The Stir's 30 Political Mom Bloggers Who Will Change Your Vote

On Monday I was listed as one of 30 political mom bloggers who will change your vote. When I got the email I was excited. Who doesn't like to get recognized for their work? Especially since I've been really focused on local stuff of late. But Monday I was in a migraine coma, so when I read the email and clicked to the site on Tuesday morning, I only had time to scan through and see that I also got my mug included.

Tuesday night I took a good look at the list which claims to be bipartisan, drawing from both sides of the aisles. Which is pretty true. From my count, I could ID about 10 conservative/Tea party moms and 15 liberal/progressive moms. A few I couldn't quite figure out within 15 seconds and a few seem to be real life moderates. Yeah them! I'm serious. Moderates frustrate me, but they push me to think more than far right folks.

Curiously not everyone listed was listed with a photo, despite the fact that far more than six of us have public photos. Three of the women with photos are obviously women of color. Four of the women on the list are obviously women of color. I say obviously because I know some women of color don't "look" like women of color. I welcome any corrections to my count.

So while I am really honored to be included on this list, I have to question the whiteness of this list. I haven't had time to gather up my own list of moms of color who will change your vote ala Annie at PhDinParenting, they are out there. In fact, you might just want to see Annie's list. There also appears to be a lack of queer mom bloggers listed.

Here are just four more political mamas you should listen to:
  1. Cynematic was technically covered when they listed MOMocrats, but I do think she deserves a shout out on her own;
  2. Mamita Mala is owner of VivirLatino, a media outlet that does pretty much nothing but politics. Even VL's fluff sometimes has a political bent.
  3. Liza Sabater's culture kitchen oozes mom+politics=awesomeness.
  4. MOMBIAN. Enough said.
I don't think that we need to have a representative from every single category because I think there are too many categories (where are my pagan mamas?!). But on the bigger categories, race/ethnicity/sexuality/geography/class/ability, I believe we can do better.

And did anyone else notice that The Stir joined my call for drafting Jessica Valenti to the mom blogger team? 

I wouldn't say, as The Stir did, that Jessica has brought her mamahood to the pages of Feministing yet as she's dealing with recovering from an emergency c-section, her daughter being in the hospital for 56 days and now at home. Not quite the way we all dream of joining the mamahood.

But Jessica's post about her birth experience generated a lot of comments and buzz on social networks. She asked for people to consider how women without access to top notch medical care give birth and to donate to Women Deliver or any group that works on maternal health issues. And I believe proves my point that she has a lot of power at the moment and when she uses that power to shine a light on traditionally mommy issues, she's gonna do a lot of good. Some political bloggers who are moms try to keep the kids out of their politics, but I hope Jessica doesn't. She's done so much for feminism in general that she'd be a great asset to what political mom bloggers are doing. But for now she should just be enjoying that cutie pie grrl of hers and sleeping when she sleeps.