
With Evans joining Amber Portwood in the exclusive Teen Mom Star Who Really Needs to Check Herself Club, I really think it is high time MTV pulls the plug on what is turning out to be a deeply toxic series.
We still haven’t fully healed from Pauly Shore, MTV. Haven’t we suffered enough?
I realize that critics of 16 and Pregnant and Teen Mom have been saying this for years, but it’s taken the last year or so of BATSHIT CRAZY behavior from these young mothers to really convince me these shows are doing more harm than good. I used to fully believe that 16 and Pregnant (the first season, especially) provided a relatively honest look into the difficulties of teen parenthood, but as the participants of that show (and follow-up series Teen Mom) reach reality star status, it seems that the fame and media coverage only serve to feed whatever damaging issues are already at work in their lives. And as much as I don’t want to cry out in melodramatic “Won’t someone think of the children?!” fashion…well, WON’T SOMEONE THINK OF THE CHILDREN?!
(Tattoos of the children do not equal thinking of the children, just so we’re clear.)
Granted, Jenelle Evans’ latest stunt wasn’t in front of MTV cameras, but I’m certain the arrest will play a part in a future episode of Teen Mom. And although Evans might have gotten herself mixed up in all this trouble without having been a reality TV star, I’m certain that giving her a televised platform for her aggression isn’t helping matters.
The struggles that the teen mothers have in their lives are sad enough; many of them were troubled well before any pregnancies occurred. But the fact that there are innocent kids in the mix is the real tragedy, and a load that MTV could help lighten by not capturing the teen parents’ lowest moments on film and exploiting the ever-loving hell out of them.
But that right there is the reason MTV will never stop: 16 and Pregnant and Teen Mom are cash cows, and will continue to be milked as such. What might have started out as a series to explore the difficulties of teen parenthood has now become a sick circus of can’t-look-away dysfunction. Screw how it’ll affect the babies in the middle of all this — we’ve got the 2011 VMAs to fund!
Sorry, lady. We know you need help, but you’re much more valuable when you’re unhappy and poisonous to yourself and everyone around you.
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