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The radical act of 'mommy blogging': Redefining motherhood through the blogosphere
Abstract
This article provides an alternative to the masculine construction of the blogosphere by analyzing 'mommy bloggers' through the lenses of feminism and autobiography. It uses the event of the 2005 BlogHer conference as a starting point for a discussion about the mommy blogger phenomenon, wherein a constellation of ensuing conversations challenge the use of the title 'mommy blogger' and the activities that are encompassed by it. In qualitatively examining the form and content of mommy blogs, this article ultimately argues for their potential to build communities and to challenge dominant representations of motherhood within our society.
... Mommy blogs have been analyzed for their potential to be liberating, validating, community building, and for their efforts to authentically represent motherhood in all its messiness (Lori Kido Lopez 2009;Morrison 2014;Aimée Morrison 2011;Steiner and Bronstein 2017). Emerging research has challenged these ideas, calling for critical analysis of the intent and effects of mommy blogs to reveal how they contribute to dominant discourses of mothering and rules associated with being a Good Mother (Gina Masullo Chen 2013;May Friedman 2010;Lehto 2020;Orton-Johnson 2017;Song 2023; Kara Van Cleaf 2015). ...
... The majority of existing research points to the emancipatory potential of mommy blogs, such that they provide a space for women to support each other and represent the lived experience of mothering counter to what is normalized in popular media or acknowledged by so-called experts (Friedman 2010;Lopez 2009;Morrison 2010Morrison , 2011Emily January Petersen 2014;Simone Pettigrew, Catherine Archer and Paul Harrigan 2016;Steiner and Bronstein 2017). In Lopez's (2009) analysis, mommy blogs were described as providing an opportunity to resist and subvert unattainable expectations placed on women by offering a representation of motherhood that was meant to feel more authentic to mothers. ...
... The majority of existing research points to the emancipatory potential of mommy blogs, such that they provide a space for women to support each other and represent the lived experience of mothering counter to what is normalized in popular media or acknowledged by so-called experts (Friedman 2010;Lopez 2009;Morrison 2010Morrison , 2011Emily January Petersen 2014;Simone Pettigrew, Catherine Archer and Paul Harrigan 2016;Steiner and Bronstein 2017). In Lopez's (2009) analysis, mommy blogs were described as providing an opportunity to resist and subvert unattainable expectations placed on women by offering a representation of motherhood that was meant to feel more authentic to mothers. Steiner and Bronstein (2017) took this further, arguing that blogs are more than a place to discuss parenting issues and get support by explaining that "they are also an outlet in which to critique, explain, and analyze the entire modern project of parenting and how it is pushed down to individuals by the state and sold by the media" (72). ...
... Within this body of research, parent influencers emerge as unique communication entities, embodying a combination of attributes found in ordinary parents, social media influencers, professional writers, and advertisers. When we synthesize the findings within this cluster, we can discern three defining traits that characterize parent influencers: self-expression (e.g., Blum-Ross & Livingstone, 2017; Jolly & Matthews, 2017) and authenticity (e.g., Lopez, 2009), professionalization (e.g., Wegener et al., 2023), and social involvement (e.g., Petersen, 2014). We will discuss each of these further below. ...
... These attributes enable them to craft a communication style that is embraced by their audience as it is regarded as exceptionally 'close' and 'relatable' (Zhao & Bouvier, 2022). Besides being ordinary parents, Lopez (2009) argues that parent influencers also have a lot in common with traditional diarists and autobiographers, as they engage in the writing of solitary and private reflections from their own subjective point-of-view. Scholars have consistently acknowledged the substantial influence of the desire for self-expression and identity formation among parent influencers (e.g., Hunter, 2015). ...
... Finally, research within the realm of parent influencers consistently underscores the distinct social status and involvement they occupy. While the broader blogosphere tends to be male dominated, the focus of parent influencer studies predominantly centers on mothers as influential figures (Lopez, 2009). Nevertheless, it is posited that both mother and father influencers are often motivated by a profound social consciousness, driven to offer social support within their networks and to redefine societal norms (e.g., Hunter, 2015). ...
... For example, from textual diaries to multimedia-augmented video clips, many ordinary women share their mothering experiences and feelings of joy and distress online for public consumption Reyna, 2022). Such displays challenge the often monolithic ideal of motherhood portrayed in mainstream media, broaden the notion of motherhood, and provide the audience who are in a similar situation with feelings of comfort and empowerment (Lopez, 2009;Lupton et al., 2016). As a consumerist culture permeates the digital sphere, displays of motherhood via blogs or social media are often commercialized to generate profits from promoting sponsored content and products (Blum-Ross & Livingstone, 2017;Scheibling & Milkie, 2023). ...
... In today's cross-platform ecology of digital media, the reach of family displays is extended as they are linked and circulated across websites, social media platforms, and apps . Interactive acts such as liking, following, commenting, and reposting facilitate community building in cyberspace (Lee, 2023;Lopez, 2009;Williams Veazey, 2021;Yang, 2022). Family-focused online communities could also extend to the offline world, creating previously unlikely alliances (Xie et al., 2021). ...
... Such displays not only construct family norms for or within a given online community, but also contribute to and make up popular (sub-)cultures of family practices, such as "doing" pregnancy, parenting, and affirming family intimacy (Barnwell et al., 2023;Scheibling & Milkie, 2023;Tiidenberg & Baym, 2017). As online family displays challenge popular stigmas and (re)define family norms, they help otherwise isolated and marginalized individuals to position and navigate their shared family experiences (Lee, 2023;Lopez, 2009;Scheibling, 2020). ...
The internet and digital technologies have penetrated all domains of people's lives, and family life is no exception. Despite being a characterizing feature of contemporary family change, the digitalization of family life has yet to be systematically theorized. Against this backdrop, this article develops a multilevel conceptual framework for understanding the digitalization of family life and illustrates the framework by synthesizing state‐of‐the‐art research from multiple disciplines across global contexts. At a micro level, as individuals “do” family online, digitalization influences diverse aspects of family practices, including family formation, functioning, and contact. How individuals “do” family online is not free‐floating but embedded in macro‐level economic, sociocultural, and political systems underpinning processes of digitalization. Bridging the micro–macro divide, family‐focused online communities serve as a pivotal intermediary at the meso level, where people display family life to, and exchange family‐related support with, mostly nonfamily members. Meso‐level online communities are key sites for forming and diffusing collective identities and shared family norms. Bringing together the three levels, the framework also considers cross‐level interrelations to develop a holistic digital ecology of family life. The article concludes by discussing the contributions of the framework to understanding family change and advancing family scholarship in the digital age.
... Even before the advent of social media platforms as we think of them today, women created supportive networks with one another online in spaces that focused on issues relevant to them. In the early blogosphere, women penned "mom blogs" or "mommy blogs," which, simply put, "chronicle the lives of mothers as they raise their children" (Abetz & Moore, 2018, p. 267; see also Lopez, 2009). Although the opportunity to monetize such blogs can contribute to women's economic empowerment and promote alternative framings of motherhood (Lopez, 2009), Chen (2013) warns that they can also "reinforce women's hegemonic role as nurturers, thrusting women who blog about their children into a form of digital domesticity in the blogosphere." ...
... In the early blogosphere, women penned "mom blogs" or "mommy blogs," which, simply put, "chronicle the lives of mothers as they raise their children" (Abetz & Moore, 2018, p. 267; see also Lopez, 2009). Although the opportunity to monetize such blogs can contribute to women's economic empowerment and promote alternative framings of motherhood (Lopez, 2009), Chen (2013) warns that they can also "reinforce women's hegemonic role as nurturers, thrusting women who blog about their children into a form of digital domesticity in the blogosphere." ...
... The vast majority of mom blogs are not extremist in any way. Instead, most mom bloggers view their content as a creative outlet that connects them to other mothers with similar experiences, or they may even be a path to financially supporting their families or themselves (Lopez, 2009). Nonetheless, because they often focus on traditional gender roles and the nuclear family, the popularity of mom blogs provides a ready point of connection for alt-right trad wives to enter mainstream online spaces. ...
This article suggests that one reason for the resurgence of populism we see in the digital age is its resonance as a political aesthetic with the style and aesthetics of online culture. Influencers on social media platforms like YouTube and Instagram rely on style to attract viewers and identify themselves with a community. This makes fertile ground for far-right populist movements like the alt-right, who can package extremist politics in attractive content that appears to represent viewers’ everyday concerns. A growing alt-right community on YouTube known as traditional or “trad” wives create videos about femininity, beauty, and relationships. However, viewers who seek out these channels for clothing or hair styling tips leave with another kind of styling: populist messaging that frames feminism as an elitist threat to the “real” femininity of everyday women. Through rhetorical analysis, I find that trad wife vloggers’ videos stylistically suture alt-right anti-feminism to the broader online influencer culture through repeated aesthetic displays of the feminine self, home, and family. I argue that this visuality acts as an aesthetic mode of veridiction for the anti-feminist message that is uniquely powerful on image-based social media platforms. It creates the appearance of broad support as similar aesthetics are repeatedly performed by many trusted influencers. I conclude by calling scholars of populism and rhetoric to attend to the way multi-layered conventions of aesthetics on social media platforms can spread extremist messaging through ambiguous content within and beyond online communities.
... Research shows that these blogs help mothers interpret and transform motherhood representations and that blogs are a source of both selfexpression and collective identification. At the same time, this means that today's motherhood is no longer part of the private sphere (Lopez 2009). What was previously considered part of the private sphere has also been transferred to the public sphere. ...
... Mothers who blog, change their personal narratives through interactive conversations with other mothers, which can challenge and change perceptions of motherhood (Lopez 2009). Gibson and Hanson (2013) argue that mothers' digital forums can support them in their role as mothers.Two different factors play a role in mothers' online communication. ...
... Writing maternity blogs is described by Lopez (2009) as a radical act. The mothers develop their own voice when discussing motherhood and this is clearly different from the image of the good mother that has dominated the media. ...
... Although is it known that (new) mothers and primigravida actively use social media and interact with mommy influencers (Johnson, 2015), a double feeling seems to arise when discussing the helpfulness of this content for the transition into motherhood. On one hand, mommy blogger content is oftentimes seen as a counter-reaction toward the traditional representation of the perfect motherhood in mainstream media, helping mothers developing more realistic and attainable ideas (Hopper, 2014;Hunter, 2016;Lopez, 2009). On the other hand, realizations are growing that the myth of perfect motherhood and the homogeneous representation of it seems to retain in the online environment (Lopez, 2009;Orton-Johnson, 2017;Zappavigna, 2016). ...
... On one hand, mommy blogger content is oftentimes seen as a counter-reaction toward the traditional representation of the perfect motherhood in mainstream media, helping mothers developing more realistic and attainable ideas (Hopper, 2014;Hunter, 2016;Lopez, 2009). On the other hand, realizations are growing that the myth of perfect motherhood and the homogeneous representation of it seems to retain in the online environment (Lopez, 2009;Orton-Johnson, 2017;Zappavigna, 2016). Findings from studies investigating the impact of online mommy content on mothers' feelings and relationships with the children are also mixed. ...
... Today mommy influencers are mostly active on YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok (Hudders et al., 2020;Moujaes and Verrier, 2021). Most mommy influencers post about everyday experiences with the children, but there are also mommy influencers that become known for content on specific topics such as difficult pregnancy or premature babies (Lopez, 2009). ...
Questions are raised about the potential effects of (future) mothers’ regular exposure to the perfect representations of motherhood by mommy influencers. Due to the regular exposure, mothers might see these images as the norm but are not always able to meet with these standards themselves. Based on a survey among mothers and primigravida this study analyzed the association between visiting mommy influencer profiles on Instagram, comparing oneself with these online mothers and perceived parental self-efficacy. For mothers, it was found that both exposure to the content and comparison with the mommy influencers were related to lower perceived parental self-efficacy. For primigravida, the direction of the relationship was different: Regular exposure to mommy influencer content was related to higher parental self-efficacy, meaning that this exposure was helpful. The implications of this study for (future) mothers, mommy influencers, and practitioners who guide mothers through the transition to motherhood will be discussed.
... Blogging was initially conceived of as a 'radical act' (Lopez 2009) in which mothers could dispel the myth of intensive or ideal mothering by sharing honest accounts of the trials and tribulations of being a mother that had not previously been made public. The term, 'mommy blogger' emerged to demonstrate the resistive power of women to challenge patriarchal assumptions about mothering and to stake a place in the blogosphere. ...
... transformed by, the media' and designers have become dependent on digital media to diffuse their collections(Rocamora 2017, p. 510).Rocomora's (2017) work also extended to a brief analysis at the micro-level by considering how consumers style themselves with a 'camera-ready' attitude, offering insights about how fashion is mediatised at the point of production and consumption. Her findings illustrate how fashion consumers are adapting to the algorithmic logics of social media sites(Andersen 2018), curating a version of themselves based on what they perceive a mother should be(Archer and Kao 2018;Lopez 2009;Orton-Johnson 2017). ...
... A second body of feminist communication research related to mothers' use of digital media concerns their interactions with social networking and social media sites. A large body of work has examined how these platforms help mothers to create, inform and learn from others, and to renegotiate motherhood identities and ideologies(Abetz & Moore 2019;Anderson & Grace 2015;Kang 2012;Lopez 2009). In an early study about the emerging and disruptive potential of blogging for mothers,Lopez (2009, p. 744) wrote: ...
Mothers are both users of digital media and facilitators of children’s use, yet little research has explored how these intersecting points of digital interaction shape their mothering experience. This thesis explored how the growing importance placed on digital media use for everyday societal functions impacts the role and experience of mothering in the home. Qualitative interviews with mothers revealed that changes in the digital learning practices of schools, and the need to maintain a digital umbilical cord with children, increased ownership and use of digital devices in the home. Time-poverty was alleviated and exacerbated by mother’s own use of digital media and intensified by the need to manage children’s use. The study concludes that contemporary mothering manifests as digital mothering, a state that is experienced and interceded through complex interactions with digital media in the home.
... New mothers and mothers-to-be have started to use websites, blogs, and social media accounts as resources, since motherhood is being reconstructed through cultural ideologies based on capitalism, patriarchy, and technology (Rothman, 1994) under the imposition of good, sacred, ideal, intense, or perfect motherhood. Joining the blogosphere has been interpreted as a new tool for mothers to become visible in the public sphere (Lopez, 2009). ...
... Those in the first group are usually mothers who previously owned a blog. As Lopez (2009) stated, these mothers, who report their motherhood experiences on their blogs, are now part of the public sphere with the Instamom identity. However, these mothers also feel the need to emphasize that they are popular for more than their appearance: "If it happens with the way you look, beautiful clothes, and luxury things, then they want to continue, but I don't need to bother. ...
The development of information technologies and the Internet has created an enormous economy. In line with this digital transformation, cultural change has come about. Global companies create new trends focused on vanity and pleasure in social media that follow the patriarchal capitalist ideology. Motherhood has also been included in this process, and "perfect motherhood," as an extension to new generation motherhood, has been popularized on social media. Perfect motherhood requires mothers who are responsible for looking after children and the home to also be successful in their professional and personal lives while looking beautiful, young, chic, sexy, and fit. Recently the celebrification of motherhood, which can be seen on Instagram, became another quality added to the requirements of being a perfect mother. Heightened during the new post-COVID times, the "Instamom" phenomenon conceals the fact that women are driven to more states of increased precarity and vulnerability, alongside unemployment, exploitation, and ecological and economic crises. This study analyzes the perfect motherhood myth through Instamom case studies and attempts to show how Instamoms are perceived by mothers and mothers-to-be. By adopting the digital ethnography method, 30 Instamom accounts (with followers ranging from 135,000 to 3.5 million) in Turkey were observed for a year via passive participant observations. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with six Instamoms and 12 follower mothers and mothers-to-be. In conclusion, it was discovered that Instamoms were perceived by their followers as exemplars of knowledge and beauty. Furthermore, the study revealed that both groups were part of the celebrification and branding process, and those who shared knowledge based on experience were considered sincere and created a bigger impression on their followers. It was also discovered that when sharing on social media, these Instamoms attempted to look their best. Moreover, Instamom accounts that prominently use children to increase viewer interaction demonstrate issues related to the "commercialization of childhood." Tangible advice for transformative change is included at the end of the research.
... Društvene mreže ženama omogućavaju jedan vid javnog dnevnika, na kojem predstavljaju svoj novostečeni deo identiteta na internetu. Istraživanja koja se bave ovom temom potvrđuju da se fotografije na sajtovima za društveno umrežavanje uglavnom odnose na roditeljstvo i napredak dece, ali i da mnoge fotografije nameću poželjan izgled majke, način ishrane, kao i slobodne aktivnosti koje preferiraju (Lopez, 2009). Prema Lopez (2009) među popularnim "blogerima" na sajtovima za društveno umrežavanje, u poslednjih nekoliko godina su sve zastupljenije majke, koje kroz fotografije i video snimke prikazuju radosti koje roditeljstvo donosi. ...
... Uprkos "borbama" između majki, vlasnice ovakvih profila na društvenim mrežama pripadaju jednoj zajednici, u kojoj učestvuju u različitim diskusijama koje se tiču roditeljstva i svih tema koje su neposredno vezane za njega. Umesto informisanja o ovakvim temama od adekvatnih institucija ili stručnjaka, žene preferiraju da stiču znanje o majčinstvu prateći istaknute profile socijalnih mreža poznatih majki (Lopez, 2009). Istraživanje Orton-Džonson potvrđuje da sajtovi za društveno umrežavanje donose novi talas ratovanja na internetu između majki (Orton-Johnson, 2017). ...
The use of internet-based social networks intertwines with the mundane, and the practices and contents originating from the networks are a crucial part of individual identity constructions (Van Dijck 2013). Instagram is a social network on which users post images and short videos of users, and therefore identity and social constructs are built using visual means (Serafinelli 2018). Stemming from the theoretical framework of culture studies which focus on the social-contextual specifics of using social networking sites, the aim of this research is to offer an insight into the way one specific group - mothers of young children (from new-borns to five-year-olds) builds and presents their identity on Instagram. This research has attempted to answer the questions of how mothers of young children describe the practice of using Instagram, the way they present themselves and their children, how they establish the border between (semi-)public and private, how they observe their audience on Instagram. The basic research method consists of individual in-depth interviews with twenty mothers of young children who are active users of the internet-based social network Instagram. It has been determined that the mothers of young children use Instagram in order to present their way of life after founding a family and the challenges they face. They emphasize that their children are a crucial part of their identity, and that a photo without them is, therefore, pointless. The mothers are cautious when it comes to the content they post on their profiles, as their children's safety comes first. Due to the presence of photos of their children, most decide to make their profiles private and allow access to the photos only to certain people. The method employed to analyse the transcripts was discourse analysis.
... It has been suggested that "mommy blogs provide mothers with opportunities to challenge intensive mothering" (Huisman & Joy, 2014, p.102), and even redefine motherhood (Lopez, 2009). However, little evidence supports this view. ...
... In studying the most popular blogs in France we were able to find consistent evidence of IM, which indicates that this ideology holds a hegemonic position. According to some researchers, the blogosphere offers room for challenging the dominant representations of mothering (Huisman & Joy, 2014;Lopez, 2009). There is indeed a possibility that mother blogs other than those analyzed in the present study offer such alternative visions. ...
Intensive mothering is a cultural model of appropriate childrearing according to which mothers should unselfishly make a tremendous investment in their child. Using a mixed methodology, we examined the relevance of this ideology to understand the persistence of gender inequality. A content analysis of the most popular French mommy blogs indicates that this ideology remains commonplace, and has even incorporated contemporary concerns regarding sustainable development. Besides the expected themes of the sacredness of the child, the primary responsibility of the mother, and the use of intensive methods for all aspects of childrearing, the analysis of blog posts highlights new themes, including the sacredness of home, need for balance, and the praise of fathers. Furthermore, mommy blogs, as public online diaries involving everyday experience, prompt mothers to confess their failure to comply with intensive mothering demands and, at the same time, to reaffirm their commitment to its principles. Social influence is evidenced by the comments in response to the posts, which demonstrate polarization toward intensive mothering among the readers. A survey study further demonstrates that this ideology is positively related to a series of gender hierarchy-enhancing beliefs and attitudes. As a whole, the present research indicates that intensive mothering should be considered a system justifying ideology, while mommy blogs provide a platform for its diffusion and strengthening.
... Por otra parte, Sarkadi y Bremberg (2005) identifican en el mayor sitio web de crianza sueco Föräldranätet (en español: la red de los padres), que Internet se constituye en una herramienta útil y accesible en la provisión de apoyo en la crianza y la principal fuente de información ante problemáticas parentales, por encima de los consejos de expertos. Lopez (2009), en Estados Unidos, explora las madres que bloguean sobre sus hijas e hijos y cómo expanden desde la esfera pública la noción de maternidad para visibilizar sus versiones multifacéticas. A su vez, advierte que estas comunidades crecen en torno a problemas colectivos más allá de la crianza y los cuidados, desde sus propias voces, al margen de lo estipulado por expertos e instituciones. ...
... Igualmente, los paradigmas imperantes de producción de conocimiento en los que las experiencias de concepción, reproducción y maternidad son de dominio de los saberes expertos, especialmente masculinos, son confrontados y apropiados por mujeres a través de sus saberes experienciales y los escenarios digitales, al margen de las figuras tradicionales de autoridad. Por otra parte, se encontró que recién otros usos de Internet cobran relevancia como la conciliación laboral, la inserción en la sociedad de consumo y el activismo social, este último ya advertido por Lopez (2009). Igualmente, ante mayor comprensión de las potencialidades y los riesgos de Internet, ha cobrado importancia cuestiones como el manejo de la privacidad por parte de madres y padres. ...
Introducción. Internet ha logrado imbricarse de manera vertiginosa e insospechada en todas las esferas de la vida cotidiana; las formas de ser y ejercer como madres y padres en la contemporaneidad no han quedado al margen de estos avatares. Las tecnologías digitales adquieren un lugar protagónico en la forma como mujeres y hombres configuran y agencian sus parentalidades, incidiendo en sus significados, saberes, sentires y prácticas. Método. Este estudio realizó una revisión sistemática de la producción científica que explora las trayectorias y las transformaciones de las subjetividades parentales que se despliegan a partir de mediaciones digitales en la contemporaneidad durante los años 2010-2020. Se realizó una búsqueda en tres bases de datos: Scopus, EBSCOhost y ScienceDirect, recuperando, una vez aplicados los criterios de inclusión y exclusión, un total de 55 artículos. Resultados. Se encontraron tres líneas principales de estudio sobre el tema: (1) Pesquisas parentales, en el que las madres, y más recientemente, los padres, se sirven de las mediaciones digitales para la gestión instrumental, simbólica y emocional de sus parentalidades, especialmente en momentos de transición, crisis y situaciones adversas. (2) Disputas discursivas de las parentalidades hegemónicas, donde las prácticas maternas y paternas, reservadas tradicionalmente a la esfera privada, se hacen públicas a través de lo digital para su significación, debate y renegociación. (3) Emergencias en los usos y apropiaciones parentales, que remite a los mayores usos de Internet en madres y padres en torno a la sociedad de consumo, la conciliación laboral, las preocupaciones por la privacidad y el activismo social. Discusión y conclusiones. Las interacciones facilitadas por Internet permiten la comprensión de fenómenos culturales y sociales más amplios que permean las subjetividades parentales, las cuales requieren seguir investigándose en sus diferentes aristas y posibilidades. Asimismo, es importante que se incorporen estas lecturas a los abordajes y las intervenciones profesionales que buscan transformaciones sociales.
... sharing their experiences through written blogs, but as social media platforms evolved, so did their content, transitioning into highly interactive and influential formats like videos, reels and live interactions (Burns, 2016; Lopez, 2009;Morrissey, 2009). Their authentic voices resonate with their years of lived experience that gives their followers a strong sense of connection to the content they share (Abidin, 2017). ...
... While scholars have extensively studied "mommy blogs" and "mommy vlogs" (e.g., Abetz & Moore, 2018;G. He et al., 2022;Lehto, 2020;Lopez, 2009;Morrison, 2011), there is a noticeable lack of research on dad vlogs and short videos in which fathers share their parenting experiences, insights, and advice. A comparative study of mommy blogs and dad blogs reveals gendered nuances in blog framings of parenting, and that intensive parenting culture affects both mothers and fathers in similar but also different ways (Scheibling & Milkie, 2023). ...
This study investigates the emerging trend of “dad vlogs” and short videos on Xiaohongshu, a popular lifestyle platform in China that incorporates e-commerce. Specifically, it examines how dad vloggers represent fathers’ parenting practices and responsibilities in their videos, and how they construct the commercial aspects of their content. Through a netnography approach and the analysis of 285 popular dad vlogs and short videos created by ten father influencers on Xiaohongshu, the study reveals how these dad vloggers showcase the various activities and efforts involved in raising children. They take on the roles of friend, playmate, and mentor, incorporating a type of humour and playfulness that end up characterising their approach. Notably, a hybrid model of fatherhood has emerged that combines new practices—such as encouragement and an “emotionally strategic” approach—with the traditional Chinese father’s role as an educator, aiming to cultivate high-achieving children. Based on such representations, the commercialisation of father influencers’ content involves different approaches to integrating product endorsements into well-crafted, informative videos with a well-received persona. The findings provide insights into contemporary parenting practices popularised in short videos, where representations of fatherhood attract large audiences, particularly female viewers, while enabling monetisation in the context of Chinese platform economies.
... Sharenting can also challenge the dominant motherhood ideology by presenting realistic images of motherhood and mothering. In a critical examination of "mommy bloggers," Lopez (2009) points out that some of them are portraying motherhood differently from the mainstream media. Instead of the image of the loving mother, they depict women who are overwhelmed by the challenges of a newborn, unsure how to handle a sick child, dealing with postpartum depression, and experiencing hormonal fluctuations. ...
Sharenting, the practice of sharing parenting experiences on social media, has become a prevalent mothering practice across the world, including in China. This paper explored how Chinese mothers defined, constructed, and reconstructed their mothering through sharenting. Using a grounded theory approach, we conducted semistructured interviews with 23 urban middle-class mothers in China. Synthesis of the results revealed three distinct functions of sharenting that reflect a unique mixture of Western feminism and Chinese neo-familism: reinforcing mothering and motherhood, extending mothering through sharenting, and redefining mothering through sharenting. Furthermore, three discourses emerged: intensive motherhood, moral motherhood, and scientific motherhood. These findings provide vivid and nuanced evidence about the Chinese ways of shaping * Youyuan Wang is also affiliated with Lab for Educational Big Data and Policymaking, Ministry of Education,
... Instamums are part of the online "mommy blogging" universe, which initially argued that their documentation of motherhood was a radical act. Mommy blogging moved motherhood from the private to the public sphere, as well as pushing back against glossy celebrity-focused representation of motherhood in the mainstream media (Lopez, 2009). ...
Maternal competitiveness requires that mothers engage in a process of social comparison, and social media may facilitate this competition. However, social media may also perpetuate an unrealistic ideology about motherhood, which can have negative effects on well-being when mothers inevitably fail to stack up. To date, however, these relationships have not been explored. To test these relationships, participants consisting of 252 mothers (Mage = 31.50, primarily from Australia) completed an online survey. We found maternal competitiveness increased social comparison tendencies which subsequently increased investment in Instagram as well as internalization of intensive mothering ideology. Social comparison had both direct and indirect effects on well-being. Internalization of an intensive mothering ideology does not appear to be dependent on investment in social media, specifically. Overall, these results have theoretical implications for our understanding of the role of maternal competitiveness in social comparison, social media use, and maternal well-being.
... Zunehmend besteht aber auch das Bedürfnis von Eltern, auf das Internet zurückzugreifen, um sich zu informieren und Erfahrungen auszutauschen (Mühling und Smolka 2007, 36 (Lopez 2009), in der auch negative Aspekte (wie z. B. Überforderung, Alltagsprobleme) benannt werden. ...
Ausgangspunkt dieses Beitrags ist die Familie als primäre Sozialisationsinstanz und zentraler Ort kindlicher Bildung. Der gesellschaftliche Wandel konfrontiert Familien mit weitreichenden Herausforderungen und verstärkt das generelle Bedürfnis von Eltern nach Rat und Unterstützung. Aufgrund der zunehmenden Mediatisierung werden auch die Sozialen Medien für Familien immer bedeutsamer, da sie ihnen einen Raum für Informationen, Erfahrungsaustausch und Unterstützung bieten. Bislang ist jedoch ungeklärt, wie sich die Rezeption des Social Web auf Eltern auswirkt. Daher wird übergreifend danach gefragt, inwiefern die zunehmende Nutzung des Social Web, insbesondere von Familienblogs, die Familie beeinflusst. Auf Basis eines Mixed-Methods-Designs wurde zunächst eine quantitative Online-Befragung und anschliessend eine qualitative Interviewstudie durchgeführt, die den Schwerpunkt der Untersuchung bildet. Die ersten Ergebnisse zeigen: Die Rezipient:innen von Familienblogs sind eine vordergründig homogene Gruppe von Eltern, die sich hauptsächlich online über kindbezogene Themen informieren, subjektiv ‹wertvolle› Blogs rezipieren und ausgewählten Content in ihr «Doing Family» (Jurczyk 2018) transformieren. Dieser Beitrag thematisiert erste ausgewählte Ergebnisse.
... The whiteness of this digital culture is a function of its allegiance to aspirational and commercialised postfeminist (McRobbie, 2009;Gill, 2007) and postrace (Bonilla-Silva, 2003;Joseph, 2018) discourses, and Asian American participation therein is often understood as 'ethnic entrepreneurialism' in which race is commoditised for the assumed white imagined audience. While the confessional tone and the focus on mundane, gendered experiences across the lifestyle blogosphere has been described as radical for women (Lopez, 2009) and instrumental in generating communities of support for girls and women (e.g. Makinen, 2021;Keller, 2016), these findings of everyday politics and subversion are not similarly impactful for bloggers of colour. ...
While Asian American food bloggers constitute an overrepresented racial minority within the predominantly white food blogosphere, food blogs rarely constitute productive spaces for discussing or building community around Asian American experiences even when published by Asian American bloggers. This study addresses the need for further intersectional analyses of food blogs that specifically take race into account as it explores the racial discourses generated by Asian American food bloggers participating in Instagram conversations around #BlackoutTuesday and Black Lives Matter in 2020. I find that #BlackoutTuesday authorised the discussion of race in a way that was not previously visible in the food blogosphere – for instance, Asian American food bloggers used Instagram posts in these conversations to identify with the politicised identity term ‘Asian American’ which, in turn, inspired solidarity and action amongst the Asian American community in support of Black Lives Matter. However, Asian American food bloggers also perpetuated elements of the model minority myth, distancing the microaggressions they had experienced from the ‘more serious’ racism and threats faced by Black Americans rather than acknowledging their joint and precarious structural oppression. This data demonstrates that the racial experiences of Asian American food bloggers continue to be silenced or diffracted, largely due to the ways that Asian American participation in this digital culture is structured through assimilation and racial commodification. Yet, despite these limitations, this conversation has value in contributing to visibility around minority allyship within the Black Lives Matter movement while also challenging the premise of political silence by minority bloggers.
... Byron (2008), Huffstutter ve Hirsch (2009), Anderson (2011'ın çalışmalarında blog yazan annelerin, ebeveynleri etkilemek isteyen kurumlar ve onların halkla ilişkiler uygulayıcıları için önemli bir paydaş grubu olduğu, aynı zamanda ebeveyn olan bu blog yazarlarının çok uluslu kurumlar için cazip hale geldiği belirtilmektedir. Büyük çokuluslu şirketler ve pazarlamacılar, bu yeni etkileyicilerin ticari önemini fark etmeye başlamışlardır (Friedman, 2010;Lopez, 2009;Morrissey, 2009;Thompson, 2007;Woods, 2005). Lopez'e göre (2009, s.739) bu birlikteliğin çıkış noktasında, anne blog yazarlarının reklamverenler için önemli bir emtia kitlesi olarak gösterilmesi ve bebekle ilgili her türlü binlerce ürün için büyük bir tüketici pazarı olarak sunulması yer almaktadır. ...
Günümüzde sadece ürünler değil, hizmetler, kişiler, ülkeler gibi kentler de markalaşmaktadır.
Kentler için markalaşma, küresel bir gereklilik olarak karşımıza çıkmaktadır. Dünyanın her tarafında
kentler markalaşmaya uygun konuma gelmek için, benzer nitelikteki diğer kentlerle her alanda rekabet
içerisindedir. Bu anlamda markalaşma, kentin ekonomik ve kültürel açıdan güçlenmesini ve çekicilik
kazanmasını sağlayacaktır. Bu çalışmanın amacı, Isparta kentinin markalaşması konusunda, yerel
halkın, çeşitli kurum ve kuruluşların algılarını ve görüşlerini incelemektir. Isparta’nın markalaşmış bir
kent olabilmesi için sahip olması veya öne çıkarılması gereken niteliklerinin tespit edilmesi amacıyla
çalışmada yarı yapılandırılmış görüşme tekniği kullanılmıştır. Araştırma verileri halkın yoğun olarak
görüldüğü alanlarda ve çeşitli kurum ve kuruluşlar ziyaret edilerek toplanmıştır. 400 katılımcı ile yüz
yüze görüşme yapılarak araştırma soruları yöneltilmiştir. Çalışmadan elde edilen bulgular, marka kent
olma yolunda ilerleyen Isparta’nın turizm açısından zengin bir potansiyeli olduğunu, gelenek ve
göreneklerine bağlı bir şehir olduğunu, turizmde popülerliğinin artmakta olduğunu ancak tanıtım
faaliyetlerinin yetersiz olduğunu göstermiştir. Çalışmadan elde edilen sonuçlar, kentin markalaşma
açısından önemli kaynaklara sahip olduğunu ve bu kaynakların değerlendirilmesi gerektiğini
göstermiştir.
... (Ouvrein 2022); and (2) are patriarchal norms of subordinate motherhood reinforced online or, can mothers engage in radical online use to subvert oppressive norms? (Lopez 2009). In response to the first question, this paper argues, following Fuchs (2014), that free digital labor is exploitative, and that even ostensibly benign exploitation (i.e., wherein users might report that they do get helpful mothering tips, support, information, etc., and don't report addiction or anxiety related to social media use) is nonetheless a social ill. ...
Reproductive domestic labor is shifting from its old norm of invisibly creating and maintaining labor power in the highly private and ostensibly non-economic zone of the household. This paper asks whether new forms of complex motherhood, and the means presented to mothers for coping with them in the digital age, should be conceived of as further unpaid labor that sits on top of old forms of exploitation. As mothers increasingly become digital reproductive laborers, the family home is becoming a public and highly economized zone: a workhouse for both standard employers and emerging parties who designate themselves as merely providing online services. In contrast to the frequently posited thesis that mothers are only indirectly drawn into the circuit of capital, this paper argues that the current situation creates the “mother commodity”: a being whose social reproductive labor time is supercommodified via the normative addition of “audience commodity” labor duties.
... Parenting shows are also a medium of expression that has received attention from urban women raising children. Unlike the idealized mothers in traditional media, these shows present the experience of motherhood and parenting through mundane, everyday details (Lopez, 2009). During the pandemic, parenting shows simulated the lives of different families, showing the conflicts and contradictions that may arise during the parenting process, as well as the diverse parenting approaches in different families. ...
With the acceleration of social transformation and “mediatization,” urban women’s parenting practices have become an important factor affecting the demographic structure and national development. The global COVID-19 pandemic has further contributed to the networking of social life and the creation of “Internet moms” who rely on the Internet for parenting interactions. Using a mixed-methods design, this paper conducted participant observation and in-depth interviews with 90 mothers from various industries born after 1980/1990 across multiple geographies in China to examine the impact of urban women’s Internet practices on the psychology and practice of parenting during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as how they were empowered by media technologies to practice motherhood and complete their role socialization through the sharing of parenting information, experiences, and actions. The purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate the changing impact of Internet-based parenting practices on Chinese urban women’s daily lives during the COVID-19 pandemic. Through the analysis of these influences, it was found that the whole society, including urban parenting groups, paid attention to self-expression and self-worth and further hoped to arouse society’s recognition, face up to the identity of “mother” and “female,” and give more attention and support to women. The study also found that, as interpersonal communication channels were hindered during the COVID-19 pandemic, the power of the Internet, represented by social media, has created a new platform for information empowerment, action mutual, and ideation of motherhood for urban women formerly bound to family and parenting matters. From individual, family, and individual parenting experiences to group, social, and shared scenarios, urban women are engaged in emotional and memory interactions, including motherhood-related expression, experiences, and collaboration. This shift from virtual to physical has reshaped their parenting view, helping them break through the confines of family experience and traditional customs in addition to providing psychological motivation to express their gender concepts, shape their self-image, construct gender power, and interpret intimate relationships, pushing them to become more reflective of the times, as well as more capable and authoritative.
... We propose that participating in a CoP alleviates (even if only temporarily) these perceived identity gaps, thus reducing the cognitive load and emotional strain associated with maintaining a consistent self 'performance' or, as Swail and Marlow (2018) suggested, the guilt women find themselves dealing with for attenuating the feminine and accentuating the masculine. As women reflect on and articulate the actions, thoughts, and feelings they share with others online, they present their experiences in more relatable wayspotentially reflecting back the power of the online 'others' they encounter in a community context (Lopez 2009). ...
Informed by contributions of Professor Alistair Anderson to the social perspective of entrepreneurship, rooted in social relationships and social capital, this article examines how members of an online community collectively interpret and negotiate the challenges of pursuing entrepreneurship alongside parenthood. This article adopts a multi-staged research design, incorporating netnography, participant observation, and qualitative semi-structured interviews. The analysis reveals the critical role of networking in how entrepreneuring women construct and maintain community connections and distinguishes between three dimensions of community engagement: Building, Being and Belonging. Drawing on communities of practice as an analytical lens, we offer new insights into the form and function of communal entrepreneurial practices facilitated by the digital environment.
... , (Bartholomew, Schoppe-Sullivan, Glassman, Kamp Dush, & Sullivan, 2012;Duggan et al., 2015). (Lopez, 2009), (Morrison, 2011), (Latipah, Kistoro, Hasanah, & Putranta, 2020;McDaniel, Coyne, & Holmes, 2012). ...
Objectives: This study investigates the current state and subjective meaning of “sharenting” using social media by mothers raising children with rare diseases. In addition, the future direction of parenting social support for parents using ICTs was explored.Methods: Among the mothers raising a children with rare diseases, those who informed their children of their diseases with hashtags(#) and shared their daily lives on social media, such as Instagram and Facebook, were purposefully sampled. Nine mothers with children age one to seven years with different rare diseases participated in the in-depth interviews.Results: Mothers raising children with rare diseases with low prevalence have met various parenting support needs through sharenting. In addition, it was found that many mothers were willing to support other parents with similar experiences by actively sharing their information or daily lives. In other words, sharenting not only enhances the positive cognitive and emotional experiences of mothers raising children with rare diseases but also provides an opportunity to contribute to society, ultimately helping support healthy parenting. Moreover, mothers benefited from various support that transcends time and space through sharenting using social media. Thus, social support for parents in need should be delivered through both traditional and digitalized support integrated with ICTs.Conclusion: To support the healthy development of a children with rare diseases, it is necessary to support the high quality of life of parents and their children. By integrating ICTs, individualized and customized social services can be flexibly provided to families and children with rare diseases that have been neglected.
... These presentations of motherhood offer examples of mothers conducting business from the kitchen table while their children crawl underneath (Littler, 2018, p. 179). Connected with the wider proliferation of 'mummy blogging' (Hunter, 2016;Lopez, 2009) and 'sharenting' (Blum-Ross & Livingstone, 2017), these 'mumtrepreneurs' promote lifestyle products and services typically consumed by other women and parents, including skin cream, cupcakes, wedding services and children's apparel (Littler, 2018, p. 180). 'Mumpreneurs' not only use their own image to communicate with audiences, they configure their businesses around their children (Ekinsmyth, 2014(Ekinsmyth, , p. 1236. ...
In this article we examine the proliferation of anti-vaccine content on social media during the COVID-19 pandemic. We employ a case study approach to analyse the techniques used by 13 anti-vaccine influencers to promote vaccine refusal on Instagram for 19 months from January 2020 to July 2021. Our findings reveal that the maternal is strategically invoked in anti-vaccine content by appealing to three interrelated ideal types: the protective mother; the intuitive mother and the doting mother. These portrayals of the maternal are used to encourage vaccine refusal by presenting hegemonic ideals of the ‘good mother’ as one who is natural, holistic and authentic; depicting anti-vaccination as a feminine ideal to which mothers ought to aspire. Authenticity is framed here as a form of embodied expertise, uncorrupted by culture, politics and the medical establishment. Our findings question the pejorative portrayal of suburban mothers in popular media as critical actors in the anti-vaccine movement by revealing the ways anti-vaccine influencers strategically target mothers on social media to achieve visibility, attention and to support their cause.
... There are several reasons why ordinary parents engage in sharenting: to receive affirmation, support, and advice about parenting challenges; to keep friends and family informed about their children; to collect memories; to show pride in their children; to self-present themselves as good parents; and to advocate for children (Borda, 2015;Lopez, 2009;Tiidenberg & Baym, 2017;Verswijvel et al., 2019). These motivations could be combined in different ways to make money for some parents engaging in sharenting laborthe sharing of parenting experiences for monetary gain (Jorge et al., 2021b;Campana et al., 2020). ...
Sharenting, or the practice of sharing one’s parenting or information about one’s children on social media, occurs in an increasingly platformized digital culture, where visual formats are central across participatory and commercial repositories. This paper investigates the articulation between sharenting as performed by celebrities and the wider construction of children’s digital identities. Through qualitative content analysis, this research looks at how Cristiano Ronaldo, the most-followed individual on Instagram since 2018, his partner, and his mother shared information about his children on that social media platform between 2018 and 2020. Through manual exploration, we searched for Ronaldo’s children across a variety of digital spaces. Our analysis reveals that sharenting on Instagram engages audiences through the portrayal of children as the parents’ extended self. Content from Instagram and news media is appropriated in vernacular and commercial digital spaces for conflicting affects: the cute father-son dyad, and the son as extension of the uber-famous, vain father. This extreme case shows how the digital identities of children of celebrities are widely public, formed by the everyday, intimate content of the family’s life, which is persistent and collectively recreated by news media, vernacular culture, and commercial platforms.
... The visibility of women's labour as mothers has increased as women have embraced social media, with mum (or 'mommy') bloggers becoming important influencers of women's mothering practice (Archer, 2019a;. As eyeballs have shifted from mainstream media, social media has filled the gap for both mothers as consumers and the advertisers seeking to influence mothers and children (Lopez, 2009). The mum blogger trend began more than 10 years ago and, for some bloggers, the practice has resulted in brands paying large sums to feature in 'advertorial' style posts (Hopkins, 2019). ...
Portugal is a country historically marked by in and out (trans)mobility flows of immigrants and emigration. Considering these families’ voices are missing in national research, we aim to explore the “niche” of transnational families. Within the scope of children’s rights in a digital age that gives rise to this volume, we focus on two research questions: (1) how are late modern transnational families incorporating and making sense of communication tools in their everyday parenting chores and family’s interactions; and (2) how are they regulating children’s digital provision and protection.
This study investigates parasocial relationships between adolescents and a genre of TikTok microcelebrities who construct themselves as “Internet Parents.” We analyze Alex and Melinda Griswold's construction of themselves as the “mom and dad of TikTok” through their videos, comment sections, and off-platform interactive content. We ask how the Griswolds construct parasocial intimacy through modes of familial address, how viewers make sense of parasocial intimacy, and how the Griswolds monetize familial parasocial intimacy. Findings reveal how the Griswolds construct parasocial intimacy with their audience through the use of adoption rhetoric and engaging narrative structures, which viewers identify with by expressing their desire for a parent–child relationship with the Griswolds as their adopted children. However, these moments of parasocial intimacies become transformed through influencer economies that commodify social relationships. Ultimately, we consider the ethical obligations of the Griswolds to their target audience of adopted children .
Mothers are heavily engaged in social media, and mommy influencers have become key sources of information and targets for social comparison. This study investigates the psychological mechanisms by which mothers’ parental stress is affected by social comparison with mommy influencers. An online survey was conducted among South Korean millennial mothers ( N = 237). The results revealed that mothers who frequently compare themselves to mommy influencers may experience both positive and negative effects depending on the envy type. While social comparison was positively associated with both benign and malicious envy, the relationships between these two forms of envy and parenting efficacy differed. Benign envy was positively and malicious envy was negatively associated with enhanced parenting efficacy, respectively. Both envy and parenting efficacy serially mediated the relationship between mothers’ social comparison experiences with mommy influencers and parental stress. The implications of these findings are discussed along with suggestions for future research.
The rise of influencers, as power-players in the social media landscape, is a defining feature of the digital era, one that has received much attention from a variety of social science disciplines. But despite the key role that language, along with other semiotic modes, plays in the construction and communication of influencer selves, discourse analytic and pragmatic research on the topic is lagging behind. This volume attempts to fill this void, by offering contextually sensitive insights into influencers’ multi-modal communication on a range of platforms. The contributions rework established modes and tools of discourse analysis and pragmatics to shed empirical light on influencer identities and tensions (e.g. doing authenticity vis-à-vis promoting brands). We specifically attend to (a) the interplay between media affordances and communication practices and (b) the co-constructional, interactive nature of influencer selves with networked audiences, ranging from ‘affect’ to ‘hate’. In addition to linguists, we hope that the volume will be of interest to scholars and students of social media communication, from sociological, cultural studies, anthropological and/or social psychological perspectives.
While each new generation since Latvia regained independence has been slowly edging toward libertarianism and equality, childcare in everyday life is still understood as primarily a woman’s burden, echoing both the intensive mothering discourse of Western neoliberal societies and patriarchal traditions inherited from the
Soviet gender system. This article aims to map the saturation of ‘intensive parenting’ discourse and differences in opinion between Latvia’s population and Twitter (X) users by comparing the results of a survey involving both samples.
This article explores how overseas Chinese parent wanghong (网红, internet celebrities) document, curate, and share their everyday life of parenting on Douyin, one of the most actively used short video platforms in China. Wanghong in this article refers to Chinese parents who were born in China and have migrated outside of the country with children or to form families, and who have attracted online audience and fame by sharing their everyday family life with children and as parents. Despite the technological boundaries between Douyin and its international counterpart (i.e. TikTok), many overseas Chinese, particularly the ‘new migrants’, were found to be avid users and content creators of digital platforms designed for the Chinese domestic market in their everyday life. This article begins with a critical review of emerging studies on diasporic wanghong/internet celebrities and the social constructions of ‘parenting’. Employing a multimodal discourse analysis approach, it then analyses a total of 27 videos posted by overseas Chinese parent wanghong on Douyin. Creators of these videos are physically located in 13 different countries. The analysis shows that while these videos construct diasporic parenthood in different ways, they share a common narrative to responsiblise parental obligations and decisions. The article discusses how these wanghong videos discursively construct and interpellate desirable qualities of ‘diasporic parenthood’, which draw on the various aspects of parent wanghong’s everyday experiences, observations, and values to distinguish themselves from parents within China.
As almost all aspects of our lives, motherhood in the 21 st century also is influenced and transformed by new media. Parents, especially mothers, use the Facebook, Instagram and even Twitter (X) as digital diaries, as stages for performing an ideal mother's role, or even "safe spaces" to gain support and the feeling of empowerment. Recent research of motherhood discourses and mothering practices in social media has mainly focused on the evidence of mediation and mediatization. However, limited attention has been brought to examining Twitter in context of mothering. Therefore, this paper focuses on the narratives of a particular cluster of Latvian-speaking mothers on Twitter who use Twitter as a platform for exchanging informational, emotional and physical support, forming a "portable" community. The case study consists of a narrative analysis of 11 in-depth semi-structured interviews with mothers and a thematic analysis of 1111 tweets, gathered from 9 other public Twitter accounts (covering a period of 2 weeks), that have been identified by interviewees as part of this particular Twitter-bubble. The paper provides an insight into the narratives of women, voicing their motherhood struggles and victories in the "safe space" of Twitter's "bubble" of new Latvian mothers, illuminating also a unique and unlikely use for an asymmetric and decentralized social media platform.
In social networks such as Instagram, many mothers present themselves together with their children („sharenting“). The present study investigates how this (self-) presentation takes place and which visual messages play a role in it. Using visual analysis, we compared pictures of German- and French-language Instagram posts. It turns out that both national contexts are dominated by images that can be interpreted as visualizations of intensive motherhood. The visual analysis brings out the intimate connection between the mothers and their children, and at the same time a professional understanding of motherhood. Despite different national traditions and frameworks of motherhood in France and Germany, there are great similarities in the visual representation of mothers on Instagram. This finding suggests that the growing use of social media may be accompanied by an internationalization of social and visual norms.
Teknolojinin hızla gelişmesi ve internetin yaygınlaşmasıyla birlikte dijital mecralar, farklı kesimlerden insanları bir araya getirmekle birlikte anne olan kadınların da görünür olmasını mümkün kılmıştır. Annelerin dijital mecralarda görünür olması, annelik kavramının çok boyutlu bir şekilde yeniden tartışılmasını gerektirmektedir. Bu araştırmada ise gözetim, iktidar ve özne kavramları temelinde dijital mecralardan biri olan Instagram’da anneliğin nasıl inşa veya yeniden inşa edildiğini ortaya çıkarmak amaç edinilmiştir. Ayrıca, anneler arasındaki konumlanmaların ve karşı duruşların incelenmesi de önemli bir odak noktası olmuştur. Çalışma kapsamında, annelik deneyim ve pratikleriyle ilgili yoğun paylaşımlarda bulunan on üç annenin Instagram profillerindeki hem yazılı hem de görsel içerikler ve aynı zamanda gözetleyen-gözetlenen ilişkisini de ortaya koymak adına annelerin paylaşımlarının altında yer alan takipçi annelerin yorumlarının içeriği incelenmiştir. Örneklem kapsamındaki annelerin profillerindeki içerikler ve yorumlar söylem analizi yöntemiyle analiz edilmiştir. Elde edilen bulgular, bilim ve bilgi içeren, mükemmel annelik ideolojisini besleyen, rekabeti içeren hegemonik anneliğin inşasının varlığını ortaya koymuştur. Bununla beraber edilgen annelik, gelenekçi annelik ve yargılayıcı annelik öznellikleri de tespit edilmiştir. Ayrıca hiyerarşik konumlanmaların, yargılamaların ve rekabetin dayanışmayı bozan bir şekilde, anneler arasında iktidar mücadelelerine ve çatışmalara yol açtığı sonucuna ulaşılmıştır.
In this study we performed a critical discourse analysis of the r/workingmoms subreddit during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic (March–May 2020). Using this data we argue that Reddit’s platform can facilitate what we schematize as feminist “identity spaces.” We use the heuristic of “spaces” rather than “networks” or “online communities” and connect this theorization to our understanding of the discursive work on the subreddit which facilitates in-group communication and situated structural critique. However, we also interrogate the political possibilities of identity spaces and understand them as a symptom of what Angela McRobbie has called “the cultural politics of disarticulation.” Ultimately, we argue that the same platform affordances that allow for identity spaces to thrive also limit their political potency and we frame this within Lauren Berlant’s theorization of “cruel optimism.”
The purpose of this study is to compare gendered framings of family issues in popular mommy blogs and dad blogs to assess what they reveal about parenting ideologies. Blogs are cultural arenas where parents navigate what it means to be a “good” mother or father. Despite a growing body of work on parents' use of social media, the content and framing of parenting blogs by gender is understudied. Through a comparative analysis of 400 written posts from the top 20 mommy bloggers and dad bloggers in the United States and Canada, we examine the scope and construction of family issues in blogs and how they are framed by mothers versus fathers. Mothers frame parenting in ways that highlight their investment in safeguarding children's futures, often through consumer solutions. Both mothers and fathers extend similar concerns around protecting family health and create a counter‐frame against intensive parenting by admitting and accepting imperfection. Fathers' posts emphasize how work and gender norms constrain men's ability to be involved parents. Our comparative analysis illustrates gendered nuance in blog framings of family life and presents slight indications of shifting toward a shared culture of intensive parenting. This study elucidates the potentials and pitfalls of parenting blogs as platforms for family knowledge mobilization and social advocacy around parenting problems in a consumerist digital society.
This article explores the temporal entanglements of care and precarity in Vietnam by unpacking the condition of “hectic slowness” experienced by mothers who sell food on Facebook against the widespread fear of dietary intoxication. Unlike the common association of “slowness” with an absence of activity, these trader-caregivers’ experience of “slowness” is defined by an overwhelming pressure of childcaring chores, casualized jobs, and intensified insecurities. At the center of this frantic inescapability is the caregiving “heart” [tâm] in the digital race, when a mother carries multiplied burdens while trying to move forward at the screen scrolling speed. Young mothers’ hectic slowness, however, is wired into an alternative temporality of the grandmothers, who effectively offer their care but remain largely out-of-sync with both the digital race and the stigma of “backwardness.” The continuities and mutations of precarized care across generations prove the need to learn from the long history of care agencies and vulnerabilities on the ground of the Global South.
The lens of decolonisation invites the opportunity to reflect on the current mainstream viewsregarding the purpose of the public university. A decolonized approach suggests that the keytasks of a university (teaching, research and community engagement) should be sociallyresponsive. This conceptual article draws on a class project to suggest a way in which the threetasks can be combined to respond so a particular social need. Against the foil of a class project -situated in a larger Izindaba Zokudla (conversations about food) community engagement projectof the University of Johannesburg – this article argues: 1) instead of conventional teachingmethods, teaching should be based on an empowerment education model; 2) instead of atop-down externally initiated model, community engagement should use a participatory multistakeholderapproach; and 3) instead of conventional research approaches, research should betransformative. The article concludes, firstly that it is possible to integrate the teaching, researchand community engagement tasks of a public university productively, and secondly, it shouldtake as point of departure empowerment education, participatory community engagement, andtransformative research.
Social network sites allow users participation as sharing of information, exchange of ideas and presentation of themselves. In this process, the focus is on a wide range of formerly private topics that are now publicly negotiated. In recent years women who post content about their motherhood on Instagram are becoming increasingly popular. Thus, motherhood, both its individual negotiation and the associated structural conditions, increasingly takes place not only in private, but also in the public space of the new media. International studies deal more and more with this phenomenon and show that predominantly positively occupied motherhood-topics are published by so called mumfluencers, leading to a “positivity bias”. The article deals with motherhood in social media in the context of existing research and discusses the advantages and disadvantages of corresponding developments. It outlines a possible theoretical integration of the phenomenon from different perspectives and subsequently points out perspectives for further research.
Objective
This study examines thematic content and discourse surrounding multiracial socialization between Black and non‐Black multiracial families on multiracial mommy blogs.
Background
Mommy blogs have been recognized as a medium through which mothers challenge dominant representations of motherhood, create community with other mothers, and seek out advice. But little is known about how mothers write about and discuss race, racism, and multiracial socialization online. This study addresses this knowledge gap by analyzing how a niche of bloggers—mothers to multiracial children—construct narratives surrounding race, multiraciality, and multiracial socialization online and how their narratives differ by the racial makeup of the blogger's family.
Method
Using a MultiCrit framework, this study analyzes 13 mommy blogs written by mothers of color with multiracial children. Blogs were analyzed for thematic content related to race, racial identification, multiraciality, and multiracial socialization.
Results
The findings demonstrate that mothers' orientations to multiracial socialization vary depending on whether the blogger has Black or non‐Black multiracial children. Bloggers who are mothers to Black multiracial children blogged frequently about their engagement in safety socialization , whereas mothers with non‐Black multiracial children did not.
Conclusion
The stark difference between thematic content from bloggers with and without Black multiracial children highlights the differing experiences among Black and non‐Black multiracial people, for mothers of Black multiracial children, and the implications anti‐Black racism has on family processes.
Global economic and social transformations, as well as technological progress, require people to modify used methods of communication. Traditional forms of information exchange have given way to the so-called new media enabling trouble-free communication using the Internet. These changes also affected family life. Digitization, appearing at each stage of the functioning of the family system, is to some extent based on remote communication processes, allowing its individual members to carry out their development tasks. According to the theory of social learning, parents constitute the basic pattern of behavior that children derive from and reproduce. Therefore, parental functioning in the virtual world is important for the later adaptive use of the Web by representatives of the younger generation. In addition, online communication acts as a source of information and a normalizer of social relations, fosters building interpersonal competencies and identity, and modifies the way of fulfilling the parental role. Based on the above-mentioned aspects, this article characterizes the process of digitization of motherhood and fatherhood, showing the basic ways and consequences of using the Internet by parents, and systematizing the knowledge about communication functions in the context of mothers and fathers online activity.
This article discusses the many distinct conceptions of labor at play in the digital media and communication literature. Joining recent studies, it critiques the scarcity of research on the gendered dimension of digital labor and suggests communication as a missing link to understanding the role of everyday interactions in the digital economy. In doing so, it specifies relational communication as a particularly important but also under-researched aspect of social reproductive labor and argues for a re-conceptualization of the sociological concept of “the second shift”, by introducing “the digital shift”. Lastly, the article charts the implications of increasingly datafied digital communication, and debates if and how the commodification and monetization of relational communication can be understood as exploitation that reproduces and reinforces existing inequalities. Thereby, the article pushes feminist critiques from the outskirts to the center of critical data studies.
The Elf on the Shelf (EotS) has become—as well as being a best-selling book and toy of the same name—a cultural phenomenon. As a Christmas tradition, the EotS only dates back to 2005, but has quickly gained hold in homes across the world. For the marketers of EotS, it’s also a huge money-spinner, earning millions worldwide. Originally self-published as a book by a retired teacher in 2005, the EotS book now sells with an EotS toy who sits on the shelf and, according to its story, reports back to Santa any ‘naughty or nice’ behaviour of the resident children. The EotS resides in many homes and schools pre-Christmas, giving parents and teachers leverage in the lead up to Christmas. EotS can also be viewed as a more sinister societal surveillance tool, normalising the panopticon and making parents complicit with the concept of omnipresent spying. While ‘magical’ rather than technological, EotS could nevertheless be seen as normalising and promoting a parentally-endorsed surveillance (and consumer) culture. Simultaneously, the EotS also has become both a chore and a source of fun for parents of Santa believers globally, as parents (mostly mothers) each night change the Elf’s location and position.
Link to the full volume https://www.ledonline.it/index.php/LCM-Journal/pages/view/qlcm-12-Authenticity-on-YouTube
This article is based on a very straightforward question: what are the differences
between conventional handwritten diaries and the online diaries that
are increasingly appearing on the World Wide Web? I argue that an important
aspect of the differences lie in the experimental and material conditions
of the Web itself.
This article reports that blogging is sometimes viewed as a new, grassroots form of journalism and a way to shape democracy outside the mass media and conventional party politics. Blog sites devoted to politics and punditry, as well as to sharing technical developments, receive thousands of hits a day. But the vast majority of blogs are written by ordinary people for much smaller audiences. This article reports the results of an ethnographic investigation of blogging in a sample of ordinary bloggers. Researchers investigated blogging as a form of personal communication and expression, with a specific interest in uncovering the range of motivations driving individuals to create and maintain blogs. Blogs combine the immediacy of up-to-the-minute posts, latest first, with a strong sense of the author's personality, passions and point of view. They found tremendous diversity in blog content, even in their limited sample. On the serious side, a graduate student in genetics, posted commentaries on science and health, covering such topics as AIDS, heart disease, science education and health care policy.
In reporting news stories about maternal infanticide, journalists and sources employ the narrative of the flawed mother in explaining why women killed their children. A qualitative analysis of 250 US news articles over a 12-year period found that journalists characterized murderous mothers in oppositional terms, as either superior nurturers driven to insanity because they cared so much, or inferior caretakers who shirked their maternal duties because they cared so little. This focus on the individual allowed journalists to organize and simplify complex information from diverse sources; however, reporters missed opportunities to present infanticide in the broader context of gender inequity and to examine disparities in punishments for women convicted of murdering their children. Journalists’ accounts of the causes of maternal violence - postpartum illness, economic stress, alcohol and drug abuse, too early and unplanned pregnancies, and loss of hope for the future - too often were superficial, reinforcing the myth of the all-knowing, all-loving, and all-powerful mother, and ignoring the fact that infanticide is a crime that has complex causes. Journalists can strengthen reporting on maternal violence by critically examining stereotypes of mothering as ‘natural’, and therefore easy, and by questioning the availability of family, community, and institutional resources for women who cannot or do not mother well.
An analysis of online diaries suggests some of the ways in which autobiographical
stories and subjects are shaped on the Web. The computer as a
writing tool, and the Web as a publishing medium, influence the practices
of diary writing, affecting how diaries are written, what is written and to
whom, and how they are read and interpreted.
This article provides a critical discussion and empirical investigation of secondary digital divide factors, including gendered variations in Internet use. Analyses were conducted on data obtained from 716 respondents, who were self-reported Internet users based on a nation-wide telephone survey in Singapore. Results showed that females and males differed significantly in terms of their perceived Internet efficacy and identified various factors including socio-economic status, perceived Internet efficacy, and gender that undergird Internet use.
Advertising and Political Economy of Lesbian/Gay Identity
- F Fejes