Toward Feminist Ways of Sensing the Menstruating Body

Campo Woytuk, Nadia and Tuli, Anupriya and Park, Joo Young and Turmo Vidal, Laia and Tobin, Deirdre and Reddy, Anuradha and Vincenzi, Beatrice and Maslik, Jan and Ciolfi Felice, Marianela and Balaam, Madeline (2025) Toward Feminist Ways of Sensing the Menstruating Body. In: CHI 2025: CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 26th April - 1st May 2025, Yokohama, Japan.

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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 posthuman theory, we invite designers to embrace these tensions.

Item Type:	Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)
Identification Number:	10.1145/3706598.3713466
Dates:	Date Event 26 April 2025 Published
Uncontrolled Keywords:	sensing, leaky bodies, feminist hci, menstrual cycles, vaginal fluids, research through design, wearables, touch
Subjects:	CAH11 - computing > CAH11-01 - computing > CAH11-01-01 - computer science
Divisions:	Architecture, Built Environment, Computing and Engineering > Computer Science
Depositing User:	Gemma Tonks
Date Deposited:	03 Sep 2025 12:59
Last Modified:	03 Sep 2025 12:59
URI:	https://www.open-access.bcu.ac.uk/id/eprint/16633

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