“Blogging Infertility” and What It All Means
I have to admit, I have been sweating about this article in the most recent New Atlantis ever since I was interviewed for it several months ago. It felt like I rambled. Did I ramble? Some questions felt loaded. Am I being baited? Did I take the bait? What’s the bait? What’s the desired answer? I’m talking a lot. Am I being too confessional?
The journalist Cheryl Miller contacted me after reading this post about another article in the media which I felt treated us “baby-desperate” folks far too unkindly. But halfway through our hour-long conversation, I was wondering where this new article would be headed and if I were just fueling the flame for yet another essay on us wacky men and women who allegedly think about nothing other than babybabybabybabybaby.
All of this worry over an article which, after all of that, only mentions me twice. In passing.
Phew!
And rather than being something scathing, judgmental or worse salacious or misleading, I found Ms. Miller’s piece to be pretty well-informed. In fact, I even learned a few things. I would love to know who coined the phrase “repro lit.” Have you ever heard that term before? I completely related with Ms. Miller’s attempt to decipher one blogger’s profile description, filled with acronyms and coded phrases - because when I began reading and writing blogs related to trying to have a baby a year or so ago, I found myself lost in this new language as well. And I found her raising questions that I often think about myself.
I haven’t listened to her interview about the article yet. How is it?
Tags: , blogging, blogs, Cheryl Miller, fertility, Gabrielle Sedor, infertility, New Atlantis, repro lit, support group, trying to have a babyRelated Stories
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1 opinion for “Blogging Infertility” and What It All Means
Cheryl Miller
Apr 14, 2008 at 9:49 am
Gabrielle, thanks for the link. The term “repro lit” was coined by Washington Post book critic, Anne Glusker, in a review of the Orenstein book: http://www.amazon.com/Waiting-Daisy-Continents-Religions-Infertility/dp/1596912103.
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