<p>Mothers have consistently relied upon one another for guidance and support as they navigate the difficult world of parenting. For many women, the increasingly established online community of “mommyblogs” now provides a source of camaraderie and support that acknowledges both the work of mothering and the implications of its undertaking. Beyond their capacity to entertain, how have mommyblogs shifted our understanding of twenty-first-century motherhood?</p>
<p>In examining the content of hundreds of mommyblogs, May Friedman considers the ways that online maternal life writing provides a front row seat to some of the most raw, offbeat, and engaging portraits of motherhood imaginable. Focusing on the composition of the “mamasphere” and on mommyblogs’ emphasis on connection, Friedman reveals the changing face of contemporary motherhood – one less concerned with the proscriptions of what good mothers should do, and more invested in what diverse mothers have to say.</p>

Mommyblogs and the Changing Face of Motherhood

Health, Fitness & Dieting

Friedman, May

Diets & Weight Loss

University of Toronto Press

Mothers have consistently relied upon one another for guidance and support as they navigate the difficult world of parenting. For many women, the increasingly established online community of “mommyblogs” now provides a source of camaraderie and support that acknowledges both the work of mothering and the implications of its undertaking. Beyond their capacity to entertain, how have mommyblogs shifted our understanding of twenty-first-century motherhood?In examining the content of hundreds of mommyblogs, May Friedman considers the ways that online maternal life writing provides a front row seat to some of the most raw, offbeat, and engaging portraits of motherhood imaginable. Focusing on the composition of the “mamasphere” and on mommyblogs’ emphasis on connection, Friedman reveals the changing face of contemporary motherhood – one less concerned with the proscriptions of what good mothers should do, and more invested in what diverse mothers have to say.

Politics & Social Sciences

Social Sciences

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.

Mothering and Blogging: The Radical Act of the MommyBlog

Calixte, Shana

AmazonUs/INDPB

<p><div>Body stories capture a nuanced, interconnected, interactive, and complex telling of our understanding, perception, and experience of and through our bodies. Plenty has been published on body image but image suggests a static fixed body, unmitigated through our social interactions and varying times and spaces. This book is not a "how-to" guide for fat confidence. It's not a compendium of fat suffering. It's simply a collection of narratives about what it's like to survive in a weight-hating world. It resists the ways that marginalized bodies are being written and researched and put into other people's ideas about our existence. The stories in this book are celebratory and are painful. They look at intersections of race and queerness; they destabilize womanhood by presenting a range of possible female embodiments. They explore issues of disability and madness. The full range of possibilities that are collected here give a picture of what it means to live in a society with strong and powerful messages about size, about normalcy, about what a moral and healthy life and body look like. This book is a snapshot of its place and time, but these stories remind us that we're here to stay. The body stories will change but we will keep owning our own narratives. While story, especially written by women, is often seen as outside the academic canon, these stories, these creative offerings, are theory, are research, and are activism. They are nothing less than the blueprint for liberation. Writing about fat and about bodies outside of medicalized narratives, without ignoring the impact of race, sexuality, class, ability, gender, fashion, appearance, and beyond, is radical and rigorous. It is impossible to think about the future without wishing for liberation. Liberation can come in many forms. It can mean an awareness, the ability to confront. The stories in this book display the ways that liberation isn't a finish line or a thing we can complete--rather it is a million small actions and understandings in aid of a renewed and hopeful world.</div></p>

Body Stories: In and Out and With and Through Fat

Andrew, Jill

Women's Health

<p>Feminist parenting creates unique challenges. As women experience the unique powerlessness of motherhood, they also hold the uncomfortable power of acting as advocates for and as agents of socialization and social control over their children. Fathers may feel the desire for feminist parenting whilst experiencing a backlash and a lack of support, while some parents may attempt to resist the binaries of mothering and fathering in their feminist parenting journey. Feminist parents may attempt to resist gender binaries; they may submit to them while attempting to foster critical dialogue; they may struggle with the display of their own femininity and masculinity or, for some, its perceived lack. This book attempts to cast a lens on the messy and convoluted ways that feminist parents approach parenting their children in gender aware and gender fluid ways.</p>

Chasing Rainbows: Exploring Gender Fluid Parenting Practices

Green, Fiona Joy

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Friedman, May. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Friedman, May

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Friedman, May. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Mommyblogs and the Changing Face of Motherhood

Mommyblogs and the Changing Face of Motherhood

Mothering and Blogging: The Radical Act of the MommyBlog

Body Stories: In and Out and With and Through Fat

Chasing Rainbows: Exploring Gender Fluid Parenting Practices