Presenter(s): Abigayle Almond
Faculty Mentor(s): CJ Pascoe
Poster: 134
Session: Social Sciences & Humanities
It is hard to go far on the internet today without stumbling upon a mommy blog. While many of the larger blogs avoid substantial personal content in favor for the commodification of this platform, many smaller mommy blogs offer a tightly woven community and support system for mothers to discuss personal life events, or larger societal occurrences with similar, like-minded mothers from across the globe. This research asks: In what ways do mommy bloggers produce, publish, and engage in discussions regarding social hierarchies of race, class, and gender through their blogs? In a qualitative content analysis of 30 popular English speaking mommy blogs, the ways in which social hierarchies of race, class, and gender are preserved were examined and explored. The majority of mothers on this platform present their families as the white, upper- middle class, and heterosexual norm, while actively avoiding discussions of politics, current events, or conversations of equality and fairness. While research has been done into what mommy bloggers get out of their experience in the blogosphere, or ‘mamasphere,’ and the ways in which the bloggers and readers interact with each other, what has yet to be explored are the ways in which these social hierarchies are maintained and reinforced through the mamasphere making this research important to understanding mothering and parenting in the digital age.