Don't Call Me That

A Techno-Feminist Critique of the Term Mommy Blogger

Bibliographic Data

ID12749482
AuthorsGina M Masullo (0000-0002-4909-2116, University of Southern Mississippi, corresponding author)
Year2013
Volume16
Issue4
Pages510-532
Publication date2013-03-28
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueMass Communication & Society (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1520-5436 • E-ISSN: 1532-7825
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/15205436.2012.737888
OpenAlexW1981198963
LanguageEN
Citations received29
References cited42

This article argues that although the act of mommy blogging may be empowering, the term itself reinforces women's hegemonic normative roles as nurturers, thrusting women who blog about their children into a form of digital domesticity in the blogosphere. Drawing on 29 blogs posts women wrote debating the term mommy blogger and 649 comments posted on these blogs, the author uses Judith Butler's concept of performativity to rhetorically analyze the term, using a techno-feminist lens and cyber-ethnographic approach. The author asserts that the use of the term mommy blogger continues the culturally ingrained performance of motherhood women learned since childhood, and, in so doing, holds women captive in this subjective norm that may not fit them. The use of mommy, versus mother, highlights the nurturing aspect of motherhood and conjures a prototype of the ideal mother, further marginalizing women by focusing on one attribute that does not apply to all women or even all mothers

Blogosphere · Ethnography · Hegemony · Media studies · Norm (philosophy · Normative · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Term (time · The Internet · Anthropology · Computer Science · Digital Communication and Language · Gender Studies · Gender, Feminism, and Media · Law · Social Media and Politics

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