NY Times Not So Mind Blowing Expose of the Mommy Bloggers

(Image by Lomo-Cam, "The Day she saw his other arm..." on flickr)

Just read NY Times Jennifer Mendelsohn's "Honey Don't Bother Mommy. I'm Too Busy Building My Brand." I'm sure there will be much metaphorical gasping of breath with hand to chapsticked mouth over the next few days and hey, what can I say, I want in on that action. But before you get too excited let me just tell you that if what you're looking for is some capital lettered ranting or maybe even a through the nose dismissal, you'll not find that here. I find Mendelsohn and her boss-- that is, her readers, America--fascinating and here's why.

Mendelsohn, like so many other people in this country, is so darn confused about her view of motherhood that she can't write two pages from the same angle. When we first meet Ms. Mendelsohn she is giving us the high-and-mighty "mothers today ain't what they used to be" speech. I mean, whoooweee, just look at that title! She's depicting these mommy bloggers as checked-out-laptop-addict mothers much like The Guild's character Clara. (Assuming webisodes about an online gaming guild isn't your cup of tea, I'll fill you in: Clara is a neglectful escapist mommy of three who fences in her unfed runny-nosed kiddos like goats in a pen, while she attends to the all important task of collecting orgs and stealing gold ). Mendelsohn not so subtly suggests that these mothers would be better off attending conferences on things like "Teaching your baby how to read" or "How to hide vegetables in your children's food." These topics, she suggests, while stupid (by her intonation, not mine--I would like to learn more about both, thank you very much) are more appropriate learning areas for mothers. How to find fame, audience and money while still staying home with your kids? Not so much.

Next, Mendelsohn takes her readers hands and leads them quietly into the very inside of the Bloggy Conference. Ooohh! Aaaah! What do we find here? Attendees "splay[ing] their laptops," and "peck[ing] at their BlackBerries," some mentions of "plastic sipply cups" and "tutu-making tutorial(s)." Nothing sexist or demeaning in that little description, right?

Moving on, we get to the real meat, the dark, underbelly of the mommy blogging conference: SHOW ME THE MONEY, MOMMY! In this part of her expose, she talks about the great big ugly secret of mommy bloggers. While they appear to be friendly neighborly voices, what they are really doing is making sordid dirty deals with product companys through advertising. Wait. Is that supposed to be new information? Aren't all the ads perfectly obviously visible on the blogs that have them? And don't bloggers already write about their conflicted feelings about the kinds of ads they run and the relationship between their blog content and ad content?
And just like blog content, aren't there some kinds of ads that we don't mind or even appreciate and other types we find nefarious or offensive or obnoxious? And don't we, as readers, already vote on this stuff with our clicks? Come on, Mendelsohn, move it along. This isn't 2008, lady.

Just when you're about to give up on the article all together, Mendelsohn digs deep and asks the real questions. Are mommy bloggers just regular people after all, who get lonely sometimes? Maybe. Could blogging be a way of creating community? Sure. Are some people just in it for the fun and not for the money. Yes. And in a grand flourish of a conclusion, she poses this question--Could it be that mommy blogging isn't a sign of neglectful parenting OR hair-curler Betty scrap booking projects OR greedy money grabbing but rather (get ready now) a kind of female empowerment? Are you really gonna try and go there Mendelsohn? Really?

To wrap it up folks, I think this article shows how very unprogressive our thinking is these days if we are still unable to talk about female industriousness outside of the typical stereotypes--the gold-digger, the career "bitch" and the vapid homemaker. Let's call someone a hooker and call it a day.