Questions that I know will probably piss people off. But I’m asking anyway.
So, apparently twitter was up in arms about something today. I don’t know. I was cramming for my anatomy exam. If cramming is the right word for trying to absorb 70 pages in 3 hours for a test that isn’t until next week. I’m not really sure. I don’t really care.
But when I was on the train and had given up trying to write notecards at my seat without a table, I jumped onto twitter and caught a few tweets that intrigued me. I had heard some of the same sentiment at BlogHer, so I can’t quite figure this out.
People, women, are up in arms about being called “mommy bloggers.” I mean, some are seriously upset. And I’m not judging them, they’re entitled to be upset. But I don’t understand. Like, at all.
Is being a mommy blogger something to avoid? Is it a derogative?
I sort of feel like anyone who blogs about their children is, for lack of a better word, a mommy blogger. I read TONS of these blogs (when I have the chance, which is never, so basically that sentence is not true), but I don’t value those that aren’t about children more or less than (those I consider to be) mommy blogs. I value good writing, insight or humor. I don’t care if you have 100 kids or no kids at all.
It’s pretty obvious that people who write about their children, moms and dads alike, tend to associate more than they do with those who don’t have kids (obviously not universally, but still). I know that I often feel like I’m on the outside of a lot of blogging adventures because I don’t have children. I think this is a normal association, but why then, is there such a movement to fight the parenting label? What about that is so wrong?
I don’t have much of a niche or genre, I don’t think. I suppose I mostly fall into the realm of health. Unless bitching and whining is a category, in which case, I deserve a freaking award.
Isn’t blogging about parenting just another category? Or is the idea of categorizing blogs the problem? Have I completely missed the point?
I’m not trying to be antagonist, I just don’t get it.
Help me understand- when did mommy-blogging become a 4 letter word? And why is it so offensive to be called that?
12 Responses to “Questions that I know will probably piss people off. But I’m asking anyway.”
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Welcome! I'm Katie, a 27 year old, full-time graduate student who just happened to have brain surgery in November of 2007 to give my ginormous brain a little more space. This blog chronicles my daily life, from relentless headaches to falling over in public to being a doctor's wife. Sit down, get comfortable and stay for a while.
So, I’m with you. I don’t see what is wrong with it. I write about my son all the time, and my husband and just whatever. I don’t really care what anyone calls me. So, basically I’m just saying that I’m no help.
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I’m with you, Katie! I feel like I don’t fit into the blogosphere because I’m not a mommy blogger. I don’t see it as derogatory at all!! I mean, what provides better material then cute little munchkins? After all, I can only be *so* entertaining, all on my own. A few spawns of me would really liven thing up! I’m glad I’m not the only one who feels this way. Sometimes I feel really left out. Not just in the virtual world, either. C’est la vie!
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I think for some of them, it’s not “cool” anymore like it used to be. Maybe now there’s so many mainstream mommy-bloggers that they don’t want to be one of the crowd so they try to reject that label…
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You’re safe calling me a mommy blogger.
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I am here. Listening to you.
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I don’t think anyone wants their blog to be reduced to just one topic. Would you want someone to read your blog recently and decide you were a zit-blogger? No. Am I a cripple-blogger? No.
I am a bitchy-wife-blogger.
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I’m a mommy that blogs. If that makes me a Mommy Blogger then so be it. Actually I think that’s a badge of honor that I get to wear sometimes as I chase my 16 month old from one corner of the Earth (kitchen) to the other (living room) twenty thousand times a day. OK, so I’m exaggerating a little. Just like I feel the other Mommy Bloggers in the world are. If it’s not one thing its another to be controversial about. I personally don’t have time for it all. I have barely enough time to write about being a mommy on my own blog let alone worry about some tag line that might point out that I’m a, shhhh, don’t tell anyone, a mommy.
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I think being labeled as a “mommy blogger” is similar to summing up your whole identity on your vanity license plate as “JIMS MOM”, which I have seen. Though I am not yet a mother, I will be approaching motherhood careful not to lose my own 27 years of identity as a daughter, wife, friend, artist, weirdo, musician, crafter, etc. Those who are insulted by being called “mommy bloggers” are probably upset at having their whole identity (or blog’s identity) wrapped up in that one aspect of their lives.
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I totally agree with you. It’s nothing bad with being a mommy. And those bloggers mostly talk about their kids(don’t get me wrong, I love to read about parenting and stuff, I just L.O.V.E. it), so, there’s nothing wrong with that.
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Eh, I go by adjunctmom. I think it’s like when people call me Ben’s mom. Um, hello, I have a name. I’m my own person. I don’t know if I object to the mommy blogger label, mostly because I don’t know if anyone would ever call me that. I’m all over the map and I really don’t care what people call me. Well, except Ben’s mom to my face, because if you’re looking at me, you can ask my name
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Bloggers tend to get cubbyholed. I have been resisting the label, “elderblogger,” but I notice more and more that the people who read my blog are older women. And I notice more and more people read only the blogs in their particular “genre.” I think that’s a mistake. I enjoy some of the great blogs of younger women.
I am under orders not to blog about my children or grandchildren. And actually, I think that works well for us.
The cute pix and so on go to Facebook, where only friends can see them. This spares us all a lot of embarrassment.
Remember: Anything you put on the Internet is there forever!
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Am I a mommy-blogger? Or am I seamstress blogger? Or a ceramic cow blogger? Or a crappy blogger? Hmm. The world may never know.
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