Mom 2.0: She Has the Power: Moms, Marketers, and Ms. Magazine All Agree About That

Mom 2.0 has been the talk of the online world for much of the past week, with mothers and marketing and PR-types debating the power that Mom 2.0 now wields and how that power should or could be used.

The conversation is likely to continue this week, with another powerful post from blogger Mom-101 and with Ms. Magazine posting a shortened version of its Summer 2009 cover story - Cyberhood is Powerful by Kara Jesella - on its website as of today. The article, by Kara Jesella -- discusses the powerful ways mothers have connected online, for both personal and political reasons. (The extended play version of the story, which you'll find in the print edition, features a more in-depth look at the personal and political aspects of mommyblogging; and includes a useful resource sidebar featuring both mommyblogs and online motherhood resources.)  Note: Ms Magazine made the full-length version of the article available on its website on August 5th.

So why is mommyblogging getting coverage in Ms Magazine? Jesella wisely addresses that question early on in the print edition of the article:

"Not all the mommybloggers might self-define as feminists -- although certainly there is a feminist impulse behind the avowed goal of many of them to change cultural perceptions of motherhood -- but one might argue that what they're doing is a virtual version of feminist consciousness-raising: They're being exceedingly open about their experiences of mothering, and sharing those experiences in an (online) community with other mothers."

The mommyblogger conversation continues elsewhere as well. The Association for Research on Mothering's recently-published book Mothering and Blogging: The Radical Act of the MommyBlog, edited by May Friedman and Shana L. Calixte (Demeter Press, May 2009) picks up where Jesella's article leaves off, mining mommyblogging territory that isn't often written about: what do we make of blogs that document the lives of celebrity mothers and babies? which mothers end up getting marginalized in the momosphere (or mamasphere) -- and why? how does the presence of marketers affect conversations between mothers? and how are blogs evolving as more user-generated content and Web 2.0 technologies become available to moms (everything from Facebook to Twitter to Flickr to the huge number of social-networking communities aimed at moms and/or parents).

Related:

Excerpts from my essay "Mom 2.0: Meet the Mommyblogger," published in Mothering and Blogging: The Radical Act of the MommyBlog, edited by May Friedman and Shana L. Calixte (Demeter Press, May 2009).