Jennifer Lawrence of MUBAR has taken down her blogroll and removed her site metre. She is definitively going “Back to (Blog) Basics,” as she puts it in her very intriguing post of September 10th. This post has stuck with me for a few days now. It has made me examine my own blogging experience and practices. I’ll do my best to summarize it here, quoting often and at length so as to do it justice, and I’ll conclude with my reflections.

In “Back to (Blog) Basics,” Jen talks about how blogging isn’t what it used to be 3 years ago, when she carved out “a little corner of her [T.O. Mama] website” for “getting things off [her] chest and out into the ether.” At that time, she was writing what she couldn’t find in mainstream mothering magazines. She was writing for the sole purpose of “cheap therapy” for herself — “blissfully unaware of incoming links or technorati status or blogrolls.” Her hope was that

the blogosphere would bring about the type of consciousness raising practices that would drive the feminist and mothering movement forward and would function as a virtual living room where mothers could rap about the problems within the current system and brainstorm ways to solve them.

But, things took a disappointing turn. No longer is it the “funny little network [she] fell into nearly three years ago.” Rather, just like the business world, the blogosphere has become competitive and tainted by “corporate meddling”:

money and fame has entered into the equation and because we bloggers, enemy of the ad-driven mass media, are not supposed to be thinking of this like a business, we hide our underlying intentions. Instead of competing directly for market share, for advertising dollars, for readers, and then sitting down to have a friendly beer at the end of the day, we seem to be doing the frenemy thing and write mean comments and parody blogs and leave throwaway comments designed simply to promote our own urls. It’s a trend that threatens the very goodness of the blogophere: Goodbye Children’s Television Workshop; hello Maury Povich.

The blogosphere, she observes, has become “much more commercial these days,” as bloggers jump on the money-making bandwagon, blogging for dollars at big-business websites.

At the end of the post, Jen announces her new mission: “to carve out a tiny corner of the blogosphere for honest, agenda-free conversation and I hope you’ll join with me.”

Jen is a fantastic writer and thinker. I quoted her at length so as not to alter her message and strong statements — to give you as complete a picture as possible of the post that has been occupying my thoughts (when I think about my blogging) these past few days.

I definitely relate to what Jen says. Since I began blogging — not that long ago, really — I found the blogosphere a bit cliquey. And, although I wanted to “get right in there,” I also made it my goal to open it up to the newer bloggers. I had an inclusive attitude right from the start. When people leave comments on my posts, or when they put me on their blogroll, I am quick to visit their blog and show my respect and gratitude in what I personally feel is the best way possible — reading their posts and leaving thoughtful comments. Let’s face it, everyone loves comments, dialogue, to be read, to be heard. But, I never leave “throwaway comments.” I take the time to read the posts and to comment as thoughtfully and constructively as possible. This gets time-consuming (especially because I also visit the blogs of people who have presumably never visited mine — those bigger, more “popular,” blogs), and, as more and more people comment on my blog, I will have less time to devote to showing my respect in this way.

Speaking of time-consuming, I am one of those bloggers who, in addition to my own personal blog, blogs professionally. I blog for Urbanmoms.ca. And, even after reading Jen’s post, I am extremely proud of this. I am so grateful for the opportunity to write for, connect with and entertain (given the nature of my “professional blog”) mothers from Canada and all over the world — at the very least, I feel proud to supplement my husband’s income doing something I love and that I can do from home while my baby sleeps.

My urbanmoms blog is my own, moreover. I literally own it. There is absolutely no “corporate meddling,” no “guy from P&G sitting in the corner.” I am certainly not selling myself, and certainly not stymying the effort to “drive the feminist and mothering effort forward.” Rather, I consider myself an active part of that effort.

To me, the evolving, burgeoning blogosphere is, indeed, driving the mothering, feminist movement. I consciously blog as part of this movement. And, the website for which I choose to write is a driving force in this movement. As the founder of Urbanmoms.ca, Jen Maier is adamant about the goal of the website, which is precisely to celebrate a “sense of connection and community shared among mothers regardless of our background or geography” or mothering styles, and to recognize and (again) celebrate mothers as “individuals.”

Catharine Connors, the fabulous Her Bad Mother, is far from mainstream. She is a leading voice in the blogging community, inviting mothers, for example, to speak the conventionally unspeakable — i.e., of a sensual love for their children. Catherine has also united the Toronto bloggers on her site Mama Blogs Toronto, and has even organized get-togethers for not only bloggers but their readers, as well. She joins me on Urbanmoms.ca in reaching out to moms across Canada, as she tours the Canadian “Mother ‘Hood” — encouraging new (and old) voices to be heard, and bringing awareness to the all of the original, raw and honest mommy literature that’s out there…written by mothers for mothers (and/or fathers)! She highlights the beauty of blogging communication — venturing outside the blogosphere to invite mothers to engage and participate in this exciting, evolving phenomenon.

In writing this post, I am not responding against Jen’s post. I’m not debating it. I’m just offering another point of view — as a proud commenter, site-metre addict, and professional blogger. In doing so, I’m also using my blog for what I feel is one of its primary purposes: to reflect on and write my experience. Jen’s post incited me to reflect on my experience as a “blogger.” And, it has been the perfect platform on which to reassess and affirm my personal and professional “agenda” as my own blogging experience evolves. Yes, the blogosphere has evolved and become “more commercial these days.” I choose to embrace this evolution and, in embracing it, help sustain the dignity of the blogosphere and strengthen its potential to be a driving force in the mothering/feminist movement.

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