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Laptops and Playpens: ‘Mommy Bloggers’ and Visions of Household Work

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The Post-Fordist Sexual Contract

Abstract

On 3 December 2014, Toronto blogger Toronto Teacher Mom posted about a brunch with Canadian popular finance expert Gail Vaz-Oxlade held for the Procter and Gamble Mom Bloggers. Entitled, ‘I Think I Want to Marry Gail Vaz-Oxlade,’ the post contained a combination of personal reactions, budgeting tips and promotions for Procter and Gamble products. This post opens out a number of critical questions regarding the nature of blogging: is it work, leisure, a conversation, the construction of community, an advertisement? It also raises critical questions regarding mommy blogging, which is an increasingly popular activity. As Aviva Rubin noted in a Globe and Mail article of 9 August 2012, some estimates suggest there are as many as four million bloggers who are mothers in North America. These women, contentiously referred to as ‘mommy bloggers’, are variously heralded and dismissed as the new face of marketing and product placement online. An article from the 13 October 2011 edition of the Toronto Star by Andrea Gordon (herself a parenting blogger for the Star) introduced readers to the ‘online power of mothers’ in Canada. This article followed the narrative structure of many similar newspaper articles about mommy blogging. Once, the story goes, new mothers discovered blogging as a way to connect with other mothers at a point of intense isolation in their lives.

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Authors
  1. Jessica Taylor
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Newcastle, Australia

    Lisa Adkins

  2. University of Tampere and University of Turku, Finland

    Lisa Adkins

  3. University of Technology Sydney, Australia

    Maryanne Dever

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© 2016 Jessica Taylor

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Taylor, J. (2016). Laptops and Playpens: ‘Mommy Bloggers’ and Visions of Household Work. In: Adkins, L., Dever, M. (eds) The Post-Fordist Sexual Contract. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137495549_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137495549_6

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-349-57759-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-137-49554-9

  • eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)

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