“I can feel myself being squeezed and stretched, moulded and grown, and expanded in my capacity to love loudly and profoundly”: Metaphor and religion in motherhood blogs

Abstract

This article will explore how metaphors of motherhood are used by contemporary female bloggers who are affiliated with certain faith groups. Within religious contexts especially, motherhood blogs are often seen as suitable activities for women (and for young stay-at-home-mothers in particular). Motherhood blogs, like similar female-oriented texts such as internet parenting forums, have a key role to play in terms of understanding, replicating, and/or challenging gendered norms, both online and off (cf. Mackenzie 2017b(cf. Mackenzie , 2018. This article examines two sets of so-called 'mommy bloggers' from North American Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saint and Evangelical Christian backgrounds, following Knapton's (2013) work on metaphor in pro-anorexia blogs. It analyses emergent online representations of motherhood in these two internet communities whose faith groups hold similar (yet not identical) beliefs, which include beliefs about the divine calling and design of being a mother. The analysis of selected extracts from the blogs suggests an explicit foregrounding of religious elements in the Evangelical Christian blogs, whereas the religious context tends to be more subtly expressed or axiomatic for the Latter-day Saint bloggers. Common metaphors of motherhood (such as MOTHERHOOD IS A JOURNEY) appear frequently in the discourse of both digital communities, presenting motherhood as a difficult yet immensely rewarding experience, and one which can be shared with others online.

Mothering Identity Experiences: A Backwards Glance

“…For those mothers who did, their spirituality served as both a support system and a deepening of faith in their role as mothers. This external and internal influence of faith aligns with research on motherhood blogs from evangelical women which equate motherhood as a journey to spiritual fulfillment and a calling on their lives (Ringrow, 2020). A third incidental theme was the difference between expectations and reality.…”

“…A keyword search with the terms mother identity, mothering , and mothers , included a multitude of studies on the activity-oriented and behavioral experiences of mothers, including parenting skills, transitioning to motherhood, balancing motherhood with a career, life stressors, and other relationships (Benzies et al, 2006; Brunton & Russell, 2008; Choi et al, 2005; Hollway, 2010; Miller, 2011; Rangel et al, 2018; Zhao, 2018). Ringrow (2020) analyzed mothering blogs and identified three themes: (a) mothers believed motherhood to be a journey toward emotional or spiritual fulfillment, (b) motherhood is a job in which they serve as the boss and the children serve as the employees, and (c) there are seasons of motherhood in which the work is harder and seasons in which the work is not as difficult. The mothers who contributed to blogs and this study also appeared to see themselves in terms of what they did as a mother.…”

‘Wrap our arms around them here in Ireland’: Social media campaigns in the Irish abortion referendum

“…Both campaigns also used metaphor to conceptualise specific elements of the Repeal Referendum and in this section we expand upon the observations of the Appraisal analysis through an application of Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT). Our approach to CMT is an adapted version of Knapton's (2013) framework: conduct a close reading of the selected data; mark metaphorical expressions (using MIP, metaphor identification procedure, from the Pragglejaz Group 2 ); and group metaphorical expressions according to their conceptual metaphors (see Ringrow, 2020aRingrow, , 2020b. We focus primarily on the target domains for: abortion; abortion rights; the referendum; vote/voting; the campaigns; and the campaigning organisations (i.e.…”

‘Feel like going crazy’: Mental health discourses in an online support group for mothers during COVID-19

“…This growing interest has led some scholars to suggest a specific interdisciplinary field of study of ‘motherhood online’ ( Mackenzie and Zhao, 2021 ) that is concerned with the production of digital media by mothers about motherhood. These social online communities of and for mothers serve as platforms to negotiate gendered hegemonies, maternal identities, cultural norms, and expectations (see Mackenzie, 2018 ; Ringrow, 2020 ), and to offer help and support to its members. The role of online communities in supporting mental health is alluded to in many studies but there is still a scarcity of discourse-oriented research that addresses these issues more directly.…”