Brigham Young University BYU ScholarsArchive Theses and Dissertations 2015-12-01 A Page of Her Own: How Women Navigate the Public and Private Facets of Blogging Emily Marie Flinders Brigham Young University - Provo Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd Part of the Communication Technology and New Media Commons BYU ScholarsArchive Citation Flinders, Emily Marie, "A Page of Her Own: How Women Navigate the Public and Private Facets of Blogging" (2015). Theses and Dissertations. 5679. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/5679 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by BYU ScholarsArchive. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of BYU ScholarsArchive. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. A Page of Her Own: How Women Navigate the Public and Private Facets of Blogging Emily Marie Flinders A thesis submitted to the faculty of Brigham Young University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Megan Sanborn Jones, Chair Amy Petersen Jensen Dean Duncan Department of Theatre and Media Arts Brigham Young University December 2015 Copyright © 2015 Emily Marie Flinders All Rights Reserved ABSTRACT A Page of Her Own: How Women Navigate the Public and Private Facets of Blogging Emily Marie Flinders Department of Theatre and Media Arts, BYU Master of Arts This paper explores the complexity of the texts women create through blogging and their inherent value. I seek to explore how the mothers who blog are constructing online identities for their family units and family members in this space and how those constructions affect and inform the mothers’ construction of their personal identities online. I analyze how perceptions of gender norms and practices of gender performance may affect and inform the identities thus constructed, and further complicate the liminal nature of blogging spaces. I begin with the sociological framework of Erving Goffman, which is commonly used to deconstruct identity performance in social and digital mediums through his explanation of social performance and identity construction. After presenting the shortcomings of this framework, such as its inability to deal with the more private aspects of blogging, I introduce theories of gender performance and feminist autobiographical studies to frame a constructive discussion of the subjectivities and constructed identities within women’s blog posts. I explore the role and effects of audience relationships in creating autobiographical writing. I illustrate the co-constitutive relationship between understood norms, gender norms, and genres in blogging, as well as the forms that bloggers’ self-representations take. , I analyze factors that inform female authorship and how these factors are shaped by prior models of female authorship, demonstrating how the private/public paradox of blogging informs how women perceive of their audiences in a gender-conscious way, and how that in turn affects their blogging behavior. I offer suggestions for how the study questions in this thesis can inform the decisions women make when they perform their identities through disclosive blogging. I demonstrate how an increased awareness of the unique qualities and tendencies of female subjectivity can decrease women’s inclination to define their experiences as an “other” to a male normative. I also show that as women highly regard their autobiographical blogging, blogging can become more effective in fulfilling the autobiographical urge and can have a democratizing effect on global dialogue about blogging. Keywords: blogging, social media, identity performance, autobiography, women, audience ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This thesis is most meaningful to me as it represents a profound growth experience shared with my cohort, and I’m compelled to thank Mindy Nelson, Bob Bauer, Reilly Ryan, and Amy Roskelley for being the most pleasant collection of characters to work alongside. Their friendships and their keen intellects have blessed me greatly. I am indebted to my theory professors, Sharon Swenson and Benjamin Thevenin, for patiently expanding my understanding of a great many things. My deepest thanks go to Megan Sanborn Jones, my thesis committee advisor, for her intuitive combination of encouragement and criticism. Her enthusiasm has been a crucial component to this work. I also thank the other members of my thesis committee, Amy Peterson Jensen and Dean Duncan, for being willing to engage so thoroughly with my material that I had to dismiss doubts about its validity. I was essentially rescued from all my mental blocks and shortcomings by the editing prowess of Suzanne Bills, and also benefitted tremendously from Kimball Maw Jensen and Tracy McKay Lamb, who were willing to read some of my worst writing and provide tremendously valuable feedback for me. I could not have undertaken any of the efforts involved in this degree without the help of capable babysitters. My thanks to Brielle Cruz, Julie Brown, Chloe Johnson, and Melina Wright for their care and investment in my children. Finally, and most importantly, I thank my family for their faith, support, and patience, which has allowed me to devote many hours to my schooling. My parents, Warren and Lori Hess, have been endlessly enthusiastic about all they believe I can accomplish. I will forever thank my Husband, Renn, for his avid response when I approached him about applying to graduate school, and for all the countless, thankless burdens he has shouldered to continue to make good on his promise of support. I’m grateful I’ve had the refining experience of sharing these challenges with my children, Oliver, Graham, Elliot, and Vera. It has been a great blessing for them to watch me commit myself to something difficult and well outside of my comfort zone. Completion of this thesis has also been a formative challenge thanks to the impending arrival of baby #5, who is destined to be raised on tales of how his appearance on the scene made this thesis all the more relevant. I dedicate my work to all the brave and kind women finding meaningful ways to engage in social media. I believe they are changing the world. Table of Contents ABSTRACT …………………………………………………………………………………ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS……………………………………………………………………iii Table of Contents……………………………………………………………………………...v Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………1 Feminism and Online Identities ............................................................................................. 7 Erving Goffman and Identity Performance ............................................................................ 8 Studies in Online Identity Performance ............................................................................... 13 Limitations in Goffman’s Model ......................................................................................... 21 Autobiography Studies as an Adjunct to Goffman’s Model ................................................ 23 Thesis Outline ...................................................................................................................... 28 Chapter 1……………………………………………………………………………………..31 Women’s Identities in Blogging……………………………………………………………..31 Blogs as Identity Performances ........................................................................................... 34 Feminine Identity Construction ........................................................................................... 41 Identity and Branding .......................................................................................................... 46 Gender Performance in Blogging ........................................................................................ 48 Chapter 2……………………………………………………………………………………..54 Women’s Autobiographical Blogging……………………………………………………….54 Feminine Autobiographic Urge ........................................................................................... 56 Blogs as Autobiographies .................................................................................................... 60 Disclosure ............................................................................................................................ 65 Biography within Autobiography ........................................................................................ 67 Memory ................................................................................................................................ 75 Death of the Autobiographical Blogger ............................................................................... 77 Chapter 3……………………………………………………………………………………..83 Audience Subjectivities in Blogging…………………………………………………………83 Audience Subjectivity .......................................................................................................... 84 Audience and Intersubjectivity ............................................................................................ 87 Intersubjectivity between “Self” and “Others” .................................................................... 92 Monetization ........................................................................................................................ 98 Perceptions of Genre and Audience Affecting Blogging Behavior ................................... 101 Syntactic Expectations of the Audience and Semantic Signals in the Text ....................... 103 Gendered Audience Expectations .....................................................................................