Toward Feminist Ways of Sensing the Menstruating Body
Nadia Campo Woytuk, Anupriya Tuli, Joo Young Park, Laia Turmo Vidal, Deirdre Tobin, Anuradha Reddy, Beatrice Vincenzi, Jan Mašlík, Marianela Ciolfi Felice, Madeline Balaam
Abstract
Bodily fluids associated with the menstruating body are often disregarded in the design of menstrual-tracking technologies despite their potential to provide valuable knowledge about the menstrual cycle. We prototyped a finger-worn sensor that measures vaginal fluid conductivity, which fluctuates throughout the cycle, and brought it into conversation with people through two speculative workshops (18 people), four fabrication workshops (17 people), and a deployment study where participants brought the sensor into their daily lives (7 people). We unpack that taking a material and sensory approach to intimate tracking nurtures a feminist way of sensing while creating tensions around how we want to know our bodies-tensions around how, where, and when to touch the body, hygiene, data storage, interpretation practices, and labor. With epistemological commitments to feminist materialist and post-human theory, we invite designers to embrace these tensions.