A Bloggess gets Kawasakied. We Digg a Queen. And Mommybloggers take back their title and add Hussein.
March 1, 2008
As you may or may not know, I post regularly on BlogHer. This post has received a lot of attention from other mom bloggers, so I wanted to share it here seeing as I know not all of you read BlogHer. I know…cross posting can be lame. Sue me. Well, don’t really. I just wanted to share how far we have come, baby.
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It has been one of those weeks. A week that slams you against a wall. Needless to say, I fell behind in my blog reading. What is an editor to do? Why she just hops onto Twitter to find the latest buzz. And, oh, there has been buzz!
Take for instance the newest addition to the Urban Dictionary. When Jenny of The Bloggess found her group blog Mama Drama on Alltop.com, she emailed Guy Kawasaki (the creator of the list) to thank him. From there, the hilarity ensued. In a must read exchange between Guy and Jenny, she found herself the topic of a Tweet.
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And then Guy twittered about me, which is like winning an Oscar for best design of a battery-operated series of fog machines. Totally amazing and kind of embarrassing all at the same time. Also? Nothing to sneer at make hay about.
Anyway, I’d just like to thank Mr. Kawasaki for being the one of the first genuinely nice celebrities to not make me feel like a total douchebag and I plan on sending a copy of this to Ken Hoffman who could certainly take a lesson from Guy and needs to realize that just acknowledging a fan letter won’t mean that I’ll get all delusional and suddenly be convinced that we’re now ”best friends forever” and show up at your house on holidays. It’s too late now, Ken, but it would have meant a lot to me way back when I was just some random chick to you. Back when I wasn’t engaged to Guy Kawasaki.
It was from this Tweet and the subsequent emails passed back and forth that Jenny coined the phrase being “Kawasakied.” Now, according to Urban Dictionary that means:
To have your blog linked to or acknowledged by someone famous like Guy Kawasaki who totally kicks ass, but if you told your mom about it she’d be like “Huh? What’s a blog? Hey, is that the guy who invented the motorcycle?”
“Dude. My blog got totally Kawasakied today!”
On a totally different note, the power of a mom blogger and her opinions was clearly observed when political post Erin of Queen of Spain Blog wrote a very compelling and thought provoking article about the upcoming Democratic Nomination and Hillary Clinton. As word of her post got out, people flocked to it and she found it on the front page of Digg. (And the topic of many discussions around the net and a massive amount of tweets on Twitter.) In fact, it wasn’t until much later that mainstream media caught up and you began to read in newspapers the same idea that Erin had already shared with the world.
What? A mom blogger who has a brain, political opinions and dares to share them with the world? She rocked the socks off of many people. People well beyond those who are considered the typical mom blog audience. Erin is not one to shy away from her opinion. Few of us who are in the mom blog category do. We are proving to not only our own community that supports us but to the tech and new media world as a whole that we are voices that should not only be listened to, but respected.
Power to the Mom Blogger who dares to speak out!
While we are on the topic of respect, I have to mention a great conversation that took place today. The question was asked:
“Tell me, is ‘Mommyblogger’ still a negative term in the Social Media space? Has it changed? Do you still look down? Be truthful.”
The response was quick and thorough.
Momologue responded with
Just last week I got a ‘oh your one of those, an MB.’ Complete with a wave of hand. Dismissed.
But was quick to also add:
But I do love the online community we create. It’s the best — and it’s about diapers and changing the world.
Banannie put in her two cents with:
I always felt the mommy-blogger label was too confining, and I shook it completely a year ago when I started a new blog… much of that was because of reaction from others that made mommy-blogging feel second tier- looking back I should have ignored.
For many of us, we remember the time when the very term or idea of mommybloggers was dismissed, shunned and looked down upon. The very first BlogHer conference had a session on mommyblogging that was a “room of our own” and was expected to bring in few people. It was standing room only. Back then, one of the main focuses of the discussion was whether or not the term mommyblogger was derogatory. Today, as I followed the discussion on Twitter, I saw many responses that were along these lines:
Shelisrael shared:
I never knew that mommy bloggers were looked down upon. Not ever. Why do you perceive otherwise?
From Karoli:
Maybe b/c I’m older or whatever, but I never saw it as a derogatory term. Still don’t quite understand why it’s seen that way.
And my personal favorite by Dave Taylor:
I never thought “mommyblogger” was other than a statement of heroic survival ability!
Not everyone was loving the term or category. Lone Sophist stated:
I think that women who are mothers and blog are more than mommybloggers, that’s why I don’t like that “category.”
The point is this. Just a few years ago we were in a small room and felt like second tier bloggers. Today, we are much sought after by marketers, talk shows and magazines. We’ve come a long way, baby.
Mom bloggers are so much more than diapers and potty training. We are taking on issues that are changing the world and the way people view it. For instance, take todays awesome “Just Call Me Hussein” smackdown over at Momocrats.
Why all the fuss? Some ig’nant fools apparently think it’s helpful to their cause to liken Barack Obama to a “terrorist” because his middle name is “Hussein.” And we ain’t havin’ none of that. Why? Because “bitch is the new black,” and we? Are bitches.
We’ve decided to extend the reach of this important blog action by making “Just Call Me Hussein” a meme. If you are reading this and haven’t posted, consider yourself tagged. All you have to do is post your “Hussein name” in the title of your blog and share a story about how someone tried to make you feel bad about your name.
When you post—whenever you post—be sure to link us so we can find you. Now, go! Spread that meme far and wide, sistahs (and brahs)! Bitches get shit done!
Most excellent way to take a situation and make people not only think, but write about it. You see? It extends beyond their blog. Beyond any of our blogs when we get right down to it. At last check, there were thirty-three posts (and still counting) that sprang from one entry on one blog written by moms.
It’s been a long road and sadly there has been some road-kill along the way, but mommybloggers–the term, the bloggers and the power behind them both– are a powerful force in new media.
Me? I am proud to have been on that first panel, that first year as we wondered where we would go from there. I would say mommybloggers are kicking ass and taking names. Count on it. And, yes, you can quote me on that.
