<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

This article’s ambition is to study the needs and motives embedded in the everyday usage of period trackers.<fn id="j_nor-2019-0017_fn_001" symbol="1">A period tracker is an app for smartphones to monitor the female cycle.</fn> Based on twelve in-depth interviews with Danish women who use period trackers, I explore the connections among menstrual stigma and the usage of period trackers and investigate how digital traces from their datafied<fn id="j_nor-2019-0017_fn_002" symbol="2">By datafied body, I mean the representation of the fleshly, physical body created by tracked data.</fn> bodies transmit meaning to their everyday life. The women in the study described how the app provides them with reassurance and privacy, and thus the article finds that 1) period apps are experienced as private, shame-free rooms for exploratory engagement with the menstruating body and 2) the risk of embodied data potentially becoming shareable commodities does not affect the everyday self-tracking practice of these women.
</abstract>

This article’s ambition is to study the needs and motives embedded in the everyday usage of period trackers.A period tracker is an app for smartphones to monitor the female cycle. Based on twelve in-depth interviews with Danish women who use period trackers, I explore the connections among menstrual stigma and the usage of period trackers and investigate how digital traces from their datafiedBy datafied body, I mean the representation of the fleshly, physical body created by tracked data. bodies transmit meaning to their everyday life. The women in the study described how the app provides them with reassurance and privacy, and thus the article finds that 1) period apps are experienced as private, shame-free rooms for exploratory engagement with the menstruating body and 2) the risk of embodied data potentially becoming shareable commodities does not affect the everyday self-tracking practice of these women.

A Room of One’s Own?: Using period trackers to escape menstrual stigma

Nordicom Review

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

{"article-title":"A Room of One\u2019s Own?: Using period trackers to escape menstrual stigma"}

This article’s ambition is to study the needs and motives embedded in the everyday usage of period trackers.A period tracker is an app for smartphones to...

A Room of One’s Own?: Using period trackers to escape menstrual stigma

Publié en ligne: 28 juin 2019

Pages: 111 - 123

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/nor-2019-0017

Mots clés
female self-tracking, apps, privacy, datafied bodies, menstrual stigma

© 2019 Amanda Karlsson, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

A Room of One’s Own?: Using period trackers to escape menstrual stigma

Publié en ligne: 28 juin 2019

Pages: 111 - 123

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/nor-2019-0017

Mots clésfemale self-tracking, apps, privacy, datafied bodies, menstrual stigma

© 2019 Amanda Karlsson, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Mots clés
female self-tracking, apps, privacy, datafied bodies, menstrual stigma