Saying the unsayable: The online expression of mothers’ anger during a pandemic

Abstract

This article investigates key triggers for mothers’ anger during the COVID-19 pandemic and some of the positive and negative consequences of its expression online. It uses the UK online parenting forum Mumsnet as a research context and source of data. Our findings support previous research into mothers’ anger during COVID-19 that suggests that the pandemic has both exacerbated longstanding sources of conflict and created new ones within their homes. This anger is frequently repressed because women need to continue to work and cohabit with the colleagues and family members who have caused this anger. However, we also identify a further trigger for mothers’ anger – their frustration at the government's perceived inaction and mis- or even dis-information about the pandemic. This anger can be exacerbated by mainstream media reports and also the sharing of suspicions and complaints on online forums such as Mumsnet. Mumsnet therefore offers a safe space for the venting of women's anger during lockdown, but also a place where feelings of anger can be perpetuated and perhaps even aroused.

“Facilitating wife” and “feckless manchild”: Working mothers’ talk about divisions of care on Mumsnet

“…Ethical considerations relating to the use of user-generated online data in this study were informed by ethical guidelines (British Psychological Society, 2021), and as such the larger project of which this research is part received ethical approval from the researcher's institution. Following the approach of other researchers who have previously conducted research on online forums, Mumsnet's open-access forum was regarded as a public space and forum contributions as being in the public domain, thus usable for research purposes (e.g., Pedersen, 2016; Pedersen & Burnett, 2022). It should be noted that users’ postings are readily searchable by and accessible to any internet user.…”

“…While many studies have documented social shifts in relation to caregiving and household responsibilities, less consideration has been given to how women discursively negotiate divisions of care in a digital context, and what kind of positions are culturally available and taken up by women during this process online (Mackenzie, 2018; Orgad, 2019). The Mumsnet discussion forum is a particularly interesting site for considering working mothers’ positioning within discourses of care due to its high number of professional working mothers (Pedersen & Smithson, 2013) and increasing reputation as a space where dissonant views can be articulated and mundane concerns may become politicised (Pedersen & Burnett, 2022).…”

Digital families: Gendered relationships in online spaces

“…The theme of online support and Mumsnet is picked up in our final paper from Pedersen and Burnett (2022). 2 In “saying the unsayable”, they examine how women's anger has become exacerbated through the lockdowns arising from the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK.…”

“… 2. Due to an administrative error, please note that this article does not appear in Feminism & Psychology, Special Issue 32(3). Please find Pedersen & Burnett (2022), Saying the unsayable: The online expression of mothers' anger during a pandemic in Feminism & Psychology, Issue 32(2). https://doi.org/10.1177%2F09593535221074131…”

“…However, what became apparent is how “mothering”, in both display and practice, is at the core of each of the manuscripts. This focus on mothers is perhaps not surprising given that motherhood has long been theorised as a site of gendered, intersectional inequalities in feminist scholarship in which mothers have assumed primary responsibility for home life and childcare (e.g., Green, 2015; O’Reilly, 2020; Russo, 1976; Weisstein, 1968). Such responsibilities for many mothers became even more pronounced during COVID-19 restrictions (Green & O’Reilly, 2021), indicating the continued and heightened pressures placed on mothers to manage the care and well-being of their families, particularly children, in any circumstances.…”