Price: $24.95
Page Count: 204
Publication Date: May 2009
ISBN: 978-1-55014-488-8
At the 2005 BlogHer conference writer and mommyblogger Alice Bradley (finslippy.com) responded to criticisms that mommyblogging was solipsistic and self-indulgent by stating that “Mommyblogging is a “radical act.” This collection seeks to interrogate this emergent genre in all its contradiction and complexity, looking equally at the ways that mommyblogs benefit some mothers while relegating others to the margins. Most importantly, however, this collection sheds light on a growing and overwhelming site of maternal narrative where many mothers are able to take on the “radical act” of speaking for themselves.
“With wit and candour, this book deconstructs concepts of ‘mommy’ and motherhood, offering a unique set of perspectives that capture the tension between women’s individual and collective personal, cultural, and political identities and experiences as lived through new technologies.”
- Krista Scott-Dixon, author of Doing IT: Women Working in Information Technology
Mommyblogging is a way for moms to share the good, bad and ugly, YFile, October 26, 2009
Mothering and Blogging Review at Postcards from the Mothership
Introduction
May Friedman and Shana Calixte
Foreword: Small World: Maternal blogging, virtual friendship, and the computer-mediated self
Judith Stadtman Tucker
Chapter One: Someone Else's Shoes: How On-Blog Discourse Changed a Real Life Adoption
Dawn Friedman
Chapter Two: Blogging Pregnancy: Ultrasonography, Connectivity and Identity Construction
Julie Palmer
Chapter Three: I Kid You Not: How the Internet Talked Me Out of Traditional Mommyhood
Jennifer Gilbert
Chapter Four: Kindred Keyboard Connections: How Blogging Helped a Deafblind Mother Find
a Living, Breathing Community
Lisa Ferris
Chapter Five: Marginality in the Mamasphere: Queers Racializing the Family Tree
Shana Calixte and Jillian Johnson
Chapter Six: Meter Politikon: On the “politics” of mommyblogging
Catherine Conners
Chapter Seven: Blog for Rent: How marketing is changing our mothering conversations
Jen Lawrence
Chapter Eight: LesbianFamily.org: Expanding the Understanding of Motherhood and Visibility
of Lesbians, or "Um. If you don't mind my asking…how does a lesbian get pregnant?"
Liza Barry-Kessler
Chapter Nine: Beyond Cute: A mom, a blog, and a question of content
Melissa Wilkins
Chapter Ten: Blogging the Romanian Mother: “Motherhood” and “Mothering” Intertwined
Oana Petrica
Chapter Eleven: Web 2.0, Meet the Mommyblogger
Ann Douglas
Chapter Twelve: Schadenfreude for Mittelschmerz? Or, Why I Read Infertility Blogs
May Friedman
Chapter Thirteen: “HEY CELEBS! QUIT THAT BEHAVING! DON'T MAKE US COME
DOWN THERE!”: Celebrity Moms, Babies, and Blogs
Elizabeth Podnieks
Contributor Biographies
Shana L. Calixte is a PhD candidate in the School of Women’s Studies at York University and a sessional lecturer in the Department of Women’s Studies at Laurentian University. Her current academic work is focused on examining the histories of Caribbean Girl Guide associations, girlhood, sexuality and HIV/AIDS education. She is also reconnecting with her love of Hip Hop music, teaching courses on Girl Cultures and Hip Hop Feminisms. She lives with her partner and son Leandré in Sudbury.
May Friedman combines social work with graduate studies and, of course, mothering. One of her most cherished activities is sitting on the sofa reading mommyblogs, an activity she hopes to put to work in the context of her forthcoming dissertation.
