How in the world is the concept of Mommy Bloggers still blowing people's minds?

Hey, I don't know if you're heard, but there's this weird phenomenon happening among a lot of western mothers. Apparently, they're all going on the Internet, and starting up these things called Weblogs -or 'blogs'- and then they write about their life, and their children, on said weblogs, which are kept on the Internet. It is reported that perfect strangers can read all about their lives and that many of these women become friends with the people who leave these things called 'comments' on these their weblogs. The most popular of all of these Mother Webloggers , more commonly known as Mommy Bloggers, is Heather B Armstrong, more commonly known as Dooce.

While Dooce.com has been up and running since approximately 2001 - the rest of the world (Nightline, The Today Show, Kathie Lee Gifford) are just now realizing not only what blogs truly are, but that Heather B Armstrong is a seriously spectacular woman.

The Telegraph have a piece today called "Blogging: mum's the wired word" and when I saw it, it made me irrationally angry. For those of us who have been blogging for the last few years, and are and hip and down with the Internet, it's painful when the traditional, more mainstream forms of media report on our world as if it's some newfangled craze. I mean, these people write things! On the Internet! For people! They've NEVER MET! To read! And comment!

I understand that not everyone is clued into what blogs are, or that there's a HUGE "mommy blogger" market out there. However, if one more paper writes a feature on Mommy Bloggers and how they're so new and crazy, I'm going to go ape shit. Here's why:

Just because someone is a mother, she's not just a Mommy Blogger. I think that term just sort of shoves women in to a small little box. I'm sure there are a lot of women who are proud and like the term Mommy Blogger, but personally, if frustrates me when people like Katie Lee Gifford or ABC News refer to someone like Heather B Armstrong who has been blogging for 7 years, and only 4 of which have involved her daughter, as a Mommy Blogger. It's not like all she ever freaking writes about is her child. In fact, a ton of other really popular "mom blogs" are not just focused on motherhood.

It just make these women sound, to the people who don't know any better, that all these Mommy Bloggers do all day take cute pictures of their kids and write, "Gosh, I'm tired. I just dropped the kids off at school all day. Jimmy's teething," over and over again, day after day.

What also bothers me about this is that the media tends to only focus and be comfortable talking about women bloggers if they're a Mommy Blogger, or, if they've been involved in prostitution or are sex writers. There is a huge, diverse community of women bloggers, but as far as people the mainstream media outlets are concerned - we're either whores, ex whores, or mothers.

Cate Sevilla is the Editor of Dollymix.

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