Menstruapps: non-binary and transmasculine people and communication strategies about menstruation

• Grant number: 24/02690-9
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Start date: December 01, 2024
• End date: November 30, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Applied Social Sciences - Communications
• Principal Investigator: Larissa Maués Pelúcio Silva
• Grantee: Eduarda Albrechete Motta
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Arquitetura, Artes, Comunicação e Design (FAAC). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Bauru. Bauru , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The objective of this research is to investigate how the menstrual monitoring app Clue establishes its communication with non-binary and transmasculine people regarding the menstrual cycle, fertility, symptoms and other topics related to menstruation, with the aim of understanding how the app contributes to inclusion and self-knowledge of LGBTQIA+ people. The relevance of the topic is due to the gender marking present in menstruation apps in general, which treat it based on medicalizing and often sexist concepts, contributing both to the inferiorization of women and to the invisibilization of non-binary people and transmasculines in the debate about menstruation. Provoking theoretical discussions that address the influences of this application on the discourse on menstruation by feminist authors and also as a technological product for controlling bodies and producing subjects, these applications propose themselves as a form of self-knowledge, promising "empowerment" and " autonomy" through the information provided, concepts also questioned by thinkers on the topic. In order to bring the LGBTQIA+ perspective to this already ongoing debate, I will start from Content Analysis (BARDIN, 2011) to analyze the communication used both in the Clue application interface and in the articles published on its website in the "LGBTQIA+" category, I will add the this material semi-structured interviews with transgender people using the application in order to identify the effectiveness of this communication and I will bring in the bibliographic review theoretical contributions regarding technology, gender discussions, in addition to the contribution of previous works on the topic that showed us how the consumption of information within These applications change the user's relationship with the cycle itself.