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Momfluenced
Momfluenced: Inside the Maddening, Picture-Perfect World of Mommy Influencer Culture | Sara Petersen
2 posts | 4 read | 4 to read
On Instagram, the private work of mothering is turned into a public performance, generating billions of dollars. The message is simple: we're all just a couple of clicks away from a better, more beautiful experience of motherhood. Linen-clad momfluencers hawking essential oils, parenting manuals, baby slings, and sponsored content for Away suitcases make us want to forget that the reality of mothering in America is an isolating, exhausting, almost wholly unsupported endeavor. In a culture which denies mothers basic human rights, it feels good to click purchase now on whatever a momfluencer might be selling. It feels good to hope. Momfluencers are just like us, except they arent. They are mothers, yes. They are also marketing strategists, content creators, lighting experts, advertising executives, and artists. They are businesswomen. The most successful momfluencers offer content that differs very little from what we used to find in glossy womens magazines like Glamour and Real Simple, only theyre churning it out daily and that content is their lives. We flock to momfluencers to learn about fashion, wellness, parenting, politics, and to find Brooklyn-designed crib sheets printed with radishes. Chances are, if youre a mother reading this (and maybe even if youre not!), you are an arms length away from something youve purchased because a momfluencer made it look good. Drawing on her own fraught relationship to momfluencer culture, Sara Petersen incorporates pop culture analysis and interviews with prominent momfluencers and experts (psychologists, academics, technologists) to explore the glorification of the ideal mama online with both humor and empathy. At home on a bookshelf with Lyz Lenz's Belabored and Jia Tolentino's Trick Mirror, Momfluenced argues that momfluencers dont simply sell mothers on the benefits of bamboo diapers, they sell us the dream of motherhood itself, a dream tangled up in whiteness, capitalism, and the heteronormative nuclear family. Momfluenced considers what it means to define motherhood for ourselves when society is determined to define motherhood for us.
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Jenken1998
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Interesting look at our fascination with “Momfluencers“ on social media. How they came about, why we are hooked on them, the effects on our idea of what a “good Mom“ is etc.. Quote: “Motherhood is packaged as something you “must do right“. Quote: “We are eager for sources on the right way to do motherhood“. It was a quick read and then I had to go look up some of the Momfluencers that were mentioned in the book. 3 stars

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britt_brooke
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⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Per social media, the default symbol of a good mom is white/thin/pretty/cis. That combination is not indicative of the majority of American moms, so why do we care about these people? I generally don‘t; at least not intentionally. Petersen takes a look at this bizarre industry. Smart and snarky.

PS. The takedown of Rachel Hollis gave me much pleasure. She‘s awful.

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