Mommy's Tired is a novel that follows edgy and irritable Odette, a thirty-something and living in upstate New York. After five years of marriage, and despite his initial refusals, she convinces her husband Jeremy to get a vasectomy. Consumed by questions of what she really wants, Odette decides soon after to get artificially inseminated, because though she doesn't want a child with Jeremy, she wants something to call her own. As tensions rise between Odette and Jeremy, Odette tries to rekindle her relationship with ex Margaret. When Jeremy starts disappearing for weeks on end, Odette begins questioning his intentions towards her God-loving sister Blair and Blair's unnamed children (the Girl and the Boy). Her relationships fracturing around her, Odette focuses on the world she will create with Agnes, her unborn child. Although Odette's rich interior world reveals disturbing glimpses of narcissistic tendencies, double standards, and violent desires, things are not so straightforward when mommy's tired. / Master of Fine Arts / Mommy's Tired is a novel.

The transition to motherhood is difficult and jarring for many women. Not only does this transition demand life-altering changes to a woman's life, but especially in more recent times, this transition offers nothing but uncertainty. As the role and understanding of women continues to change, what motherhood means becomes increasingly difficult to define; additionally, the traditional narratives of stay-at-home mothers who are always happy to do housework and nurture their children no longer apply for many 21st-century women, leaving new mothers feeling uncertain about who they are and who they want to become. Since the turn of the century, mothers have turned to the blogosphere to document and share the events of their everyday lives, making the blogosphere a space for mothers to share the highs and lows of modern family life with their family, friends, and other mothers. The scholarship published on mommy blogs suggests that for the writers of these blogs, the act of blogging provides writers with the opportunity to literally revise the events that occur in their lives on their blogs, which allows them to actively shape and create their maternal identities. In turn, their blogs are read, complicated, and validated by a community of other readers, which implicitly suggests that readers are being affected in some way by their reading experiences. Although the relationship between the blog and the blog writer has been given adequate attention in the scholarship on mommy blogs, the relationship between the blog and the blog reader has not been fully explored. Consequently, my research attempts to explain how a reader's perception of her maternal identity is influenced by her reading experiences. By applying Kenneth Burke's theory of literary form to the public texts of mommy blogs, I suggest that readers are affected in equally profound ways as the bloggers themselves. Looking at reader responses through Burke's theory of form demonstrates that the act of reading a mommy blog allows readers to experience life as someone else lives it, which often reveals a gap between the reader's real experiences and her vicarious experience reading. This space prompts a shift in attitude in readers; however, these shifts vary from reader to reader. Some readers may feel inspired, while others feel envious or inadequate by the same blog, which suggests that either way, a reader's perception of her maternal identity has changed. And although these shifts depend in part on the experience offered by the blog, their response reflects their own experiences of motherhood and expectations for how motherhood should be represented, making mommy blogs ultimately a place where readers actively shape their maternal identities as well.

Starkt historiskt och kulturellt rotade normer kan vara problematiska eftersom personer som avviker från dem riskerar att bli utsatta för hat. Mom-shaming är ett begrepp som beskriver fenomenet när kvinnor får kritik för sitt sätt att vara i sin roll som mamma. En mamma som har blivit utsatt för mom- shaming är influencern Ida Warg. Syftet med studien är att genom ett genusperspektiv, kvalitativt och semiotiskt analysera influencern Ida Wargs bildkommunikation på Instagram för att se om hon framställer sin roll som mamma på ett normativt sätt. Genom att redogöra för vad bilden vill göra med betraktaren – påverka och engagera, eller erbjuda – fastställs vilken betydelse genus har för skapandet av mammarollen. Tio utvalda bilder analyseras utifrån sju kategorier som är kopplade till kvinnans roll som mamma: Moderskap, Omsorg och uppfostran, Traditionell kärnfamilj, Betalt arbete, Fritid, Miljö, samt Skönhet. Resultatet visar att historiska normer kopplade till mammarollen är ett faktum även i dagens samhälle. Ida Warg bekräftar flera förlegade normer i sin bildkommunikation samtidigt som hon diskret utmanar andra. Studien redovisar att normer är underliggande strukturer som påverkar vårt samhälle. Genom att problematisera mom-shaming belyses därmed vikten av medvetandegörandet och ifrågasättandet av normer. Avslutningsvis diskuteras hur sociala mediers makt kan både vara orsak till och lösning på problemet med mom-shaming. Lösningen kan förslagsvis ske genom uppmaning av användandet av hashtaggen #stopmomshaming. / Historically and culturally norms are socially acceptable and can be problematic for people who behave in nonconformity with them because of risk of garner hatred. Mom-shaming is a term that describes the phenomenon when women get criticism and hatred for their act in their role of mother. A woman whom has been subject to this shaming, is mother and influencer Ida Warg. With the purpose of studying norms associated with female role as mother, this paper analyzes the visual design and composition of ten photographs posted by Ida Warg to her Instagram. Theories of gender and semiotics are used as frameworks, for qualitatively study if Ida Warg mediates her role as a mother normatively on her Instagram. The photographs are analyzed according to seven categories associated with mothering: Motherhood, Care and raise of child, Traditional nuclear family, Paid work, Leisure time, Entourage and Beauty. Considering the female role as mother, the result shows that historically rooted norms are still a fact. This paper argues for Ida Warg both certifying and challenging the social norms associated with mothering. Finally, this paper discusses how obsolete norm associated with the female role as mother, as a result of cyberhate such as mom-shaming, lingers and prevents gender equality. Henceforth, this paper also discusses the power of social media, being both reason why and solution to mom-shaming. One solution may be the exhortation of the hashtag #stopmomshaming.

The goal of this study was to understand black women’s perspectives on stay-at-home mothering and examine the ways in which Mocha Moms, Inc. provides support. Twelve African American mothers from three chapters of Mocha Moms, Inc. were interviewed and data were analyzed and coded for themes. Findings indicate that participants did not aspire to stay home with their children. Additionally, participants reject stereotypical ideas of at-home mothering. They also see themselves as the primary educators of their children. Finally, they do not feel respected in the black community or in society.

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Submitted by SBI Biblioteca Digital (sbi.bibliotecadigital@puc-campinas.edu.br) on 2017-01-11T11:51:04Z No. of bitstreams: 1 MATERNIDADE E SOFRIMENTO SOCIAL ESTUDO DE MOMMY BLOGS.pdf: 1344212 bytes, checksum: b998d2a53ab3b014a1ce163301342222 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-01-11T11:51:04Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 MATERNIDADE E SOFRIMENTO SOCIAL ESTUDO DE MOMMY BLOGS.pdf: 1344212 bytes, checksum: b998d2a53ab3b014a1ce163301342222 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-12-06 / Conselho Nacional de Pesquisa e Desenvolvimento Cient?fico e Tecnol?gico - CNPq / This research aims to investigate the collective imaginary about motherhood. It is justified since motherhood may be associated, in contemporary society, despite of their rewarding facets, with socially determined sufferings. It is methodologically articulated through the use of the psychoanalytic method, here operationalized in terms of investigative procedures of survey, selection, presentation, and interpretation of posts from Brazilian blogs. The consideration of the material allowed the interpretative production of two fields of affective-emotional meaning, "I am a mother, therefore I exist", and "Exclusive mother". These fields indicate the prevalence, in the investigated material, of a collective imaginary that, with heavy demands on women, promotes emotional suffering. / A presente pesquisa objetiva investigar o imagin?rio coletivo sobre a maternidade, justificando-se na medida em que esta, malgrado suas facetas gratificantes, parece associada, na contemporaneidade, a sofrimentos socialmente determinados. Articula-se metodologicamente por meio do uso do m?todo psicanal?tico, aqui operacionalizado em termos de procedimentos investigativos de levantamento, sele??o, registro e interpreta??o de postagens de blogs brasileiros. A considera??o do conjunto do material permitiu a produ??o interpretativa de dois campos de sentido afetivo-emocional: ?Sou m?e, logo existo? e ?M?e exclusiva?. Tais campos indicam a preval?ncia, no material investigado, de um imagin?rio coletivo que, fazendo pesadas exig?ncias ? mulher, favorece seu sofrimento emocional.

In this diploma thesis I deal with the topic of blogs. My main goal was to introduce the part of blogs called mommyblogs and to define it as a separate category in the theoretical background chapter. In the practical part, I decided to use quantitative methods of data collection through a questionnaire survey. The survey was aimed at both mommy bloggers and their readers. I supplemented the questionnaires with depth interviews with selected mommy bloggers. Which helped me to obtain even more detailed data, which enriched the data obtained from both questionnaires. I found out what motivates mommy bloggers to blog, but also what their attitude is towards cooperation with companies and how they select and label collaborations. Have they ever felt exploited either by companies or by social media? The respondents also touched on the topic of ethics and responsibility - either regarding the placement of photos of children on social media or regarding products whose promotion is bound by regulations. I tried to find out the ability of the readers to recognize advertisements on blogs and social networks of mommy bloggers. And also how the advertising message of mommy bloggers affects their readers. This thesis focuses only on bloggers from the Czech Republic.

Syftet med studien var att undersöka allmänhetens attityder kring fenomenet sugardejting samt undersöka om det finns attitydskillnader gällande rollerna inom sugardejting. Syftet var även att undersöka om ålder, kön eller utbildningsnivå har en inverkan på attitydernas riktning kring sugardejting. Den tidigare forskningen på fenomenet var gles och närliggande områden, prostitution och sexköp, utforskades således. Frågeställningarna undersöktes genom en enkät och analyserades med deskriptiv statistik samt tre modeller av multipla linjära regressionsanalyser. Resultatet visade att urvalet har en neutral attityd mot sugardejting som koncept, samt mot de båda aktörerna (sugarbabe och sugardaddy/mommy). Resultatet visade även att ålder har en betydande effekt på attityden.

This master's thesis is an investigation into Xavier Dolan's depictions of queer and non-normative characters. Through close analyses of the director's first five films, this study identifies Dolan's recurring stylistics and narrative techniques, and how they relate to his cinematic representation of individuals who do not conform to society's norms. The question of how queer subjectivity is presented to the spectator of the films guides the study, which outlines different kinds of subjective images and ways of expressing the inner worlds of the protagonists. As one of the first extensive academic studies of Dolan in English, the thesis carries out a dialogue with the few existing scholarly sources on the filmmaker, while also employing theories put forward by Deleuze, Pasolini, Bonitzer and Foucault, among others. Whereas previous writings on Dolan have focused almost entirely on national aspects of his work – interpreting the films as typically Québécois – this study considers the filmmaker from an international perspective. Although being an auteur study, the thesis highlights current issues of queer self-representation and the voices of the marginalized, proposing that Dolan's work offers non-normative alternatives to heteronormative narrative structures, patriarchal storytelling conventions and traditional family constellations.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / In this study, ideological criticism combined with use of muted group theory are employed to analyze four Quiverfull mothering blogs in order to unveil the models of mothering and maternal messages that emerge from the discourse. The Quiverfull, comprised of fundamentalist Christians who advocate prolific birth rates and strict traditional gender norms, propose a very narrowly defined view of motherhood. Therefore, the goal of this study is to analyze how Quiverfull mothers choose to construct and maintain their own rhetorical vision of motherhood through mommy blogs, in an effort to understand if Quiverfull mothers also struggle to “get it right” like so many other contemporary mothers, faced with cultural contradictions. The findings unveil that Quiverfull mothers struggle with many of the same ideological pressures that mainstream mothers endure such as being almost entirely responsible for childrearing, wanting to find time for themselves amidst society’s demands that children become a mother’s “everything,” and negotiating their role as mothers in the public sphere. However, Quiverfull mothers’ primary difference from mainstream mothers is through their relationship with God. They relinquish all control to God’s will, challenging the notion that good mothers must always be in control. Additionally, Quiverfull mothers distance themselves from feminist ideology by promulgating the need for male authority and criticizing all pro-choice sentiment. Moreover, through the exploration of these online artifacts, this study acknowledges the ideological differences between mothering groups, yet exposes that both mainstream and Quiverfull mothers find success as a mother almost unattainable. As a result, this study proposes that mommy blogs have the rhetorical ability to challenge mothering models that destine many mothers to “fail,” imbue value into motherhood, and unite women of competing and polarized ideologies as a way to question the “timeless truth” of what constitutes good mothering.