Commodification of Motherhood. An ethnographic study about aesthetical practices from professional Mombloggers
Final Report Abstract
The project “Wa(h)re Mutterschaft? An ethnographic study on aesthetic practices of professional mother bloggers" has focused on a model of "mother bloggers" that is spreading in the digital scene. Against the backdrop of "aesthetic capitalism", the commodification of motherhood and associated aesthetic practices of valorizing and marketing family life are brought into focus for examination. Following post-Fordist logics of blurring the boundaries between work and life, motherhood as a form of employment is positioned as both a status and a lifestyle, serving as the starting point for entrepreneurial activities in momblogging. In doing so, the bloggers disseminate stylized images of motherhood and family on their momblogs; they practice aesthetic work in the sense of a broad concept of work, in which they try to specialize, "recreate" and authentically shape their lives, their everyday lives, their children and their motherhood. With an actor-centered approach, the perspectives of women are central, and the motives, legitimizations, aesthetic practices, as well as conflicts and contradictions within the context of their arrangements of working motherhood, are ethnographically examined. Thus, the ethnographic study makes a valuable contribution to a deeper understanding of the aesthetic logics and practices of female micro-entrepreneurs in the so-called Creative Industries. The findings from the study feed the discussion on a "new normal of worklifes" (Tylor and Luckman, 2018), indicating forms of new normalization of precarious and aesthetic work arrangements within the context of aesthetically valued work labeled as "creative," from a gender- and milieu-sensitive perspective. These findings are significant for cultural studies of labor, as well as research on digitization, gender, and specifically motherhood.
Publications
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The ‘authentic’ family. Family and Space, 203-214. Routledge.
Schmidt, Petra
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Das Interessante zählt. Mütterblogs – eine digitale Erwerbsform und ihr Content, in: Dennis Eckhardt, Sarah Max, Martina Röthl, Roman Tischberger (Hrsg.): Digitale Arbeitskulturen. Rahmungen, Effekte, Herausforderungen. Berliner Blätter Bd. 82, S. 55-69
Schmidt, Petra
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Wir haben auch mal Milka gemacht. Verhandlungen von Vertrauen und Kommerz am Beispiel von Mütterbloggerinnen. In: Hamburger Journal für Kulturanthropologie, 406–417
Schmidt, Petra
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„Fit moms are the hot new Instagram Celebrities“, in: Ege, Moritz/Schwanhäußer, Anja/Schmitzberger Julian (Hrsg.): Mädchen*fantasien. Zur Politik und Poetik des Mädchenhaften (=Kulturen populärer Unterhaltung und Vergnügen, Bd.7), Münster/New York: Waxmann., S. 207–225
Schmidt, Petra & Kuklinski, Stella
