Taking the Village Online: Mothers, Motherhood, and Social Media





Price: $24.95

Page Count: 180

Publication Date: October 2016

ISBN: 978-1-77258-082-2

The rise of social media has changed how we understand and enact relationships across our lives, including motherhood. The meanings and practices of mothering have been significantly impacted by the availability of communities found via forums, blogs, and sites like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, as well as internet resources that function to inform maternal experience and self-concept (ex. motherhood websites, Pinterest, or YouTube). The village that now contributes to the mothering experience has grown exponentially, granting mothers access to interactional partners and knowledge never before available. This volume of works explores the impact of social media forms on our cultural understandings of motherhood and the ways that we communicate about the experience and practice of mothering.

“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