"Dare to share " - the meanings of therapeutic biographies in The Great Mother Confession
"Dare to share" is one of the catchy slogans presented on the website of the popular cultural event, The Great Mother Confession. "To share" refers to the life improving, transformative powers ascribed to the act of "speaking out" about ones feelings, and the construction of therapeutic biographies.
The Great Mother Confession, was arranged in 2009 and 2010 by a Swedish newspaper group. It consisted of an all-day events each year with coaching and entertaining performances and a blog site for mothers public confessions. Based on material from ethnographic fieldwork conducted at the all-day arrangements and close readings of the confessional blogs, this paper aims to explore meaning-making aspects of (mother)confession through emic definitions of the meaning and function of the confessional act. The confessions are also understood as comments on maternal norms.