"Mommy bloggers."
Yes, as far as the Today Show is concerned, we're a group with quotes. Or air quotes anyway.
We're inscrutable. We have strange and mysterious ways! We're a bunch of ka-RAY-zee wimmins doing this new weird thing, all techy and Gen Y-like.
And, after watching the Today Show segment that sprang from what seemed like a thoughtful blogger "round table," it turns out that, at least in the journalistic words of new Today Show co-host Kathie Lee Gifford, we're just a bunch of moms who "yap" about diapers and preschools on the web instead of at the playground.
(Pssst. Kathie Lee. Don't call Arianna Huffington a mommy blogger. I'm pretty sure she can take you out).
So why am I venting about this? I wasn't involved in the show and no one talked about my record as an alleged duck thief, so why do I care what they said about Kristen and Mir and Jill and Dooce? Obviously, by implication it's not just about them -- it's about all of us and how, once again, women's efforts to be a part of the larger societal conversation get marginalized.
More proof that the MSM doesn't get it. Women who wield blogs and computers!? We're just SOOooo confusing to them!!!
There's at least one exception, though.
Former Today Show host and current CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric, and her producers, get it. And that could be an ingredient that Katie can use to her benefit as more and more people talk about what she'll be doing for a living in a few months. She's figured out that there's something to be gained by trying to engage this new feminist act, rather than judge us by a particular topic we may write about on any given day.
It's not that hard, really. There are millions of us out here doing what corporate trainers would call networking and relationship building. And we're a demographic, but we're a lot more than that.
We're women who have been denied a voice in the mainstream media for generations and we're finding a way around it. Don't want us on your op-ed pages? That's OK -- we'll start our own. And people will find us. And listen to us. Really.
Even though only a handful bloggers who happen to be mothers are making a living at this blogging thing, it will happen for more us soon enough because marketers and advertisers love demographics. If readers are here and not there, it will happen. So, producers at the Today Show, you might want to re-think how you describe us.
We've got blogs that are about a lot more than talking about our children, and we're not afraid to use them.
Plus, there's that whole world domination thing. ;)
Joanne writes about the intersection of politics and motherhood at her personal blog, PunditMom. She is also a Contributing Editor for Politics & News at BlogHer and an original MOMOcrat!