I Am Mommyblogger, Hear Me Roar

Hey look! Jenn of Mommy Needs Coffee has pretty much written today's round-up for me! Thanks, Jenn! Now I can get back to eating bon-bons and watchin' mah stories.

So in case you blog from under a rock, or maybe a unabomber-esque cabin with two tin cans and a carrier pigeon serving as your internet service provider, there's kind of a "thing" about the word mommyblogger.

(Where "thing" = endless debate.)

Technically, a mommyblogger is exactly that: a mom with a blog. But more often than not, you'll see the word used as an insult.

A reductive, dismissive insult: Oh, she's just another mommyblogger, yammering on about her brats and thinking that someone out there cares.

In a nation where the job of caring for children is grossly undervalued, for both moms and minimum-wage daycare providers, I guess we shouldn't be surprised that non-parents (and I've stumbled across a daddyblogger or two who regularly use the word with the same sexist venom as a four-letter word) assume that women who write about their children are not doing anything worthwhile. That we've let our identity completely vanish beneath the motherhood label. That we have nothing to say that could possible interest anyone besides other mothers. Because we only write about our children and ABSOLUTELY NOTHING ELSE.

Jenn is calling bullcrap on that idea:

"Mommybloggers are so much more than a niche or a label that will put a mom who blogs into a tiny box and thus keep her in a tiny corner of the Internet where she can drone on about little Johnny.  Trust me. Mommybloggers are the future and we are storming the gates like the sleep-deprived, take no prisoners, bad a** women we are."

Check out the discussion and the links to some amazing mommybloggers (and I almost put that in quotes! because I'm guilty of the very thing I'm writing about! the first time I got called a mommyblogger I totally cringed!) that Jenn has provided in her entry today, and then maybe lay down some props in the comment section to your favorite mommyblogger who is totally changing the world, one entry about poop at a time.

And then maybe buy her this shirt. Because: yes.

Comments

[Moxie]

Thank you.

It's all bread and circus, this "mommyblogger" thing. As is the whole "mommy wars" thing. If we're divided, then we won't be able to advocate for meaningful change. MOTHERS is having Mommy Wars Ceasefire day on Mothers' Day. The info is at http://www.mothersoughttohaveequalrights.org/

Elizabeth over at Half-Changed World is also have a good discussion here:
http://www.halfchangedworld.com/2006/04/mothertalk_dc.html
about the mommy wars thing.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to eat some bon-bons and read some chick lit. Tra-la-la.

[Megan]

Just wanted to say that I love the "Simpsons" reference. :)

[Frema]

"Watchin' mah stories"--you MUST be a Scrubs fan. Must! And if not, you totally should be.

[Y]

Personally, I prefer the term ""woman blogger who just so happened to have pushed THREE HUMAN BEINGS out of her vagina."

(oops, I hope we're allowed to say "Vagina" on here.)

[Her Bad Mother]

Ditto the thank you.

Kristen at Motherhood Uncensored did a great post about this a while back:

http://motherhooduncensored.typepad.com/motherhood_uncensored/2006/03/the_my_factor.html

The shame of it is, is that it ever *was* a controversy. And that trolls keep coming out of their underground lairs to slag mommies for being, well, mommies the most recent examples being the 'you-can't-be-a-SAHM-and-a-feminist' slag at Queen of Spain headquarters, and the 'mommybloggers-are-a-cult' slag that originated in comments chez moi). Why, why, why do people have problems with mommies? Isn't that like having problems with puppies or kittens or, um, babies? Shouldn't everyone LOVE mommies?

If it is a cult (which, um, ????), it's the nicest, bestest cult around.

(Of which you, Amalah, would probably be considered a high-priestess. Or, at least, the Communications Director in Charge of Public Relations and Good Humor. Just sayin'.)

[Tracey]

All hail the Mommybloggers.

[Izzy]

If my blog had a bumpersticker, it would say:

Say it loud, say it proud! Mommybloggers ROCK my world :)

[Contrary]

Sometimes I'm a mommyblogger. Sometimes I'm a 'Y'all, I have managed to injure myself yet again' blogger. Sometimes I'm a 'OMG, y'all check this out' blogger.

I'm not into labels, for myself or others, so when someone is dismissed simply for what they choose to blog about on their OWN blogs, I tend to lose respect for those who dismiss them, not the other way around.

[RachelS]

I agree with Jen. Our blogs are not just about our kids, they're about our lives. I really enjoy reading mommy blogs and am proud to consider my blog a mommy blog.

[Missie]

Um, YEAH! WHAT THEY SAID! SO THERE!

No fair! Everybody took my comments already! I'm telling my mommyblogger! They took my comments and I had them in my brain firstest! Waaaah!

That's it. I am going off into my corner of the Internet to sulk, write about my little ones, and post pictures of the cutest kids in the world on my mommyblog. Nyah, nyah, nyah.

[Missie]

And Y? You crack me up.

Could I be a "woman blogger who just happens to have had two human beings surgically removed from her uterus after having her bowels and other assorted items cut through by doctors who discussing computers and skiing while weilding instruments of torture"???

But you probably think you invented the whole "pushing human beings out through your vagina" thing, anyway...

[NattyChick]

I say ditto the thing about us bloggin about our lives, not our kids. Our kids are a big part of our lives and man, they do some funny/interesting/batty/weirdo kind of stuff. The stuff of blog-fodder really so....why would we NOT blog about them....seriously.

[sherry]

I've always been proud of the term. I hear it used as an insult and it confuses me. I don't get why so many people hurl it out like it's a bad word. Some people blog about politics, sdome blog about technology, some blog about how they partied for three days straight while strung out on Ecstacy and then missed their history final. I'm a mother and I write about a variety of things, but primarily about being a mother. I've always figured that anyone bothered by that should just feel free to take a hike! :P

[Mama C-ta]

I wrote about this: http://www.mamac-ta.com/?p=119
before and I just could care less if someone called me a Mommy Blogger. I've been called much worse, they have to do better than that!

[voip word]

best site
http://www.voip-world.us/

[Elizabeth]

Come and check out some Canadian mommas who are chatting up this and that. I challenge anyone to even begin a debate with the bright, articulate and helpful bloggers on that site. If one woman or mom feels better, learns something or shares something with someone else through my blog, then I am proud to call myself a mommyblogger. Where is Helen reddy? We need an anthem!

[Gary]

For me "mommyblogger" is definitely a pejorative term. I use it to refer to anyone who just rambles about their own daily life, in a style similar to MySpace or LiveJournal. A blogger is someone who has something to say. Something about their readers, not about themselves.