They’re sleek and colorful, “fun and easy,” full of icons and dials. Period tracking apps are an increasingly common way a large segment of the population attends to their health and the embodied experience of menstruation. In some ways, these apps are part of very recent trends towards the Quantified Self, the datafication of health, and reliance on biometric tracking devices to “optimize” one’s habits. In other ways, they evoke older legacies of feminist health care, notably the Our Bodies, Ourselves movement begun in 1969. Fifty years later, what does it mean to use technology to “understand how your body works”, as Clue advertises, or “take control of your body,” the tagline for Natural Cycles, which are two of the most popular period tracking apps? And what about privacy issues surrounding the sharing of your personal data for marketing purposes? Andrea Ford (PhD, 2017) will be talking about her current research and what anyone who uses a tracking app should know.
Co-sponsored by Project Reproductive Freedom (PRF).
This event is free and open to the public, but registration is required via the link below.
Please contact tbrazas@uchicago.edu if you require any accommodations to enable your full participation.
Date: February 28, 2022
Time: 5:00 PM - 6:00 PM
Date: February 28, 2022
Time: 5:00 PM - 6:00 PM