We’re long past Dooce’s early aughts heyday, but the writing of mothers is still too often devalued rather than lionized.
comes to mind when I reflect on Armstrong’s work, not because she was monstrous, but because she was honest to a fault about the not-so-rosy parts of motherhood—and, to many people, monstrousness and honesty are one and the same, particularly when they’re deployed by a woman who’s had the audacity to nurture new life and keep working anyway.
Armstrong was far from perfect, but she never, ever declared herself to be. It’s been disappointing to see some obituariesinstead of noting the outsized effect she had on blogging as an art form, and the permission she gave to a generation of women—mothers, yes, but also weird tweens reading her website at night when their own moms thought they were asleep—to tell the truth about their lives, even when it wasn’t sexy or sweet or placating to the reader.
The fact that Armstrong died by suicide might seem like a reason to avoid talking about her work, which often focused on her history of mental illness , but we stand to lose something important if we forget what Armstrong put out into the world. In retrospect, nearly everything she wrote reads like an often-humorous, occasionally heartbreaking attempt to be known and understood.
Armstrong may be gone now, but it’s not too late to familiarize yourself with her words and consider all that brutally honest and unflinching writing about motherhood can offer us.Sign Up Now
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