A Fitting "Social Model": Culturally Locating Telemadre.com

Authors: Pink, Sarah; Perez, Ana Martinez

Source: Home Cultures, Volume 3, Number 1, March 2006 , pp. 63-86(24)

Publisher: Berg Publishers

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Abstract:

Telemadre.com is a website that represents what its producers call a "social model," by which, for a fee, unemployed mothers cook meals for young professionals who do not have time to cook for themselves. In this paper we analyze this "social model" as a mediated relationship that is related to existing strands of contemporary Spanish culture and society. Drawing from existing ethnographic research and an analysis of the website itself we suggest the success of telemadre.com lies in (1) the ambiguous line it draws between (fictive) kinship and economic transaction; (2) its cultural embeddedness in diverse contemporary and traditional Spanish understandings of gender roles, expertise and knowledge; and (3) the mediated nature of the social relationships it entails.

Document Type: Research article

DOI: 10.2752/174063106778053237

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