In April, I wrote a post called Has Dooce become the modern day June Cleaver? It got a bit of attention at the time, especially after PunditMom used it to relaunch her Mothers of Intention series.
Please consider this post the sequel.
In the June Cleaver post, I discussed how mainstream media was re-focusing on women in a very traditional role of mother, tripping lightly over our other achievements, and wondered:
Is the mainstream media stuffing women, in general, back in the mommy box because the US power structure relies on women staying in their traditional gender role? To some degree, I think the answer is yes.
Some people agreed. Others did not. Check out the comments on both sites for the true flavor of the conversation. I concluded the post:
Yes, this mom in the media trend makes me very uneasy. Tell me I’m wrong. I want to be wrong. I don’t think I am.
Sadly, very sadly, media coverage of mom bloggers AFTER I wrote the June Cleaver post has largely been evidence that I was on the right track.
Mainstream media has mommy issues.
Consider:
A May BusinessWeek story, Blogola: The FTC Takes On Paid Posts, led with an example from a mom blog, and included two other parent blog examples out of a total of four in the story. The outlier was the well-known Microsoft Vista laptops example. In the same vein, a July New York Times feature, Approval by a Blogger May Please a Sponsor, focused on two mom bloggers, although it did include two other examples.
Newsweek asks: Are Mommy Bloggers Corporate Sellouts?
A Wall Street Journal article about the Mom Dot PR Blackout led with: “How can so-called mommy bloggers navigate the murky territory of sharing advice with other mothers versus getting paid for the products they promote?” and proceeded to make the inaccurate statement that the Federal Trade Commission was considering new rules for parent bloggers.
paidContent’s sincere question: When did Mommybloggers become the devil?
The BNET advertising blog’s sensationalist (and inaccurate) post-BlogHer headline: Mommy Blogger Blackmails Crocs Marketer; FTC Poised to Step In.
Just this week, CBS2 in Chicago ran a two-part series with the provocative title: The Secrets of Mommybloggers, leading with: “If you depend on mommy bloggers to tell you about the best diapers or strollers or baby food, there’s something you might not know about them, and it’s something that has some blog readers very annoyed.”
Even balanced pieces about the FTC guidelines and ethical issues focus on mom bloggers, even though the issues are universal.
Why so much focus on moms? Why does mainstream media have such a mommy issue?
The consumer products companies are targeting mom bloggers, and the media loves to pick on write about the consumer products companies. To some degree, moms are caught in that crossfire.
But that doesn’t explain why food, travel, tech and style/fashion bloggers haven’t been subject to the same media scrutiny. It’s not because they aren’t getting free products or trips. They are. It’s not because they don’t face the same ethical dilemmas, or are somehow more ethical than moms.
To be fair, from time to time, a story from another sector will bubble up to mainstream media. But it’s nothing compared to the inordinate amount of attention paid to the mommy blogger.
The FTC guidelines will apply to all bloggers. Why are they so often characterized as a mommy blogger issue?
During a podcast interview we recently did about Blog with Integrity, Liz Gumbinner said, and I paraphrase, that the media like the image of the poor stupid mommy blogger shilling products for peanuts.
It’s a better story. Why?
Why is it better to create a negative perception of the mom blogger, instead of focusing on the many interesting ways women are using online and social media to make money outside the 9 -to-5 corporate space? Opportunities that would not have existed prior to social media.
There’s an unfortunate element of “oh you silly mom blogger” in many of the major media stories, and it’s generally worse in the comments. It feels just one tiny step away from “oh you silly women.”
Which brings us back to the same issues I raised in the June Cleaver post.
Is all of this just a form of subtle sexism that makes it easier to keep women down on the farm, and out of Paris? Is it somehow easier to marginalize women bloggers if they are generally identified as mothers, even though many are not? Are we perpetuating a society where men run the front office, and women are out back and/or keeping the home fires burning? Sure, we can be corporate execs. Some of us can run companies. Big ones even.
But it often seems that the cultural belief is we achieved success in spite of the fact that we are women and sometimes mothers. Not because of it.
There’s more than a little bit wrong with that.
If mainstream media could get over its mommy issues, would stop dividing women into mutually exclusive stereotypes, I believe that we’d be one step closer to fixing the problem.
We just have to stop letting it.
Juli Ryan says
This post rings true for me, as a mommy, a blogger, and a post-feminist. Thank you.
kim/hormone-colored days says
Amen!
“instead of focusing on the many interesting ways women are using online and social media to make money outside the 9 -to-5 corporate space” You know, that’s what bothered me about having Mary Kay at BlogHer. I mean, haven’t we gone beyond MK in terms the entrepreneurial options for women online? Women, moms, I know are getting involved in exciting projects and creating their own opportunities in this space, that MK presence felt like a throwback to me.
Great points in your post. I’m having internet issues, but will tweet this later.
KimMoldofsky (KimMoldofsky) says
Twitter Comment
Get read for women, moms and marketers RT @sgetgood mainstream media’s mommy issues [link to post]
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dwescott1 (David Wescott) says
Twitter Comment
Excellent @sgetgood: new post, personal blog, mainstream media’s mommy issues [link to post]
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Boston Mamas says
Another excellent post Susan. And I’m left with a palpable feeling of sadness over seeing all of those headlines collected in one post.
I hope the times they are a’ changing. And soon. -Christine
hybridmom (hybridmom) says
Twitter Comment
Really interesting RT @KimMoldofsky Gr8 read 4women, moms & marketers RT @sgetgood mainstream media’s mommy issues [link to post]
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averygoodyear (Tatiana) says
Twitter Comment
RT @KimMoldofsky: Get read for women, moms and marketers RT @sgetgood mainstream media’s mommy issues [link to post]
– Posted using Chat Catcher
bostonmamas (Christine Koh) says
Twitter Comment
RT @sgetgood new post, personal blog, mainstream media’s mommy issues [link to post]
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BabyCheapskate (AngieW) says
Twitter Comment
BlogCoach Fave: Does mainstream media have mommy issues? [link to post]
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Alli says
Great post.
I am appalled at the way the media is covering “mommybloggers”
“just a form of subtle sexism that makes it easier to keep women down on the farm, and out of Paris? Is it somehow easier to marginalize women bloggers if they are generally identified as mothers, even though many are not?”
Preach it!
becky says
Yes, yes, yes. I have been so frustrated with everyone blaming moms for what’s wrong with blogging and schilling and the like. Thanks for this post, Susan.
Marie says
It strikes me as another way to trivialize women’s self-expression and put women in their place. It’s definitely sexism and there’s nothing subtle about it. I think it’s great that blogging gives women, including mothers and stay at home mothers, the space to reach out, make connections and put themselves out there- and that organizations like BlogHer help women make money from it. I was just talking to my husband this morning about what an ingenious thing BlogHer has done to give us all this opportunity to earn money and get our voices heard.
Mom101 says
Great great summary Susan. On one hand HELL YES the mainstream media has mommy issues. What a perfect and perfectly sad but true headline.
On the other hand, there are all too many moms online who behave in a way that it supports the theories. It’s not like they have to dig through the dregs of the blogosphere to find bloggers who support the worst case scenario. Any minority or persecuted group (and oy, it feels weird even saying that) has to work harder to overcome the perceptions.
So we have a responsibility to be better and smarter and to educate one another (if only to be more media savvy) and they have a responsibility to stop passing off seedy, poorly researched Enquire-esque THE TRUTH ABOUT MOMMYBLOGGERS stories as actual news.
Julie @ The Mom Slant says
I’m accustomed to being stereotyped. I’m also accustomed to pressing forward and succeeding in spite of the stereotypes.
The articles sensationalize and paint with a broad brush. In most cases it’s clear that the authors aren’t familiar with the mommy blogging community, nor have they bothered to do their homework. It’s purely about crafting a hot story.
I just wish that supporting fodder wasn’t so readily available.
Susan Getgood says
Unfortunately, I think the issue is deeper than just negative stereotyping of moms. It’s using that negative stereotype politically and economically to justify subtle discrimination of women in general.
Gina Chen says
Is all of this just a form of subtle sexism that makes it easier to keep women down on the farm, and out of Paris? Is it somehow easier to marginalize women bloggers if they are generally identified as mothers, even though many are not? Are we perpetuating a society where men run the front office, and women are out back and/or keeping the home fires burning? Sure, we can be corporate execs. Some of us can run companies. Big ones even …
My answer to your question. Yes, Yes, yes.
The mainstream media is treating women bloggers the way they’ve always treated women in general, by trivializing them and focusing on their “reproductivity.” In other words, defining them only as moms, not as women.
Great post.
PunditMom/Joanne Bamberger says
I just found your post, Susan, and I love this follow up. These are issues that we need to keep raising and I’m glad you are at the forefront. The media and our society continue to have serious mommy issues — I hope I love long enough to see them resolved.
Busy Mom says
People have been talking about consumer products for years and these products have been promoted through advertising and by giving them to people to use for themselves. And? The results vary, some people are even dishonest with their feedback (I know! Who knew?).
Blogs enable us to see that process in action all in one place. That, combined with the fact that the current trend is marketing to moms makes it seem like that’s what the composite “mom” spends all her time doing.
It becomes more sensational because now “mom” has learned to use one of those hard ol’ computer things for something other than diet tips and recipes AND she has a voice in the media.
She is obviously rising above her station and the silliness must be stopped. Why, there are pregnant bellies to be caressed! Coffee to be savored in the kitchen with two hands on a mug! C’mon, now…
But, as with any large group, like Liz said, there are outliers in behavior that support the stereotype. Many of these people are greedy, others don’t know any better, but it’s got nothing to do with their reproductive status.
PunditMom (PunditMom) says
Twitter Comment
A must read from @sgetgood on the mainstream media and its “mommy” issues. [link to post] So good I had 2 tweet it again!
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WhyMommy says
True, true, and I think we do get marginalized, and for very strange reasons.
It’s as if no one who answers to “Mommy” has ever aced a test, rocked a job, run a company — much less done all that while breastfeeding, soothing toddlers, and counseling teens.
What do we have to do, go back to the ’80s and dress like men to be taken seriously?
annie says
Isn’t it also about keeping women in their “place” or “places”. When they divide and define us, we are not united as a common group and are less powerful for it.
Glennia (Glennia) says
Twitter Comment
RT: @PunditMomA must read from @sgetgood on the mainstream media and its “mommy” issues. [link to post] [excellent article]
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Jenna/The Word Cellar says
I think the media’s inaccurate portrayal of all women bloggers as mom bloggers is indicative of a larger societal issue: We don’t know what to do with women who aren’t mothers. With our incessant need to label people, “Mom” becomes the predominately accepted female label, which ends up stripping women of any other sense of self or identity. Somehow the childless and childfree woman is still seen as “abnormal” and is thus discounted. In many ways, a woman without children becomes invisible online and off. This places a woman’s worth solely in her parental role, which is an insult not just to women without children but to mothers, as well.
Amie aka MammaLoves says
I’m getting to this post a little late, but I’ve had it open to really think about.
Not only does the media have “mommy” issues, they also think we all only have small children and think about nothing other than what boxed food we are going to serve them or what type of diaper we’re going to use.
Makes me crazy!!!
Terrific post Susan!
Tish Grier says
hmmm…this is a topic near and dear to my heart–esp. after the last BlogHer I attended in ’07 was overloaded with mommybloggers looking for ways to make money from their blogs…
and I’m also taken by the number of commenters here whose blog names or pseudonyms contain the word “Mom”…
I completely agree that the the constant focus on women as moms is indeed a form of sexism. But it’s also a form that women are complicit in perpetuating. Yes, I understand that you are proud to be moms, and want to share tips about mommying, but why is there such a need to form small cliques and talk only about mommying? why do you feel that someone like me–who has chosen not to have children and is far happpier being single and straight than she ever was married–is less of a woman? IMO, mainstream media is responding to what it is seeing in the blogosphere. It is giving us all the momminess we are willing to accept because women bloggers have made momminess a top priority. Mommies have been quite vocal about their purchasing power and msm has heard that message loud and clear and is just giving the world what it wants…
I think the most insulting to me was a small conference I attended in NYC, where four mommybloggers were on the stage talking about how social networking had changed their lives. The panel leader went to great lengths to explain the whole mommyblogger phenomen (as if we didn’t know already) and then the group went on to talk about the money they were making and how moms made great spokeswomen for products.
So, don’t put the blame for the way msm views women bloggers when it’s something that many vocal mommybloggers have been very happy to help msm and marketing to see.