Friday, April 3, 2009

Zoning Rules for Social Groups

The American Prospect has an interesting piece on "bad mommy" bloggers, who defiantly discuss their 'imperfect' mothering.

They talk about fondness for wine and disinclination to keep perfectly clean houses (hey, give me a couple of kids, I'd fit right in), failure to take perfect joy in their offspring, refusal to dress in mature mom ways, etc. 

It seems kind of like mothers being able to declare, "heck, this is who I am, and I also have kids, I'm not some artificial ideal of womanhood" and be supported and acknowledged by a community. Which is one of those things the internet is so good at. 

At the same time, the piece suggests, there's a limit to the individuality this community tolerates. You can be just so different, but not more.

I am not familiar with this section of the blogosphere, so I have no idea if this characterization is true, but it's an interesting idea, how even groups centered around defying one set of restrictive expectations can wind up with their own rules.

Just part of how people work socially, perhaps. Break away from one thing, attach to another.

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