The Girl-Mom Experience: A Discourse Analysis of Online (R)evolution
Date
2013-08-27
Authors
Gislason, Leanne
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Abstract
This thesis explores the ways in which the young mothers who participated in the online community of Girl-Mom.com were influenced by the dominant website discourses. Young mothers are positioned as deviant throughout time, with specific consequences related to notions of stratified reproduction. Girl-Mom.com exists within social relations of third wave feminism, and in the social context of cyberspace. Within this background, feminist post-structuralism is employed to read discussion forum posts to note how concepts of discourse, power and knowledge, subjectivity and resistance create discursive effects. The Girl-Mom discourse emerges as a major theme. The qualities of the Girl- Mom discourse enlist young mothers in their own emancipation and the creation of self- knowledge while invoking processes of normalization, regulation and discipline between members. In the process, motherhood is valued as a biological act in which women are revered for their reproductive capabilities, with different effects for racialized women.
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discourse analysis, young mothers, Girl-Mom