Excerpt: Not Our Kind of Girl

Kaplan, Elaine Bell. [1995] 2005. "Not Our Kind of Girl". Pp. 13-20 in Understanding Society, 2nd ed., edited by Margaret L. Andersen, Kim Logio, and Howard Taylor. Belmont, CA: Thomson Learning, Inc.

Elaine Bell Kaplan studied African American teenage mothers and the impact of their sexual behavior on the Black community as a whole. Most Americans recognize the phenomenon of teenage motherhood and assume that it's the cause of many problems that go on to self-perpetuate. "The popular view of many Americans [is that] marital status and age-appropriate sexual behavior ensure the well-being of the family and the community", she says.

Much of the article discusses Kaplan's research methods and her ethnomethodological approach. She interviewed and "hung out" with a number of Black teenage mothers to understand how and why gender, race, and class affect their lives and how they make sense of their world. She observed and talked to them over a seven month period to gain insight into this social issue.

She notes the importance of being an insider—someone of similar "culture, community, ethnicity, or gender background of the study participants"—and the possible dilemma of exposing the issues of her community to outsiders, who may take her work out of context to the detriment of those involved. Many of the girls she contacted were reluctant to open up to a researcher at first, but came to identify with her as a black woman and a mother.

Clearly selected to demonstrate research methodology, the excerpt teases the reader with hints of fascinating results. She does state a few valid theoretical points in this selection ("The only way to reduce the number of teenage pregnancies or to improve the lives of teenage mothers is to understand the societal causes by examining the realities of these girls' lives") and I've no doubt that her book explains a good deal more about these realities.

For now though, my interest is theoretical and not practical.

Relevance: 2/5 (irrelevant)
Salience: 2/5 (trivial)

References:

• William J. Wilson - cited in agreement. "Or, as William J. Wilson's economic theory suggests, is Black teenage motherhood simply a response to the economic problems of the Black community?"
• T.S. Eliot - as an example. "As T.S. Eliot noted long ago, reality is often more troubling than myth."