Bump+ final thoughts

For the past couple months, I have been following the web series Bump+. A pseudo-reality show about three women who were considering abortion, Bump+ started some controversy and even got some heavy-duty press early on, including several interviews on the Laura Ingraham Show.

I spent a lot of time posting on the Bump+ message boards and got quite involved with things over there. Though there were a lot of pro-life people involved with the the series, the producers took pains to keep things neutral in an attempt to encourage those who have had or considered abortions to post and share their stories.

Here is my final post on the Bump+ boards, which I am posting here simply so that I remember it in case they take the message boards down at some point. It may not make much sense out of context.

Florentius says:
March 26, 2010 at 1:59 PM

As one of the “wait and see” posters, I ended up being mildly disappointed with how the series ended. At the end of the day, I don’t think this format was a good way to advance the argument on anything but the most emotional level. And appeal to emotion is a logical fallacy.

We have been told repeatedly that the point of Bump+ was to foster compassionate understanding and to forge new ways to approach this debate. But I say again, as I have said over and over: To what end? So that we can all be kind and respectful to each other as nothing changes and thousands of unborn children continue to be aborted each day?

I found myself in a weird role while watching Bump+. On the one hand, I was highly critical of it here on the boards. Meanwhile, on other boards and in the real world, I found myself defending it from other pro-lifers who wanted nothing to do with it. I urged them to give it a chance and I’m not unhappy that I did.

But now that all is said and done, I think Bump+ was a clever idea that fell mostly flat. I think the viewership numbers bear that out–at least on YouTube. They seemed to spike early on and then peter out as the series went on which indicates an audience losing interest.

I happily recognize the talent and creative energy that went into Bump+. I hope in the future we will see that talent being channeled into projects that can have a more immediate, positive, and wide-ranging impact on our dysfunctional culture.

If you really want to advance an argument, you need to take a bold stance. The middle-of-the-road approach neither inspires nor motivates.