Price: $24.95
Page Count: 180
Publication Date: October 2016
ISBN: 978-1-77258-082-2
“This thoughtful collection adds depth to the conversation about motherhood and social media. In considering the many different and contradictory effects of life online, this book engages with issues of self-representation, privacy, and meaning making. In acknowledging that this is now the village we all live in, Taking the Village Online widens the conversation about why we live and, how and what we do, in these spaces.”
—May Friedman, author of Mommyblogs: The Changing Face of Motherhood
“Taking the Village Online is a timely and significant piece of work. It addresses many areas relevant to motherhood such as intensive mothering; the mommy wars; relying on each other rather than on specialists; and the ambivalence of motherhood. The book addresses how difficult it is to be an intensive mother on twitter and addresses the issue through reflection and from mothers’ perspectives. The organization of the book is terrific and the chapters meld into the sections beautifully. It could easily cross over into the mainstream, as it is meaningful and pertinent to both academic and reader alike.”
—Linda Rose Ennis, author/editor of Intensive Mothering: The Cultural Contradictions of Modern Motherhood, psychoanalytic therapist and family mediator
“Taking the Village Online offers an empowered perspective of mothers, and how parents can utilize social media to gain and give voice, create and maintain community and support, become individual activists and allies, and ultimately aid in becoming more open and aware individuals with regards to the relationships with their children, their possible partners, intimate and extended communities, and their selves. Poignantly addressing issues of motherhood and mothering in a mediated society from differing research perspectives, the power of the book lies in its ability to engage the reader in conversations surrounding contemporary mothering and motherhood while offering room for resonation and application to the readers own experiences of mothering, community, relationships and self.“
—Daniel S. Strasser, Assistant Professor, Gender and Family Communication,
Rowan University
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Mothering and Social Media:
Understanding, Support, and Resistance
Lorin Basden Arnold and BettyAnn Martin
I: CONSTRUCTING MOTHERHOOD AND SOCIAL MEDIA
Digitally Mediated Motherhood:
Mommy Blogs and Reading Mothering
Kate Orton-Johnson
The “Wicked Stepmother” Online:
Maternal Identity and Personal Narrative in Social Media
Kirsti Cole and Valerie R. Renegar
Confession in 140 Characters:
Intensive Mothering and the #BadMom Twitter
Lorin Basden Arnold
II. SUPPORTING MOTHERS THROUGH SOCIAL MEDIA
Boobs, Babes, and Boots:
Breastfeeding Support, Facebook, and Military Mothers
Amy Barron Smolinski
Mothering in the Digital Diaspora
Leah Williams Veazey
Mothers of Honor:
Intentional Creation of Pregnancy, Birth, and
Postpartum Support
Tara Stamm, Casey Yu, and Stephanie Kennedy
Mothering is not a Game:
Game-Changing Measures for Parenting Education
Amy E. Cross
III. MOTHERS, RESISTANCE, AND SOCIAL MEDIA
From “Fakebooking” and “Flaming” to a
“Moms’ Support Network”:
Reinforcing and Resisting Intensive Mothering Online
Bronwen L. Valtchanov, Diana C. Parry, and Troy D. Glover
Hip Mama:
Mother Outlaws in Cyberspaces
Anitra Goriss-Hunter
Virtual Outlaws:
Feminist Motherhood on the Internet
Jocelyn Craig
Feminist Parenting Online:
Community, Contestation, and Change
Meika Loe, Tess Cumpstone, and Susan B. Miller
Epilogue
Notes on Contributors