A Room of One’s 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 monitor the female cycle. Based on twelve in-depth interviews with Danish women who use period trackers, I explore the connections among menstrual...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Sciendo
2019-06-01
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| Series: | Nordicom Review |
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.2478/nor-2019-0017 |
| _version_ | 1827846361888849920 |
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| author | Karlsson Amanda |
| author_facet | Karlsson Amanda |
| author_sort | Karlsson Amanda |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | 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. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-12T09:13:35Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-2930a534376a45638f24ff0f58d0d0c3 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2001-5119 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-12T09:13:35Z |
| publishDate | 2019-06-01 |
| publisher | Sciendo |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Nordicom Review |
| spelling | doaj.art-2930a534376a45638f24ff0f58d0d0c32023-09-02T14:52:52ZengSciendoNordicom Review2001-51192019-06-0140s111112310.2478/nor-2019-0017A Room of One’s Own?: Using period trackers to escape menstrual stigmaKarlsson Amanda0School of Communication and Culture, Aarhus University, DenmarkThis 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.https://doi.org/10.2478/nor-2019-0017female self-trackingappsprivacydatafied bodiesmenstrual stigma |
| spellingShingle | Karlsson Amanda A Room of One’s Own?: Using period trackers to escape menstrual stigma Nordicom Review female self-tracking apps privacy datafied bodies menstrual stigma |
| title | A Room of One’s Own?: Using period trackers to escape menstrual stigma |
| title_full | A Room of One’s Own?: Using period trackers to escape menstrual stigma |
| title_fullStr | A Room of One’s Own?: Using period trackers to escape menstrual stigma |
| title_full_unstemmed | A Room of One’s Own?: Using period trackers to escape menstrual stigma |
| title_short | A Room of One’s Own?: Using period trackers to escape menstrual stigma |
| title_sort | room of one s own using period trackers to escape menstrual stigma |
| topic | female self-tracking apps privacy datafied bodies menstrual stigma |
| url | https://doi.org/10.2478/nor-2019-0017 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT karlssonamanda aroomofonesownusingperiodtrackerstoescapemenstrualstigma AT karlssonamanda roomofonesownusingperiodtrackerstoescapemenstrualstigma |