Mothering on the web: A feminist analysis of posts and interactions on a Chilean Instagram account on motherhood

Abstract

Social networking sites (SNS) have become important spaces during the early years of parenting. They allow users to access information, share experiences and provide an opportunity to establish support networks. In this article we present the results of our research on a Chilean motherhood account on Instagram. The research, which takes a feminist approach, used Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) to analyze discourses around “good mothering”, and the role of this communication site in this process. We present the results in three sections: a) “Positioning in debates about motherhood”; b) “Real motherhood and maternal love”; and c) “Interactions as regulatory mechanisms”. The main findings suggest that these SNS, through interactions between the account holder and their followers, reproduce dominant discourses of what is considered to be “good mothering” which both sustain asymmetrical gendered power relationships and challenge such power relations. Furthermore, we conclude that although SNS may appear to be an inclusive relational space, the regulatory mechanisms of the sites circumscribe who, and how one, can participate in this space.

“Speaking as a mother”: A membership categorisation analysis of child-centric talk in a UK daytime television talk show

“…Alongside Mackenzie (2017, 2018, 2019), contemporary motherhood studies feature a growing body of interdisciplinary work that variously explores how members go about the business of doing motherhood in digital environments, including open-forum sites such as Mumsnet (Kinloch & Jaworska, 2021; Pedersen, 2016), Instagram and Twitter (Astudillo-Mendoza & Cifuentes-Zunino, 2022; Capdevila et al, 2022), online blogs (Coffey-Glover, 2020; Ringrow, 2020), and in more private interpersonal contexts including messaging services such as WhatsApp (Lyons, 2020). Mackenzie and Zhao (2021) highlight that one significant feature of online motherhood interactions is the (re)production of knowledge and expertise.…”

“…Other studies that similarly identify the significance of experiential expertise within motherhood online discourse include Hanell and Salö's (2017) analysis of a Swedish online discussion forum that reveals how members’ experience comes to stand as forms of knowledge, available for others to draw upon and use. In Astudillo-Mendoza and Cifuentes-Zunino's (2022) analysis of a Chilean motherhood account on Instagram, they highlight that even when contributors seek to subvert intensive motherhood, they can paradoxically rely upon narratives of expertise and thereby promote the technification of good motherhood. Elsewhere, Zaslow's (2012) exploration of mothers’ discussions in online health communities reveals members’ strong commitment to the value of experiential and instinctive knowledge.…”

The virtual mother: Mumsnet and the emergence of new forms of ‘good mothering’ online

“…Critical discourse analysis has been widely used to study representations of mothers and mothering in diverse media (Astudillo-Mendoza and Cifuentes-Zunino, 2022; Atkinson, 2014; Kinloch and Jaworska, 2021; Zhao and Bouvier, 2022). CDA seeks to understand how texts have systematic social effects, for example through language choices that privilege certain ways of looking at the world.…”

“…Over the last two decades, motherhood online has emerged as a distinct field of scholarly enquiry (Mackenzie and Zhao, 2021). Using a range of sites, apps and social media, researchers have sought to understand how motherhood is performed and represented in online spaces (Astudillo-Mendoza and Cifuentes-Zunino, 2022; Krzyżanowska, 2020; Zhao and Bouvier, 2022). Some authors have started to explore how, in the contemporary world, online activity is not something that somehow happens after the tasks of mothering, a way of representing activities that have been completed, but is actually part of doing mothering per se.…”

Digital families: Gendered relationships in online spaces

“…Research suggests that social networking sites have become important sources of support for mothers, particularly first-time parents (e.g., Mackenzie, 2018), and while they can function as inclusive relational spaces, they can also serve to circumscribe participation. In our next contribution to the Special Issue, Astudillo-Mendoza and Cifuentes-Zunino (2022, pp. 376–393) present their investigation of a Chilean motherhood account on Instagram to unpack these complex engagements.…”