Breastfeeding, Authority, and Genre

Abstract

This chapter is concerned with women's mis- or underrepresentation in knowledge creation, particularly when it comes to their bodies. In this chapter, the authors examine how Wikipedia's generic regulations determine that women's often experiential ethos is unwelcome on the site. Thus, women are often unable to construct knowledge on the “Breastfeeding” entry; their epistemological methods are ignored or banned by other contributors. This chapter also examines six breastfeeding-focused mommyblogs, proposing blogs as an alternative genre that welcomes women's ethos. However, the authors also recognize that such blogs are not a perfect epistemological paradigm. The chapter closes with an examination of the implications of this work for academic collaboration across fields and for women's agency.